Personal Stories
We Found Hope in a Mega Millions Ticket
When the manager at the wine bar said he’d hire me, I didn’t know what to say, so I said, “Really?”
Having No Money Was Ok, But Then Something Began to Shift
Genevieve Smith didn’t care about money, but then she did. Her essay for Elle on the the evolution of her opinions on the stuff, and why she eventually sought out more of it, is super—especially her honesty.
It’s Hard to Feel Empowered With a Secret Trust Fund
I have a trust fund that was originally set up for me by my grandfather in the early ’80s and has a complex set of ramifications that dictates how the money is allocated and distributed.
You Ordered Your Chai, You Have Your Chai, But You Forgot Your Wallet
The barista will say, I knew you were trouble when you walked in.
The Economics of Being a Stand-Up Comedian in the Midwest
Being funny can be expensive in a place like Grand Rapids, Mich., where comedians often have to travel great distances looking for a gig.
A Conversation with Darin Ross About How He Successfully Funded His Kickstarter Campaigns
Darin Ross is better known to the Internet as “Luckyshirt,” his online handle. He’s casually amassed nearly 50,000 followers on Twitter and I don’t know how many on Tumblr because it won’t tell me and it seems rude to ask. He did this by being a person who said funny things—and that’s all. He started using the sites in the Wild West days of their beginning, when Follow Fridays and retweets and reblogs really meant something because we were all hungry for more people to follow. Back then, if you were funny and a popular friend pimped you out, you were almost sure to gain dozens if not hundreds of followers in a day.
For years, Darin’s use of social media stayed close to its origins of just being original and funny musings into the void, picking up more people and friends as he went—like a snowball or a wordy game of Katamari Damacy. Then last year, he took a break from the Internet and came back with a sprawling, mysterious art project, teasing everyone into taking part. That project was “Find the Starlight.”
I watched “Find the Starlight” roll out as a series of posts of just a photograph with two peoples’ faces blurred out in red blotches. Confused, I would click on the link and be met with cryptic messages, prompting me to be like, “Whaaaaaaaaat?” For weeks this went on. Photograph, link, cryptic thing. Photograph, link, cryptic thing. I had no idea what Darin was up to. Then, after what seemed a lifetime, a Kickstarter campaign for “Find the Starlight” began and it was clear this wasn’t a friend publicly losing his mind—it was a multimedia storytelling project. And it took off. Darin’s fundraising goal was set at $2,500 and with only 190 backers he raised $4,500 instead.
With the success of this came a second Kickstarter project, “SUPERFIGHT!,” a board game billed as Apples to Apples meets Cards Against Humanity. This time Darin’s fundraising goal was a lofty $10,000. With just over a week to go, the project already has 573 backers and has raised $27,885 at the time of this writing. With these two projects, I can’t help but think of Darin as a sort of Internet hometown boy making good. Fascinated by the turn of events, and being a backer of SUPERFIGHT! myself, I asked Darin if he’d be willing to talk to me about how this all came about. Not being a total jerk, he said yes.
Why I Was Sad to Leave Goldman Sachs (But Also Ready to Move On)
Kelley Robinson began working in the operations department of Goldman Sachs after she graduated from college. She quickly learned that her passions weren’t in finance, and is moving on to a more inspiring career.
Can Financial Change Be Spurred By Gchat Conversations? (A Study)
Lauren Rodrigue and I gchat sometimes during the day. We gchat a lot about having no money. We gchat about wanting things, but being unable to buy those things, because of no money.
I reread all of our chats from the past six months to see if I could find any growth. Are we getting smarter? Are we getting less whiny? Are we messing up less? I found that we have not yet progressed to talking about Excel spreadsheets and tax law (NEVER), but I think we’re moving in that general direction. Kind of.
Lauren: Have you looked at Ruche.com
Logan: I don’t do that. I don’t do online shopping.
Lauren: Oh sorry. Oh my god. I am so sorry. For ever even suggesting.
Logan:: It just doesn’t work for my lifestyle. I am an emotional shopper. If I want to buy a new dress, I want it NOW, not in 5 to 7 business days.
Lauren: I don’t usually buy things online, I just look at shopping sites like how some people read magazines. Well I also read magazines. But I like to browse stores’ websites and think about the clothes and how I’d wear them. I usually get inspired to go change my outfit or to go find something new to buy anything anything anything I can possibly exchange money for. To me online shopping is like a thought exercise for actual shopping.
Logan: I don’t do that. I just take myself out to dinner every time I feel sad.
A Friendly Conversation with a Banker
Banker: I’m 28 and am a vice president at a large global bank where I’m currently earning about $250,000 a year. I grew up in the South, went to public school, then a private college. I got an internship on Wall Street, and then a full-time job.
Aren’t Related to Her, Haven’t Met Her, Don’t Love Her, But Choose Where She Lives
In contrast to yesterday’s heartwarming story, which made adopting a baby seem as easy as finding one on the subway and then saying “yes” when a judge asks you if you want to keep it, the blog Fosterhood shows how it actually works in our broken system (it doesn’t). Rebecca is on her fourth foster child and would have adopted any of them if given the chance. The latest outrage/heartbreak: She was contacted by the foster agency about adopting a baby; she met the birth parents, the birth parents approved, and chose her; she got a call when the baby was born, held her on her first day alive. She named the baby and the name she chose—including her last name—is on the birth certificate.
Child Services sent the baby to a different home. It’s been six days.
I’ve written about another fostering blog before, and Carrie, the foster mom to foster child Blitzen, wrote something that I keep revisiting. This is the system. This is how it works: “The home of Blitzen’s baby sibling, like the home of Blitzen herself, will be decided in an adversarial courtroom by people who aren’t related to her, haven’t met her and don’t love her.”
