No-Kill Finance

I’ve been debating how I should get this started, and the natural (if a bit selfish) thing that keeps occurring to me is that I should share my personal story, all the things that have lead me to start a personal finance blog (since I suppose that’s more or less what this is going to be).  But, before I talk about why I started a blog, I should probably establish what the blog means to me, what it’s intended to be about.  So as my first entry, I present to you, my theoretical (and perhaps even existent) readers, a mission statement of sorts:

No-Kill Finance, at its most basic, will be a blog about my stubborn refusal to quit my job and find one with better pay.  I work in Chicago as a veterinary assistant at a no-kill cat shelter (get it?  No-Kill?) for only slightly more than half the pay of what an average vet assistant might make.  But I absolutely adore working there, and would hate to give it up for a wage increase.  Times are tough, yearly raises are being reduced, and upward mobility isn’t possible in the organization, but I have my heels dug in:  I.  Will.  Not.  Quit.

No-Kill Finance will be a discussion of how one makes a living on less than $1000 a month in a big city without wanting to kill himself in the process (get it?  No-Kill?  It works on several levels.  I’m clever.).  I lead a comfortable life, I enjoy nice things, and I spend time with people who do the same.  No-Kill Finance will explore the many ways I try to cope with the financial temptation of living beyond my means as I attempt to stop doing so.

And, maybe most importantly, No-Kill Finance will serve as a tool for me, to remind myself (as is occasionally easy to forget) that the work I do, and the emotional satisfaction I find in it, is worth the stress of having to be thriftier and more conservative than I might otherwise care to be.  Because my work is so important to me, and will be such an important part of this blog, I would advise any cat-haters to steer clear…I’m essentially a crazy old cat lady, except young and male.

So, I don’t hold any delusions about this blog never changing focus, or about keeping myself from going totally off-topic from time to time (I suffer from some moderate-to-severe attention deficit issues), but I am formally setting a goal – personal finance is all about goals, right? – to at least somewhat faithfully try to follow these guidelines in all entries to follow.

And now that I’ve gotten that business out of the way, allow me to welcome you to No-Kill Finance.  Please excuse our dust; we’re still under construction.  But I hope you’ll check back in soon.