One thing I've heard about fourth-year is that as the year progresses, you'll start to think a bit less about your current college commitments and more about what you're doing after graduation. This past summer, in my spare time I started reading a lot of blogs that had exactly the kind of helpful information about personal finance, starting your first job, and building a balanced wardrobe that I've been looking for. Here are a few of my favorite blogs that, in general, help me exhale and feel more confident about going out into the adult world after graduation.
1. The Luxe Strategist
Whenever I want to feel super productive and put-together, I read this blog. The Luxe Strategist single-handedly gives me hope that I'll be able to navigate post-grad life successfully. It's got all of that personal financial information about investment funds, credit cards, and salary negotiation that you wished you learned in school but didn't, along with fashion advice, wedding advice, travel advice, and tips for living in NYC on a budget. I secretly want to model my life after the woman who writes helpful post after helpful post and seems to know so much about how to use money efficiently and still enjoy the great pleasures of life.
2. Cash Fasting
This blog also focuses a lot on personal finance and using money wisely as a young professional, perhaps even more so than The Luxe Strategist. What I really like about Cash Fasting is how honest it is about unexpected financial burdens in life, such as losing your job and sudden medical expenses, and how managing money efficiently when you're in a stable position REALLY helps you when your finances become unstable.
4. Picky Pinchers
This blog is written by an adorable woman in Texas, and it's similar to The Luxe Strategist but with some more Southern charm. Picky Pinchers does a lot of posts about "frugal weekends" and specific instances of frugality in her life, as well as some scrumptious recipes that she and her husband make together. Her life sounds so nice and cozy from her blog, and I can only hope that I can enjoy a similarly comfortable existence once I'm in the working world.
4. Wayward
Whenever I'm getting an itch to travel, I go on this blog and read about their travels all over the world. Wayward is written by this couple that lives pretty frugally and manages to take all sorts of amazing-sounding trips, to places like Denmark, Iceland, Luxembourg, Mexico, Italy... I could go on. They also post a lot of helpful packing tips and fashion advice for different places around the world. Since I prefer spending money on experiences rather than things, their life sounds like something I'd love to mimic once I have a steady income and can afford to travel on my own.
5. Apartment Therapy
Okay, so Apartment Therapy is much bigger than just a blog, but it started out as one person's blog until it expanded into the massive lifestyle giant it is today. Apartment Therapy has helpful articles on everything from interior design, to general wellness practices, to weekend projects you can do at home. This seems to be mostly geared towards people a little older than I am, but it's still helpful to read the articles and imagine how useful the information will be when I actually have multiple rooms in my place of residence.
You should always take anything you read on a blog with a grain of salt, as usually blog posts are heavily biased towards one person's experiences and may not be generalizable to all people. Still, sometimes when I have lots of questions about what adult life is actually like, I want to hear a personal story from someone who knows a lot more than I do about money and finances, but isn't an official "expert." No one blog can magically make you get your life together, but getting in the habit now of reading up on helpful life skills might help make those last few months of college less scary. Here's hoping that this is actually the case for me.
