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This article is by staff writer Honey Smith.

When you think about it, personal finance is about playing the long game. Sure, it’s about other things as well. It’s about paying off debt. It’s about spending less than you earn. But when you think about it overall, it’s about making choices that are harder in the short term for the good of the long term. Here’s what I mean….

Saving for retirement

Saving for retirement, for example, means having less money to spend today. Having less to spend today can help avoid lifestyle inflation, which is generally regarded as a good thing.

This article is by staff writer William Cowie.

My neighbors shake their heads and think I am certifiably crazy, but I have noticed that they are careful how they say it. You see, when we get snow, I am always out there shoveling the sidewalks for three or four houses each way down the street from ours.

“Why risk offending the Energizer Bunny with the shovel?” I hear them thinking. “He might stop, and then we’ll have to do it ourselves!”

We get along famously, so I just laugh with them … and wait for an invitation for coffee or something.

Why do I do it? There are several reasons, actually.

For one, I grew up in a country that has sunshine every day, where Christmas is celebrated in bathing suits, eating watermelon, and cooking pieces of dead cow over a fire.

This article is by staff writer Holly Johnson.

When my mom was in her early 20s, she took a few months to travel abroad with a few of her college friends. I wouldn’t call it an around-the-world trip since they only visited a few regions, but I would call it amazing.

So amazing, in fact, that my mom shared numerous stories of her travels with me as I was growing up. I remember those stories well. At the time, it all sounded so exotic, so mysterious. To this day, she even has the letters she sent her parents from abroad, many of which share vivid details of what it was like to travel internationally some 45 years ago. My mom grew up poor — with seven kids in a two-bedroom household — so you can imagine how thrilling it must have been for her to fly overseas and experience other worlds.

This article is by staff writer Lisa Aberle.

When I packed my hospital bag before having a baby last summer, I tucked my laptop in along with everything else. I thought I might squeeze in some work between contractions, or when the baby was sleeping. Or something. (I’ll pause while you all laugh.)

The laptop actually did make it out of the bag once while I, already bleary from lack of sleep, held my baby with one arm and worked with the other. It didn’t last long and I will leave it at home if I have another baby.

I could tell you of many other times through my working years. I have worked on my way to vacations, on vacations, in the middle of the night, in the car, and at other inconvenient times. I have also usually had at least two jobs for the last 20 years.