About Us

by Ryan on March 17, 2008

Hi Everyone, we are Ryan and Leslie of Spilling Buckets.

We are 23/24, 24/25, 25/26, 26/27, (Wow, we’ve been doing this 4 years!) have recently graduated college, and are starting careers and a life together. One day in Rochester we sat down and put together some financial goals, thought they looked like buckets, and tried to stack them in an order we felt fit us best. Each container represents a goal that we feel is an important step in the right direction.
[Please note that Spilling Buckets is in no way a financial advisory service. The term "Buckets" in a financial advisory sense is trademarked by The Raymond J. Lucia Companies, Inc. ]

The goals are (in order of priority) saving six months living expenses, paying off high interest student loans, and saving for a down payment on a house.

Update 8/2/08 : The first goal has been accomplished!
Update 5/13/09 : We Bought A House! Moved In June 2009
Update 9/4/11 : We decided to go 100% on the Dave Ramsey Baby Steps plan, and reduced our emergency fund to $1,000 while using the rest of the money towards our debt snowball and baby step 2. We just paid off the second to last student loan this week! After paying off the final student loan we will go back to baby step 3 and re-build our emergency fund.

Much has changed since starting the blog back in March 2008; we have learned a lot through research, personal experience and reflection, and of course all our new friends in the blogger community – we now find ourselves in uncharted waters. We no longer want to follow the normal deferred life plan and are trying to find or create our place out there, while still progressing financially. It’s uncomfortable, and scary as hell, but could be one of the best decisions we ever made. The purpose of this personal finance blog is to show our progress and to share and learn along the way.

We’d love to hear your feedback, thoughts, and ideas – please comment or email us at:

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