Must Read: Your Phone Is Making You Spend More, What People Do With Their Money By Age

These are the must read stories in personal finance this week.

How Americans Make And Spend Their Money, By Age

As we get older, we gain more experience and are able to change our lifestyles due to better, higher-paying positions. As a result, a 25-year-old is going to spend their money differently than someone who is in their 50s. With this concept in mind, Visual Capitalist put together charts illustrating the differences in how varying age groups spend their money. Let’s take a look … (Visual Capitalist)

Spend Less At The Grocery Store By Putting Away Your Phone

Studies show that playing around on your phone for tasks other than checking off your shopping list will actually make you spend more while you’re grocery shopping. One main reason for this phenomenon is that looking at your phone increases the amount of time you’ll spend in the store, leading you to buy products you might not have originally purchased. But there’s more! (Two Cents / LifeHacker)

Nobody Is An Expert In Your Life Except For You

Steve writes Think Save Retire, and he’s been doling out personal finance advice for awhile. Now, he’s switching it up a bit and getting philosophical. He cites a time when he went to the gym before heading out to work instead of his usual routine of working out after work. He had read reports that doing so would affect his life positively, yet it was not his cup of tea. He switched back to his evening gym schedule. Why didn’t this “positive” habit change his life? Because no one is an expert in your life except for you. (Think Save Retire)

A Silly Little Trick I Started Doing To Make Expenses Feel Better

J Money and his wife just moved into a new home. At first, they were really happy with the entire purchase, but during their second week of residence, they found several things that were in need of repair. Saying goodbye to so much money in such a short amount of time can be hard, but he figured out a way to stay sane that everyone needs to read. (Budgets Are Sexy)

Here’s What It Takes For A Boycott To Work

After recent politically-affiliated news broke surrounding Equinox and its subsidiaries, many people were outraged and decided to boycott the fitness empire. How is it succeeding today? And what does it take for a boycott to be labeled a success? (HuffPost)

Would You Rather Be Happy More Frequently Or More Intensely?

Our emotions are tricky things, and the way we feel is often influenced by our situation at the moment – it’s not just an internal thing, as we all know. This post discusses whether it is best to be happier more frequently or more intensely, less often. Of course, we’re not really in charge of how our emotions behave all the time, but it’s a question worth pondering. (Retire by 40)

How This 26-Year-Old Paid Off $36k Of College Debt In 20 Months

Sarah McGowan is like a lot of us – she has student loan debt. Or, at least, she had student loan debt. Now she’s free! She’s a speech pathologist, and went to school not just to complete her undergraduate degree, but she also went to grad school. With only a little help from her parents each year, she took on debt and worked throughout school to help pay them off. After graduation, she still had $36,000 to pay off. Here’s how she did it in less than two years. (ABC News)

Feature Image: The Money Manual