I originally turned away from YNAB (You Need A Budget) during my time using Simple (before the dark days) for a few reasons when I compared it to Simple:1. YNAB costs money ($60 one time fee per household) while Simple is free (outside of holding your money like a bank)
2. YNAB requires that I input all of my transactions manually which takes a fair amount of time while Simple aggregates all my transaction information when I use their debt card
3. YNAB seems complicated and forces me to constantly reconcile and check my different bank accounts while Simple and even Mint.com compiles that information without my involvement
Speaking of simple, this new age bank is unfortunately everything but. The original idea was a wonderful one: to do away with the old banks that we all have to deal with and replace them with one that puts customer service first and has no overdraft fees or minimum balances. I loved the concept and once I had heard from a few early adopters that their experience had been almost seamless decided to dive in. 
I originally became a member of TD Bank because it was one of two banks in my college town and the only bank that also had locations in other parts of the country. So when leaving college I moved all my money to TD Bank and never looked back. And I believe I lucked out enormously. When compared to all the other banks in NYC TD Bank is consistently wonderful whether I’m visiting a location or calling customer service they are always there for me. In NYC at least they are also always building new stores – they seem to be taking over. And they even built one directly in front of my apartment in what seemed like weeks.
Whenever I see a press release, demo or review for a new fun technology my heart starts racing. Something ignites within me and in that moment I believe I need that new shiny toy. My brain tries to provide seemingly good reasons why I ‘need’ it.
I had three main aspects of my New York life that I let eat away at my hard earned cash:
I had a thought during a rare visit to the gym. The idea was solidified by reading a blog post by my new blog obsession, Brave New Life. It’s the fact that everyone with a job spends most of their days and most of their life with people they did not choose, doing activities they did not choose. Further, when someone introduces themselves at a party and says they’re an insurance claims adjuster I may have a vague idea of what that means, but I have no idea what their day to day life is like. His or her family has no idea. Most of what they experience in a day is shared with strangers who are competing for money. It’s just such a strange thought in my mind.
Now to address another major money draining problem of mine: fancy foreign beaches. I remember almost all of my family vacations. And the overwhelming thing I remember is how unhappy I was compared to my normal life: despite being ‘on break’ from school, work or any other responsibilities. Despite being with various family. I have always been significantly more unhappy with life while vacationing. At first I just thought it was the company: people I avoid on a regular basis so a week in an isolated location (no matter how beautiful) became hell on earth. But now I’ve realized it’s more than that. 
I’ve mentioned that my partner and I have been discussing moving out of New York City for several reasons and contemplating cities on the West Coast. We had our eye on several cities and I visited all of them to help evaluate if they met our criteria, which was the below: