Hi friends!

Remember me?? Your on and off again budgeting boyfriend?

It’s been a minute, but I’m back in action and ready to have some fun again :) Too much yoga and volunteering made me forget about this whole internet thing! Haha… I’ve also been immersed in way too many ridiculous challenges, like:

• Not having coffee for 123 days straight (!!!)
• Not having alcohol for 101 days (what?)
• Meditating every day for 31 days (the best)
• Standing upside down every day for 21 days (the silliest)
• Not applying ChapStick to my lips for 77 days – because I’ve been addicted for 20+ years and don’t even know why as my lips have been perfectly fine without it!
• And my current challenge: only using my smart phone for communicating and not scrolling the interwebs – 50 days in a row!Though I’ll admit I have slipped once or twice when I just HAD to google a random fact that didn’t change my life in the least, lol….

So I’ve been active! Just keeping myself busy in other – offline – areas these days :) If you’d like to read more (I swear it’s not just to deprive myself of the luxuries of life!), check out my latest blog post here:

Challenge Mode Activated ✅

I also penned a fun poem for a friend’s site the other week, which you can read here if you’re into such things:

What Wealth Means (To Me)

Lastly, I’ll also showcase some of my recent podcasts down below, as well as my favorite articles I’ve read lately in the hopes it might inspire you a little… Which is really the whole point of this newsletter and anything else I pass over to you really…

None of this stuff is about ME, it’s about YOU! 

I share things through personal experience, but that’s because it’s the only way I really now how. So hopefully it all comes across okay… Contrary to what one Super Fan once said, I’m really not a “bragging c*nt who is rich and should talk less before the rest of us kill and eat him.” lolol…

Hate mail at its finest 😂

At any rate, thanks for reading and subscribing over the years! I hope you’re doing well and would love to hear what you’ve been up to this year! Hit “reply” and lemme know!

Yours in money, and all things life hacks (just please don’t eat me),

That’s not my dog up top but isn’t he cute???! Teacup Doodle my mother recently adopted – he’s only a foot long! 🤗 

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Recent Podcasts I’ve Been On:

Fit Rich Life: Budgets Are Sexy, Blogging, Making Money Online, Building an Ideal Lifestyle & More — Justin David Carl and I chat about making money online, creating the ideal *lifestyle* (more important than the money!), mohawks (his is pretty cool!), overcoming sickness, and more.

Mindy on Money: Life After FI (With A Working Partner) — “J. Money from Budgets Are Sexy talks about financial independence, unexpected sickness, and navigating early retirement with a working partner.” (Basically – is my wife cool with me doing yoga and playing around all day long while she works??? 😂)

The Get Ready Money Podcast: Live The Life You Want — Tony Steuer and I hop on YouTube and discuss:

• Focusing on your dream lifestyle and what makes you happy
• Realizing that the less you spend, the less you need to earn!
• Being more conscious with your money (and tracking where it all goes!)
• Setting up simple systems and considering minimalism.

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Favorite Reads Around The Web:

The C Word via Humble Dollar — The saddest, bravest, article I’ve read in years… Jonathan Clements shares to the world that he has cancer and doesn’t have much longer to live :( But until the end will be blogging his heart out and sharing what he’s doing to wrap up a long, beautiful life… I can’t stop reading every last article of this because they mean so much MORE knowing they’re some of his last!! Gosh…

Creating From Lack vs Creating From Love via George Poulos — “Pinning our self-worth to an uncontrollable outcome—namely, how other people will respond to our work—we strap ourselves in to a painful emotional rollercoaster of highs & lows.  We are lost.  But there’s a much better way.  It’s to create from love.”

[I started following George’s stuff cuz he’s a rad skateboarder and films himself doing all kinds of cool tricks in various parks… Then he started sharing thoughts on life in general, especially around creativity, and now I’m even more hooked on him. It’s a fun deviation from $$$ blogs all the time!]

How to Declutter Books: 2 Methods to Minimize Your Collection via Rich in What Matters — “Minimalism has shown me that a book is like your favorite coffee… You sip it, you enjoy it, you consume it… and then you move on. The mug doesn’t come home with you. You’ve already ingested its contents; its purpose has been served. The same goes for a book: you read it, you consume its contents, and then you pass it on.”

How J. Money’s Finance Blog Made Him a Millionaire via Flip My Site — “Many people start blogs and other online businesses with dreams of becoming millionaires. Today we have a story featuring an “accidental entrepreneur” who started a blog for fun and accountability, but ultimately became a millionaire when he sold the blog 11 years later.” [Had to plug this, sorry ;)]

Push The Fence via Raptitude — “You can start with as little as five minutes and build up your capacity for patience, over time. Start by saying to yourself, “Okay, for the next five minutes I won’t allow myself to be bothered by anything. I’ll be patient.” What you’ll discover is truly amazing. Your intention to be patient, especially if you know it’s only for a short while, immediately strengthens your capacity for patience.”

Beware the Dopamine Cartel via Retirement Manifesto — Fritz shares his concerns over what social media is doing to us all (hint: it leads to depression!), and includes a passage of mine relating to my No Phone Scrolling challenge… Along with one of my favorite tips for looking at your phone less: wearing a watch!

100 Ways to Slightly Improve Your Life Without Really Trying via The Guardian — “Whether it’s taking fruit to work (and to the bedroom!), being polite to rude strangers or taking up skinny-dipping, here’s a century of ways to make life better, with little effort involved…”

Hope: The Most Valuable Commodity via Femme Frugality — “Sure, money can solve problems. But it’s not the paper itself that makes life easier to live. It’s what’s behind that paper. It’s the belief that we can do better for ourselves. It’s the belief that the stressors in our lives will find relief. It is hope.”

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Favorite [Short] Movie Lately:

What’s Inside This Crater in Madagascar? [YouTube]? via Vox — This was so SO fascinating!!! I was glued the whole time and love that you actually get an answer in the end unlike some documentaries… (Also funny as hell the random things humans feel the need to solve!! ;)) Shout out to Apex Money for finding this gem.

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Have a blessed day 🙌

 

 

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