Happy Friday!

Here are a bunch of great articles from around the web this week, including from yours truly ;) Although, I’m just realizing I haven’t done one of these in a while, so this will actually be the “Best Of” version from the past three weeks, haha…

Should make you nice and wealthy by the time you’re done reading them though! You’re welcome!!

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Favorite articles on Budgets Are Sexy recently:

READY MONEY. — A money poem I found circa 1909 ;)

The Problem with “Free” (and My 2 New Yard Sale Rules) — “Rule #1: No more getting anything for FREE!… Rule #2: For every new item you bring in the home, you must get rid of another.”

Log Cabin Ruth & Her Fantastic Side Hustles 💪💪 — “The other day I randomly stumbled across this old email thread with a reader who was about to pay off her log cabin (that’s right – I said log cabin!!), and now years later I was curious to see if she ended up making it happen ;)… SPOILER ALERT: She did it!! And scooped up some excellent side hustles along the way…”

Phrases to use instead of “I Don’t Want to Spend Money” — “So many of us struggle with saying “no” to stuff, but it’s not because we don’t care or *want* to do a lot of these things, it’s simply ’cause we’re trying to keep our $$$ reigned in! So having an arsenal of lines like this is smart to have in your pockets for whenever you need to whip ’em out…”

How Getting Sober Changed My Life — and My Money — “A powerful story by a friend of mine, and new(ish) blogger on the scene, Deanna from Recovering Women Wealth, who’s not only found her path towards financial freedom, but freedom from the devil’s work too. A beautiful, and positive!, person putting herself out there in hopes of inspiring others! Thank you Deanna!!! ”

What’s Your Wealth Number? — “If you’re tired of thinking about money in terms of “net worth,” here’s another way you can do it and more sneakily compare yourself to others ;)”

“Just one time!” — “You ever catch yourself saying that whenever you’re about to splurge on something?? “JUST ONE TIME!” And then that one time becomes two times, and then three, and then before you know it you now have yourself a regular line item in your budget? ;) Me too.”

14 Wildly Different Allowance Strategies :) — “A look at some of my favorite [allowance techniques] for anyone else in need of finding or tweaking their own systems. We’ll start with the more humorous ones for all those who couldn’t care less or don’t have kids ;)

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Favorite articles around the web recently:

The Best and Worst Thing About Financial Independence via Mad Fientist — “If you’re unhappy when you’re working and you blame your job for all your problems, you may struggle after FI if you’re still unhappy. What do you do when your biggest scapegoat disappears?”

What We Flipped To Make $21,105 In One Month via Flea Market Flipper — “Do you love flipping used items? We do! I don’t think I will ever be able to have a ‘real job’ ever again… Today we are going to dive into what we flipped last month (which includes our largest flip of the year!)”

Why Some Think It’s a Smart Money Move to Give a 6-Year-Old a Debit Card via Money.com — “The piggy bank is so passé – get your kids some plastic. That’s what supporters of a growing group of tools aimed at teaching kids money skills claim. The new products – debit cards designed specifically for joint parent and child accounts – were created as a solution for parents who were bombarded with requests for money from their kids and who rarely had cash on hand to pay weekly allowances.”

Forgetting to pay your bills on time may be a warning sign of Alzheimer’s via DailyMail.com — “Forgetting to pay your bills on time may be an early warning sign of Alzheimer’s, a study has suggested. Researchers have found an inability to keep on top of finances strikes many patients shortly before they are diagnosed.”

A Million Nameless Joys Await via Raptitude — “In an era when it feels as though we’ve somehow seen everything already, or at least photos of it online, it’s comforting to know that out there, just beyond the boundaries of our own routines, await subtle flavors of joy we can’t conceive of. ”

Barbie’s Malibu Dreamhouse will be on Airbnb for $60 per night via CNN — “Call three friends, jump in the bubble gum pink Jeep, and hop on the Pacific Coast Highway. The Barbie Malibu Dreamhouse is available to rent. It is beachy and dreamy, and it is very, very pink. Better yet? It’s only $60 per night on Airbnb.”

And lastly, this hilarious skit by Victor Borge on “Inflationary” Language (video) — (Shout out to Clyde Forsland for recommending this one!)

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Blessed weekend, everyone 🙏🙏

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Morning!

Here are my favorite articles from the past couple of weeks – both from me, and others around the web…

On a side note, I’ve started this thing where I’m trying to *experience* one new thing a day in my life, and the more *physical* I can get involved the better.

For example, I’ve started visiting local attractions and museums in my hometown now, as well as other random shops or streets I’ve often overlooked, and so far it’s been an incredibly rewarding experience! Not only am I immersing myself into the community more, but I’m learning so much with each and every visit on top of staying away from the computer more…

Highly recommend it if you’re looking for a new challenge or just bored ;) Maybe give it a shot this weekend?

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Favorite articles on Budgets Are Sexy recently:

Having a Hard Time Paying Off Debt? Try a Money Board!! — “The real magic is in my money board, where I track the current goal of paying something off. $1 usually represents $1k. Each time $1,000 is paid off, a dollar moves from the left side of the board to the right. When the debt is cleared, the money moves back to the left and a new goal is set. I’ve paid off tens of thousands of dollars this way.”

My Name is Fern, and I Work at a Cemetery — “I’m very familiar with hanging out and visiting cemeteries as it’s one of the most serene places in the world!, but I’ve never known anyone to actually *have a job there*, so hopefully you find this as interesting as I did… And then when you’re done, be sure to check out our post on what it’s like to be a MORTICIAN so you’re all set for Halloween this year!”

New $$$ Book Out + Giveaway: Choose FI! — “Another book drops from our community today – and it’s a big one! “Choose FI: Your Blueprint to Financial Independence” by Chris Mamula, Brad Barrett, and Jonathan Mendonsa. A copy you 100% want to own if you’re a fan of the Choose FI movement ;)”

One Tweak a Week! — “I listen to Paula Pant’s Afford Anything podcast, and she introduced me to the concept of One Tweak a Week. Essentially, you do one small thing each week to move yourself forward financially. They can be small things (like checking your credit score), or bigger things (like paying off your car – which I did last week!). I really, really like this idea because it keeps the momentum going, however small, and has some accountability built in if you share it with a friend.”

Children Now Average $30 a Week in Allowance?! — “My kids don’t currently get anything a week except for love and encouragement and some good ol’ quality time with dad, but the topic of money has started creeping up more and more now so it’s only a matter of time until we have “the talk.” And if I’m being completely honest, I’m not sure where I stand on it?”

Lifestyle Creep… Isn’t That Kind of the Point? — “Most of what you’ll find on the Internet are articles on how to avoid lifestyle creep and why it’s “the biggest threat” to your financial future. Perhaps there’s some truth to that, but I think if you allow yourself to “creep” with intention, you, your family, and others can all be better off.”

10+ More Money Ideas to Try Out — “Gamer guilds, anti-bucket lists, value tracking tabs, credit score tests, mortgage time travel!, paycheck challenges, “what to do when I’m dead” letters, a half dozen ideas on gift giving, and more!”

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Favorite articles around the web recently:

The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer via The Rabbit Hole — “Excessive material wealth does little for happiness but we must be able to meet our needs or else we won’t have the luxury of time and space to focus on ourselves and what makes us really happy.”

4 Simple Techniques to Remember Everything You Learn via Entrepreneur — “In a four-month period, practicing for 30 minutes a day, you can expect to learn and retain 3,600 flashcards with 90 to 95 percent accuracy. These flashcards can teach you an alphabet, vocabulary, grammar and even pronunciation. And they can do it without becoming tedious, because they’re always challenging enough to remain interesting and fun.”

How George de Mestral Invented the Velcro Fastener via NY Mag — “In 1941, de Mestral was on a hunting trip and noticed that both his pants and his Irish Pointer’s hair were covered in the burs from a burdock plant. Where many might have brushed them off in irritation, de Mestral decided to study the burs under a microscope, more out of curiosity than sensing a new business opportunity… What de Mestral saw were thousands of tiny hooks that efficiently bound themselves to nearly any fabric (or dog hair) that passed by.”

IT’S GOING TO BE A CLIFFHANGER by Josh Radnor — “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”

Travel Without a Phone by Derek Sivers — “Where you are is partially defined by where you are not. When you’re somewhere, you’re not somewhere else. But when you use your phone, you’re everywhere. You keep in touch with friends. You hear what’s going on at home. You see the screen exactly as you do anywhere else”

And this Twitter mental health tip via @ZoeChance:

Twitter mental health tip:

Mute words and phrases, not just accounts. (You’ll still get news.)

Settings —>

Content preferences —>

Muted:

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Happy filtering :)

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Happy Friday!

Here’s a smattering of articles I wrote this week, as well as a bunch of other great reads from around the web that may or may not be 10x as insightful ;)

Anything new and juicy going on in your worlds lately?

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Articles from yours truly:

A Peek Inside Amanda’s Money Notebooks! — “When I found out that Amanda used notebooks to track her finances I asked if she’d be kind enough to snap some pics for us, and she not only did that for us, but also included some of her backstory as well. So here’s the backstory along w/ the pics!! Gotta love that cheetah one, rawr!”

#OverHeard at the Coffee Shop – Volume VI — “Please to enjoy: things I’ve overheard at the coffee shop lately! Courtesy of unsuspecting – but very interesting – people unlucky enough to sit near me, haha…”

Meet Miguel – an Immigrant Who Became a Multi-Millionaire Without Any Help or Money — “Most of us have come from a pretty solid background with plenty of opportunities to (easily) take advantage of, but Miguel here is proof that even without any of this privilege you can still succeed – and well!!! – with some good grit and determination. Here’s his story of how he went from nothing to millions, all by the time he reached his early 40s.”

Should Have Listened to Dad… – A gaggle of stories from yesteryear on stupid things I did with my money, despite my father’s advice ;)

What Do You Need More of In Your Life Right Now? — “There’s never enough money to do things perfectly, but there’s always enough money to make a start.”

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Articles from others I enjoyed:

The Financial Turing Test by Of Dollars And Data — “Imagine we could simulate the universe where each time you are born to different set of parents with a different genetic makeup. Sometimes you are born a man. Sometimes you are born a woman. Sometimes black. Sometimes white. Sometimes smart. Sometimes not… What would you do to have the highest probability of becoming financially secure regardless of your background?

The Living Cost Per Hour Calculation – Fun Game to Financial Freedom by Dividend Diplomats — “Occasionally, it is hard to see the impact you are making on a $100, $500 or even a $1,500 dividend stock purchase. Heck, I deployed almost $5,000 in August and I felt like THAT wasn’t even a ding/dent into the journey. Is there a better way to keep the atmosphere upbeat, positive and to continue to motivate and truly see the impact of each and every dividend stock purchase? Yes, yes there is! Enter – The Living Cost Per Hour Calculation!”

Eye-Opening Photos of Hong Kong’s Packed “Vertical Graveyards” on Hillsides via My Modern Met — “With space at a premium in the densely packed city, these cemeteries built into the surrounding mountains loom ominously over Hong Kong. Many of these terraced burial sites were built in the 1980s as a last-ditch effort to create more space in a city that is running out of places to bury the dead.”

The Five-Minute Email Rule Completely Transformed The Way I Work via Fast Company — “We’re all drowning in email. And if you’re spending 15 minutes on every reply, no productivity system is ever going to save you. Not inbox zero, not batching, not turning off notifications—nothing. Your only hope is retirement. My rule: I never spend more than five minutes writing a work email. ”

And then lastly, the thought of the week:

“Life should not be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside in a cloud of smoke, thoroughly used up, totally worn out, and loudly proclaiming “Wow! What a Ride!””

– Hunter S. Thompson

Happy living, everyone :)

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Morning, y’all!

Just occurred to me that it’s been a few weeks since sending out one of these, so let’s change that today! Tons of juicy things going on – like selling my blog and hitting $1,000,000 (!!) – so here’s a highlight reel of it all! Followed by some of my favorite articles from around the web…

Hope they spark something!! Would love to hear what you’ve been getting into too?! Hit reply any time!

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Juicy articles on Budgets Are Sexy

New Beginnings, and The Future of Budgets Are Sexy — “So I have something to announce today that I’m super excited – and super scared!! – to share, but as we always do here on the blog I’ll be as transparent and real as possible with y’all… I’ve decided to sell Budgets Are Sexy and help build out a new financial network about to launch, while at the same time still *blogging here daily* as I have been for the past 11+ years ;)”

Net Worth Report #139: $1,131,601.03 (We did it!!) — “11 years and 139 reports later, we’re officially members of the Double Comma Club! Wow! It’s pretty hard to believe since I’m still that same 25 year old party boy in my mind scraping by for beer money, haha, but I guess it just goes to show that when you put your energy towards something, good things happen :)”

“My Ex-Fiancé Spent our Rent Money on Weed” — “I swear that man could figure out how to squeeze $20 dollars out of ten, then go blow it on something worth $5.”

Do you suck at giving gifts like I do? — “Been emailing back and forth with a reader here, and it reminded me just how terrible I am at giving gifts and how I want to be better :) She includes a few good ideas here that I can start working in, but if anyone else would like to chime in and share their tips I’m all ears!!!”

The Beauty of Simplicity — “One of the biggest moves I’ve made in my finances over the years is simplifying them all down to as little accounts needed as possible. I can tell you where every last dollar of mine is snuggling, and in the off chance something happens to me one day my wife and other family members will easily be able to find it too.”

You don’t need to know exactly how you’re going to make a million dollars… — “You don’t need to know exactly how you’re going to make a million dollars, you just need to figure out how you’re going to make more than you’re making today.””

When spending money improves your life — “When was the last time you picked something up that greatly improved your life or productivity?? Even though it may have been expensive?? Are you sleeping okay at night from it?? :)”

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Juicy articles from around the web

How to Make a Thousand Bucks an Hour via Mr. Money Mustache — “Earlier this month, I floated exactly this idea with the members of my coworking space, proposing that we form a group with the witty name “The Optimization Council.” The Council would meet every now and then to talk through life’s biggest expenses and opportunities, and harvest the wisdom of the group so we can all benefit from the best ideas in each category. The response to this idea was overwhelmingly positive.”

The Only Dependable Source of Happiness via Raptitude — “Whenever I’m out in public and I catch myself judging a stranger—for such offenses as poor sidewalk-sharing, or imprecise parking—I resolve instead to temporarily become their secret ally. Unbeknownst to the other person, I’ve gone from silently resenting them to silently watching out for them. For the short time we’re in the same vicinity, I’m prepared to leap into action should they need any sort of help.”

My Bill Murray Approach To Working In Retirement via Leisure Freak — “Bill Murray is famously hard to reach. He bucks the entertainment system’s rules by refusing to have an agent. Instead he just has a toll free 1-800 number that goes directly to voicemail. Those who can get his number and call have 2 minutes to make their pitch. If he’s interested he will reply with a PO Box address to mail a script or other details to. Then you have to wait to hear back from him.”

Being Hungry In America Is Hard Work via NPR — “Hungry people are everywhere: You can’t necessarily tell who they are at a glance. They work with you and live in your neighborhood. They’re members of your church and family. They might even be standing in front of you like I was, sharply dressed in their mother’s hand-me-down suit, asking their community for a little help.”

In Praise of The Inner Crone! via Elizabeth Gilbert — “We live in a society that romanticizes youth. We live in a culture where youth is considered a real accomplishment. You look at a seriously powerful classic crone like the woman in this photo and you see how foolish we are — to imagine that the young offer much for us to aspire to, or learn from. No wisdom like the wisdom of survival. No equanimity like the equanimity of somebody who plants a garden right on top of a nuclear disaster and gets on with it.”

And then lastly, a few lines I can’t stop thinking about:

“You know yourself mostly by your thoughts.

Everyone else in the world knows you only by your actions.

Remember this when you feel misunderstood.

You have to do or say something for others to know how you feel.”

– James Clear

Blessed weekend, everyone!

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Hey guys!

Didn’t come across much share-worthy content this week (maybe everyone’s too freaked out about the supposed looming recession?? ;)), but here are the 5 articles I wrote this week for those of you who prefer to get them weekly vs daily.

Got an interesting note the other day from someone who said he reads them every morning while brushing his teeth, so I’m glad they’re at least good for something! Haha…

Articles on the blog this week:

• “What should I do with an extra $2,000?” + other fun $$$ questions…
• Do you think we’re about to enter a recession?? Does it matter?
• Would you pay for your favorite free apps??
• What Type of ClutterBug Are You? [Quiz]
• New book & giveaway: “Quit Like a Millionaire”

And then here was one article I did enjoy from around the web this week that came with a hilarious video to match :)

This Woman Got A Huge Raise And Paid Off Her Student Loans By Asking The “Over/Under” Question via Buzz Feed News — “Do you know that feeling of jumping into a metallic, purple catsuit to express your joy through interpretive dance with two backup dancers costumed in money signs? Probably not, unless you too have experienced the blinding exhilaration of paying off more than $200,000 in student loans. Caitlin Boston knows this feeling — it took her 10 years to get there. And it might have taken longer if she hadn’t asked a simple question of her colleagues.”

Blessed weekend!

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