Morning morning!!

Dedicating today’s newsletter to my man Freddy Smidlap who ran a fun (and feisty!) money blog for a number of years now, and then suddenly it went blank last week 😱😱

Fortunately for us superfans he’s alive and well and chillin’ on Twitter now (never know when things like this happen!) but the PF world lost a great voice in the space and just wanted to personally give him a shout and let him know he was loved…

You had a fantastic run, brother!! Kept it raw and real without letting the “game” of blogging change you! Don’t disconnect forever now please!!

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In other news, I wrote two new blog posts lately and then did a fun interview with a site called StriveHouse that does AMA’s with different founders across the globe (and then offers “cameos” with them, similar to Cameo.com – only with us boring biz owners instead of celebrities ;))

Here’s my one-on-one with them:

How J. Money went from a net worth of $50k to $1M in 10 years and built, sold, and re-acquired BudgetsAreSexy.com
[Page no longer around – looks like they folded?]

And then my two new posts to gander:

I Like Your Sexy income — A reminder that budgeting doesn’t have to be bland or boring! I include my own budgeting spreadsheet that got myself going all those moons ago that you can download for free in it…

The “Z” Collection — A highlight of the most recent coin collection I evaluated… Nothing too rare or juicy in it, but still fun to see 100+ year old pretty coins!

‘Til next time!!

UPDATE: Looks like Freddy now has a substack with all his old articles on it!! Ahhh!! Thanks for appeasing us, buddy! :) –> freddysmidlap.substack.com

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A few articles I enjoyed around the web:

Running Out of Life @ Lazy Man and Money — “At some point, you may find that you have more money than life.”

How to Inherit a Fortune @ Raptitude – “Imagine you’re having a hard day, and you get home to find that someone has left dinner for you… What good fortune. Some thoughtful person predicted that you might want a meal right right about now, and made sure you had one. Of course, this thoughtful benefactor could be you, just earlier. Last night, your past self recognized the value a ready-made meal would have for tomorrow’s after-work self, so he left one for you in the fridge. Now imagine that your past self didn’t only prepare a meal for you last night, but wrote a book a few years ago”

5 Big Lessons Popular Personal Finance Advice Gets Wrong @ Gen Y Planning — “Homeownership is often looked at with rose-colored glasses. We’re told time and time again that success means a white picket fence and a (large) mortgage. But we urge you to challenge the notion of homeownership and recognize that it is, in fact, not always the superior choice.”

Transforming Stuff into a Countable Number @ No Sidebar — “Many languages–including English–divide the stuff in the world into countable and uncountable nouns. Two cups of water are countable, but when we speak of the water in the ocean, that’s uncountable–an amount, not a number. Since the average American household is said to contain a rough estimate of over 300,000 items, it’s no wonder that, grammatically, we treat our stuff like it’s an ocean.”

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Hi friends!!

So remember that job I just got around board games?? That was super exciting and fun and gave my brain something new and productive to work on?!

Well, I just got laid off from it after only a handful of weeks, womp… 😭😭

But it’s not all bad – I had a blast the entire 53 days there! :) You can read about what happened here:

Did I just get LAID OFF from my new job?!

The funny part is that it wasn’t even the shortest job I’ve ever held either! It only ranks as #4 out of my 40+ gigs over my life 😂But if anyone’s looking for some extra consulting help, you now know someone who’s wide open! Haha…

In other juicy news, check out that shirt up top featured on Good Morning America recently!! Do you recognize it?? It’s from our very own Budgets line! Rocked by our very own Mindy Jensen of the BiggerPockets Money Podcast.

I love that she ordered it from us, and love even more that she wears it around anytime cameras are rolling :) Thanks friend!! You’re a true Mother Budgeter indeed!

Hope y’all are having a fantastic week over there! More favorite gems below to get the weekend started off right…

Cheers,

*Link to Amazon is an affiliate link

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Favorite Reads Around The Community

The Ugliest/Prettiest Coin Holder You’ll Ever See? @ Coin Thrill — Had to revive my old coin blog here ;) If you’re into collecting or need help with a collection, check it out or hire me to help here!

Categories of 1 @ Young Money — “Everyone is obsessed with being the best, but you can only have one “best,” regardless of the number of competitors…The key to winning your game, whatever it is, is to either be the first or be the only, and it’s far easier to be the only… Figure out what your category of one is, that thing that makes you unique, and leverage it.”

Atomic Accountability @ Raptitude — “People who know they’re serious procrastinators should always have a “nuclear option” at their disposal. By that I mean a button, a switch, a no-turning-back phone call that will put into motion an unstoppable force capable of smashing through your usual hesitations when nothing else works.”

Committing The Personal Finance Sin Of Auto-Renewing Subscriptions @ Impersonal Finances — “Forgive me Bogle, for I have sinned. Last month, I committed one of the seven deadly sins of personal finance: auto-renewing a little-used subscription without a thought or consideration as to whether I still use that service.”

How to Read: Lots of Inputs and a Strong Filter @ Collab Fund — “My reading strategy is to start as many books as I can but finish few of them.”

12,795 possessions! Meet the woman who photographed every single thing she owns @ The Guardian — “Barbara Iweins spent four years taking pictures of every object in her home, from her own clothes to her kids’ toys. She realised she could live without 99% of them.”

My Dad’s Early Retirement Dream @ Hope To Prosper — “When you have an audacious dream, you need to protect it from the doubters, who do not share your vision and will try to dissuade you.  You must have the courage to pursue your dreams, despite your own fears and doubts.  You have an obligation to your future self to become the person you have always dreamt of being.”

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Short Film of The Week:

The Neighbors’ Window @ YouTube — “The story of a mother who has grown frustrated with her husband and her daily routine. But her life is shaken up when two free-spirited twenty-somethings move in across the street and she discovers that she can see into their apartment.” [An Oscar winner that lasts about 20 mins! Thanks for the find Apex Money – so good!]

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Morning!

Hope your summers are still treating you well! Can you believe all our kids will be back in school and summer will be over in a matter of weeks??

This will be the first time in 11 years that NONE of my boys will be at home as they’re all school aged now, and I’ll have way more free time than I’ll know what to do with… Exciting and sad at the same time! My squishy babies aren’t squishy babies anymore! :(

On the plus side – FALL IS COMING!! YUM! 🍂☕️🪵

And speaking of kids, I dropped my latest post on the blog this week and it’s all around trying to satisfy their “need” of having extra money to spend… Experiment #1 didn’t work too well, so we’ve now moved onto Experiment #2 ;)

You can read more about it here: No go for the poop!

I also recently went on a fun podcast w/ Captain Fi – an up and coming blogger/podcaster from Australia! – and you can catch our chat here –> Podcast | JMoney from Budgets are Sexy (I reveal a fun new side project on it!)

Stay cool out there!

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Articles I enjoyed the past couple of weeks:

The Past is Not True @ Sivers — “We think of the past like it’s a physical fact – like it’s real. But the past is what we call our memory and stories about it. Imperfect memories, and stories built on one interpretation of incomplete information. That’s “the past”.”

A Well Known Stranger @ Happily Disengaged — “I realize I’m saving money for someone else. I’m not saving money for me. I’m saving it for a person I will never know. A person I dream about and think about quite often, yet is just out of reach like a carrot dangling from a stick… This person I’m working so hard for is a sci-fi parallel world alter ego version of myself.”

Rich and Anonymous @ Collab Fund — “I once did some consulting for a family that was worth $8 billion. If you Googled their name, nothing came up. No Forbes list, no gala photos, no profiles, no Wikipedia pages … nothing… They figured out what so many other people – the rich, the middle class, the aspiring rich, and everyone in between – failed to recognize. They lived the most amazing life you could imagine, and they had virtually no social debt.”

The Return on Hassle Spectrum @ Of Dollars and Data — “Return on hassle is the idea that you need to consider the time and work associated with an investment in addition to its expected return. In the case of real estate investors, you have to factor in the mental and physical work associated with finding tenants, maintaining your properties, and taking on debt, among other things. These are all “hassles” that most traditional investments (i.e. stocks, bonds, etc.) don’t require.”

The Tightrope of Discipline @ More To That — “Ambition has its merits and pitfalls, but the key thing to consider is the texture of restlessness that accompanies it. If your mind is constantly occupied by what you have to do next, then you are always living for some imagined state.”

What to Know About Baby Carrots @ Food Network — A Twitter* friend shared this with me when I told the world I’m on a mission to eat an ENTIRE BAG OF BABY CARROTS before they expire – a feat never before been done 😂 This article goes into the history of them and it’s fascinating!! They certainly don’t grow that way!

*I mean X?

12 Things That Look Less Impressive the Older You Get @ No Sidebar — “I used to admire people with luxuries. Now I admire people with inner peace.”

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What I’m currently reading:

The Price of Liberty: The Public Debt of the American Revolution by William G. Anderson. I recently picked up a certificate from these revolutionary debt days, and found out this book not only lists a description of it in there (it’s from 1783!!), but also tells the backstory which is simply amazing… We were in SO. MUCH. DEBT. as a nation when we got started, but we climbed out of it to become a major force to reckon with! Even though we’re back to being indebted again, lol… Fun book for all you money/history nerds out there (though it’s rare and will cost you upwards of $100 for it)

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Good morning!!

So here’s some big news: I just got myself a new job! Well, kinda sorta but not really – more like a fun side hustle ;) But why now when I’m technically “retired?” Check out my new blog post to find out!

Did I Just Get Myself a New Job?

(You’ll appreciate this one if you’re into board games)

In other news: I’ve had to go in for another round of infusions for my disease, but thankfully this time around we knew what to do and quickly implemented it so I can get back to the hilariously awesome (and handsome) gentleman you all know as J. Money :) And I’m already feeling better from it! Let’s just hope this time around it lasts *years* and not *months*, ugh…

At any rate, hope your Summer is shaping up nicely! That pic up top is the sun rising over the Outer Banks, NC we just came back from. Lots of swimming and surfing (and falling! lol) and spending quality time with the fam… I could honestly live there if I was forced to. There’s a mobile home park RIGHT ON THE BEACH which I’m sure is still hella expensive, but you’d get your minimalist life AND surf life combo right there in the same spot… Gosh that would be sweet.

Anyways, happy Friday :)

PS: My favorite reads from around the community lately:

• Plowman’s Lunch [Humble Dollar]
• How to Improve Your Sentences When Writing [The Minimalists]
• 3 Steps I Took to get to a Simple and Intentional Life in Jamaica [No Sidebar]
• Ranked: Things vs. Experiences vs. Things That Keep Creating Good Experiences [My Money Blog]
• 31 Lessons I’ve Learned About Money [Ryan Holiday, h/t Apex Money]
• You Don’t Need to Invest in AI to Invest in AI [Poor. Choices.]
• Don’t Forget to Swim Now and Then [Raptitude]

This passage from Lawrence Yeo‘s latest article also had me thinking for a while… So true how we show our different “selves” depending on who’s around!

“Whenever we interact with someone – whether in-person or online – a gap emerges between who you are, and who you are presenting. This is why the person you are with your boss isn’t the same as the person on the couch watching Netflix. Or why the person you are with your best friend isn’t the same as the person you are with an acquaintance. Each relationship contains a culture of behavior that you oscillate between, which means that you’re constantly presenting a different version of yourself across a wide range of interactions. What this means is that it becomes increasingly difficult to know who you really are.”

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Lots of pool action and volunteering going on over here, but I’ve finally snuck away to the coffee shop to share some thoughts so if you’ve missed me, check it out – a new blog post!

What’s Worse?
Losing a job that pays less but you live on less – OR – Losing a job that pays great but you spend a lot?!

It’s an interesting thing to think about, and a great reminder that it’s not just INCOME that matters with our finances, but also EXPENSES. And perhaps even more so, because after all, the less you need to live on the less you need to make! And quicker to FIRE!! 🔥

So yeah, check out over the weekend as you’re hopefully laying at the beach or pool or at least doing something super fun to celebrate the season :) I also talk about my volunteering adventures and how one of the most valuable commodities at the homeless shelter are BELTS of all things!

Hope you’re well,

PS: Other articles I’ve been enjoying around the web recently…

• These favorite airport tricks from Chris Guillebeau (especially the hotel shuttles one!! Genius)
• The $1 million shot that changed sports contests forever
• This Villian Test by Collab Fund – “Would a ‘villain’ invest in this company if their motive was one of pure self­-interest?”
• This piece on Judas Iscariot that cracked me up 😂 – “My man literally sold the Son of God for an Uber from JFK to Manhattan during rush hour traffic. So yeah, Judas’s deal was pretty bad. But at least he didn’t spend $300,000,000 on two Papa John’s pizzas.”
• This visit to the City of The Future by Mr. Money Mustache
• These lessons from Ryan Holiday on running a bookstore (PS: It’s about so much more than just books)
• This tip on how to instantly increase your credit score
• And then lastly, this unspoken financial cost of early retirement (so true)

PPS: Two books I’ve enjoyed reading (and getting scared from) lately:

• Brave by Rose McGowan
• Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie

[Pic up top a gift from my mom – a mohawk skull that glows!!]

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