Good morning!

In a world where you can be anything, be kind :)

(Don’t you love that quote???)

I’ve been coming across all kinds of reminders like this this week, so thought I would take it as a sign to keep passing on the good word…

As you get into the weekend, be sure to keep all of these in mind for your human-kind! (see what I did there??? Someone stop me!!)

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“Give at least one sincere compliment every day. The only thing people remember about you is how you made them feel.”

– A Teachable Moment

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“Being nice is an investment.

Being mean is an expense.”

– Carl Richards

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“Be kind — everyone is in a battle… All judgments are incomplete. We never know the full story. So be kind. Cut those around you much slack. It is hard getting through life. Others look like they are skating effortlessly but they, like you and me struggle with all kinds of things that are concealed. So be kind. Don’t bear a grudge. Don’t keep score. Give people around you the benefit of the doubt. Wag more, bark less.” – Russ Roberts

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And always remember, it costs nothing to be kind :)

Favorite posts, and snippets, from the week are collected below for your enjoyment…

Hope they give you a little extra inspiration today 🙏

Posts on Budgets this week:

I did surveys for money (and I liked it!) — AmeriSpeak got me hooked and now addicted to sharing my opinions for rewards! (Imagine that, a blogger who likes sharing opinions, lol…)

Going After Uncollected Judgment Money! (Side Hustle Idea #85) — In which an investor reaches out to help me recover long lost money owed from a lawsuit settlement I won years ago… Always some way to earn money out there! You can even make stuff up out of thin air like this guy! :)

PS: to get these in your inbox the day they come out, subscribe to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter

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Favorite reads from the community:

My Twelve Rules for Life @ Russ Roberts – “Learn to enjoy saying “I don’t know.”  If you enjoy saying it, you’ll say it more often. It’s not easy to enjoy — it’s definitely an acquired taste. When you’re young, it hurts to say it. As you get older, you can savor saying it. Work on enjoying it. Remember that honesty is better than posing as the expert that you’re not. Say it calmly with open eyes. Don’t look away. There’s nothing to be ashamed of.” (Shout to Apex Money for this find!)

How Minimalism Saved Our Family of Seven from Financial Ruin @ Becoming Minimalist — “It’s one of the best things we have ever done for ourselves and our children. If you have been struggling with where to start, I would encourage you to pick just one category, such as your own t-shirts, and see if you can reduce the number by half. I’m so glad we did!”

38+ Life Lessons That Helped Me to Retire Early @ Accidentally Retired – “As I reflect back on my life, I can’t help but think that it all just goes by too fast.  I don’t want to live my life with regrets. When I’m 80, I want to look back at my life and know that it truly kicked ass.”

Buy Nothing Group: 10/10 @ The Frugal Girl – “Buy Nothing groups are hyper-local Facebook groups where people give things away (and also sometimes ask for stuff). The idea is to keep things out of the trash but also to keep things local. That way people aren’t having to ship stuff or drive a long way to pick up freebies. I really love my Buy Nothing group. A solid 10/10 from me!”

My Ever-Evolving Relationship With My Clothes @ Frugalwoods — “I’ve only recently realized how intertwined my clothing obsession was with my previously undiagnosed depression and anxiety. I’m starting to unravel the emotions I carried in my clothes and my appearance. It’ll probably take me the rest of my life, but I’m happy to take you along with me. So this post isn’t about money, but it is about how material things can take on too much importance in our lives. How we can define ourselves by what we own–by what we buy.”

Federal Student Loan Forgiveness Highlights (Up to $20,000) @ My Money Blog – “The big news today was that a Biden administration executive order granted a one-time forgiveness of up to $20,000 in federal student loan balances (based on income) for tens of millions of borrowers.”

What Would You Do if You Were Rich? @ Darius Foroux – “What matters is that we make our life decisions based on the lifestyle we want to have. Not based on external factors like being famous, having status, or having a certain amount of money.”

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Clips & news from the community:

Interesting clips and news that caught my eyes this week…

• Lazy Man is on an epic European Disney Cruise

• “Do whatever you want now. The past? That’s what we call our memories. The future? That’s what we call our imagination. Neither exists outside of your mind. The only real time is this moment. So live accordingly.” – Derek Sivers via DariusForoux.com

• “The Yield Shield & the Cash Cushion was what ended up saving our butts. Because we had arranged our portfolio to pay us a yield in the form of dividends and interest that, when combined with our cash cushion, was sufficient to cover out living expenses, we were able to sit confidently on the sidelines as everyone panic-sold. Not only that, when the stock market eventually rebounded, our portfolio ended up even higher than when we started.” – Millennial Revolution

• “I’ve talked about how much I love the Fitbod app since it takes a lot of thinking out of the picture for me. I just click on the “Workout” tab and it tells me what exercises I’m doing, how many sets/reps, the weight to use, etc. It all builds on my previous workouts so it’s custom to me. I love this app and probably wouldn’t be working out as religiously as I do (usually 5 days a week) if it wasn’t for Fitbod. It’s helped me grow from a novice to an intermediate and to be more confident in what I’m doing… I love it.”
  – Route To Retire

• “When you first start to study a field, it seems like you have to memorize a zillion things. You don’t. What you need is to identify the core principles – generally three to twelve of them – that govern the field. The million things you thought you had to memorize are simply various combinations of the core principles.” – Collaborative Fund

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Pic of The Week:

That’s a shot of my beer bread!! The easiest bread to make ever – just flour, sugar, and a bottle of beer 😎 Recipe can be found here (2nd pic)…  (And you can test different beers too for slightly different tastes!)

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HAPPY WEEKEND 🙌

 

 

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Morning, folks.

Today’s post is in memory of Gary Weiner, the blogger behind SuperSavingTips.com who I learned passed away earlier this week :( I didn’t know him too well, but it’s hit me pretty hard for some reason so I felt compelled to share with you.

It was always so great to see him online, and after searching my inbox I saw he’d actually been a reader – and commenter – of Budgets Are Sexy going back to 2014 (!) He left over 50 comments on the blog, and even just THIS WEEK shared an article of mine on his Twitter account days before his passing, so freaky…

One day you’re here, and the next you’re not. Did he have any idea what was to come just days after tweeting me? Would he have done anything differently if he had? What would you do if you knew your time here was ending in just a few days?!

Really makes you think… And all week I’ve been doing exactly that, trying to fast track my way to The Meaning of Life and be better about appreciating everything more :) Which I think I’m pretty good at in general, but times like this just jolts you into it, ya know?

At any rate, if you knew of Gary or read his blog (it was never super popular, but he was passionate – writing over 780 articles in the span of 8 years!), I bet his wife would appreciate it if you stopped by and dropped a note.

Here was the announcement made earlier this week: A Sad Announcement (now taken down)

Lots of great (and less morbid) articles in our round up today… Hope it all conspires together to give you a burst of inspiration!

See you around! (Unless I don’t! 😱)

Posts on Budgets this week:

Ways I Accidentally Save Money… — From cutting my own hair to daily walks to cheap “wants,” there’s a lot of areas I save money without intending too. Of course, I probably spend more in other areas too, but good to be thankful for the frugality that comes naturally to us ;)

How I Stopped Sabotaging My Own Financial Independence [Part Deux] — Monica, Pie Lady FI, stops by the blog to share an update on her personal and financial journey over the past three years. Last we heard she had crossed a net worth of $900k and was battling a few mental demons. See where she’s at now!

PS: to get these in your inbox the day they come out, subscribe to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter

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Favorite reads from the community:

A Night on The Town @ Humble Dollar – “I have a new favorite low-cost indulgence. Elaine and I will grab a bottle of vino out of the basement and a couple of plastic cups, and then head to Rittenhouse Square, Philadelphia’s iconic park. On our way we’ll pick up a couple of takeout salads or sandwiches. Then we’ll find a bench, pour a glass of wine, eat our dinner and watch the world go by.”

Can’t Take It With You @ Young Money – “”I’ll take you anywhere in the world for two weeks, name the spot.” The year was 2008, I was a few months shy of my eleventh birthday, and my grandma, Mama Ruth, had just offered me one hell of a proposition.”

Six Things I’ve Learned from the Amish About Living Intentionally @ Becoming Minimalist – “It is very rare that you will find an Amish person who is in debt. Occasionally they will take out a loan for their home, but more often they simply live with their parents until they have enough saved up to purchase their own piece of property.”

The Biggest Life Event That No One Talks About @ The Belle Curve – “Retirement is more than a transition from the daily grind to a life of leisure. It is a major turning point in our relationship with money. It requires learning a new skill; the ability to spend without feeling stress or anxiety. This is a skill set that has never before been required of human beings.”

The Love, Career and Finance Advice I’d Give to My Younger Self (From a Single Woman in Her 30s) @ Julie De Vivre – “Don’t get married just because you’re “supposed to” or because “it’s time.” Don’t choose your career on “suitability,” choose a calling. Forget the things that’ll make you look rich, invest in what truly enriches your life. Let everything you do be best for you; for now or later, and for the betterment of what really matters in this life.”

The Backyard Nursery Side Hustle: $10k a Year Selling Plants @ Side Hustle Nation  – “On one hand, today’s story is about matching your interests and skills with a hungry market, but maybe more importantly it’s about documenting your work. When you do those two things, like Craig Odem has, you start to see some fun results.”

Why Volunteerism Could Be Your Life’s Greatest Vocation @ TicTocLife – “I think that volunteerism can be the early retiree’s half-altruistic and half-selfish trick to securing purpose in their life. Maybe you’ll find your life’s calling, your vocation, along the way.”

Ben’s 4 Common Sense Rules of Investing @ A Wealth of Common Sense – “There is no single way to invest that will guarantee success or the results you would like. But there is one way to guarantee terrible results with your life savings — don’t invest your money.”

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Clips & news from the community:

Interesting clips and news that caught my eyes this week…

• Femme Frugality celebrates 11 years of blogging (and does it in a very sweet way!)

• Kara Perez was recently hospitalized and fundraising to help pay off her medical debts :(

• Athena Valentine got engaged!

• “Did you know that foreigners can “buy” visa status in the United States and dozens of other countries? Referred to as “golden visas,” these countries offer citizenship in exchange for investment. Unfortunately, the price is on the steep side in almost every country. But if you have the funds and a great desire to live in a foreign country, obtaining a golden visa may be the best way to do it.” – Wallet Hacks

• “Housing is the key to reversing a lot of terrible systemic problems: affordable housing reduces intergenerational poverty. It increases economic mobility. It’s the most cost-effective strategy for reducing childhood poverty. Kids living in stable, affordable housing are more likely to thrive in school and earn more as adults. It narrows the racial wealth gap. But let’s say you don’t give a damn about the quality of life of The Poors™. Much like an increased minimum wage, greater access to affordable housing would be fantastic for the country’s precious economy too.” – Bitches Get Riches

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Video of The Week:

“Credit Game”… Watch Those Scores Go UP! via Financial Common Cents – “I don’t only teach you the rules to this game called “Credit”….BUT I TEACH YOU HOW TO WIN!!!”

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God bless you.

 

 

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Good morning!

Hope you all are having a good week! Just chillin’ over here, nothing too exciting or juicy to report which is kind of refreshing every now and then :) Time for the body (and mind) to re-energize and “just be.”

Though I did pitch a fun “out there” idea to a business this week that’ll be interesting to see if anything comes of it… It’s an idea we’ve had for 6-7 years now that we’ve never seen done, but one that requires an enormous amount of capital and time to get off the ground so it’ll never be tackled without a good partner (and investment).

I’m way too conservative to go “all in” on it myself, but it was great to revive it for an hour and get real-time feedback from others in the community. And they want a 2nd call on it so they must of liked it enough! Our next job is to try and flesh out exactly what the costs and time commitments would look like, and to see if it’s even worth considering regardless of how good the idea is. So we’ll see!

In the meantime, back to chilling and blogging and Dad Life :)

Hope you have a great weekend! Enjoy today’s articles! 🙏

Posts on Budgets this week:

The Magic of Habit Stacking ✨ — In which a tip from my plumber completely transformed my mornings for the better! Here’s why you want to stack habits in your life (and your finances).

Daily Happiness > Future Happiness — If you’ve found yourself in a continual loop of obsessing about the future, STOP IT!! Do not wish your days away! Today’s happiness > tomorrow’s (possible) happiness.

PS: if you’d like to read these sooner when they come out, subscribe to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter

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Favorite reads from the community:

The Price of Security @ JL Collins – “Security is mostly a superstition. It does not exist in nature, nor do the children of men as a whole experience it. Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing.” – Helen Keller

I’m 36 and I’m Semi-Retired… What Does That Even Mean?! @ Julie De Vivre – “Hi, I’m Julie. I’m in my 30s, I’m single, and I’m traveling the world on $27,000 a year. And as of December 2021, I’m FIRE’d.”

The Biggest Mistake People Make When They Find Out About FIRE @ Alan Donegan – “Why do humans have this self-destructive tendency to make everything binary?  I either spend everything I have, go into debt but I am happy or I spend nothing and miserably work towards FI? Sacrificing happiness for financial independence is stupid.  You are sacrificing years of your life to get to a magic number that won’t make you happy either.”

Should You Die With Zero? @ Of Dollars and Data – “Perkins presents a radical new way to think about saving and spending money, namely, that you should try to die with $0 to your name. His reasoning is simple—every dollar you didn’t spend while alive is wasted life energy. It’s money that you never needed to work for in the first place or money that could’ve been given to heirs earlier in time.”

Happy 14th to My Blog! @ The Frugal Girl – “Today, it’s been 14 years since I first hit “publish” on a Frugal Girl post. I didn’t start blogging with much of a plan or vision, but I am so thankful that my 2008 self gave it a try. In honor of 14 years of blogging, I’m sharing 14 observations from my years of writing here.”

Swedish Death Cleaning: Will This Spark Joy for Someone Else? @ One Frugal Girl – “Swedish death cleaning is a method of paring down your possessions so your friends and family won’t have to figure out what to do with your stuff after you’re gone. It’s about parting with things you don’t want, to save your friends and relatives from the burden of doing it for you.”

MRR From Royalties Is The Ace Up My FIRE Sleeve @ Accidental FIRE – “Monthly recurring revenue (MRR) is income that a business can count on receiving every single month – in other words, predictable revenue. It represents the value of all your customer relationships, normalized to a month.”

Investors Need Some Cosmic Insignificance Therapy @ A Teachable Moment – “Throughout history, people worked so they didn’t have to labor as much as they age. Today, we do the opposite. The wealthiest tend to perform the most extended hours. Score Keeping takes precedence over common sense.”

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News from the community:

Interesting news from the space that caught my eye this week…

• Go Curry Cracker! has gotten into woodworking
• FI Heroes spent the last three months living on a cruise ship!
• Route To Retire stepped out of his comfort zone and went on an 8-night fishing trip of a lifetime in Canada!

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Dad joke of the week:

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Happy weekend :)

 

 

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Good morning!

Can you believe it’s already August??! Wasn’t it the New Year just like last week?! How are those Net Worths going over there? Much more fun updating it this month than last, eh? :)

As for me, I’m still kickin’ it w/ the blog and trying to stay as healthy as possible! Got my 2nd infusion done yesterday which means I’ll now be able to start weening myself off the steroids and other meds I’m hocked up on, and if all goes well I *should* now be past the worst of this nasty disease! I’ll be immunosuppressed for basically forever (the infusions kill my antibody-making B cells!), but at least I got my quality of life back! So suck it, Pemphigus Vulgaris!

(j/k you’re the best – don’t come back to haunt me!!)

Favorite articles from the week down below, along with a fun rap about credit…

Be well 🙏🙏

Posts on Budgets this week:

7 Money Tips From Mark Cuban — Caught these tips off Twitter and thought it would be fun to see how many of these we can check off! I got a 4 out of 7 (eek), how about you?

The Financial Dummy of The Week Award 🏆 — In which I give myself an award for having three $$$ mess ups already this week – and the week isn’t even over yet! Lol…

PS: you can always get these posts emailed to you as soon as they come out if you’re signed up to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter 👍

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Favorite reads from the community:

A Crisp $100 Bill 💵 @ 5AM Joel – “A professor stood up in front of the class holding up a brand new crisp $100 bill. He said, “who wants this?” The entire class raised their hands. Then the professor put the $100 bill on the ground, stomped on it, kicked it around and smashed it with his foot into the dirty floor. “Who wants it now?” Everyone still had their hands raised…”

Stocks vs. Real Estate @ Lazy Man and Money – “Back in 2007, I covered an article in Money Magazine that was interesting to me – Stocks vs. Real Estate. It’s fifteen years later now, and I thought it was worth revisiting…”

How to Create More Freedom With a Portfolio Career @ Money Flamingo – “Designing a portfolio career is really not much different from creating an investment portfolio. It’s a way to combine different jobs, self-employment, volunteer and freelance roles. This approach offers more control over your time, freedom to explore new options and the ability to create your perfect work-life blend.”

How to Get $30 (or more!) Off Your Internet Bill @ Femme Frugality – “Have you heard of the Affordable Connectivity Program?  If not, you might be missing out! This government program can help you save $30 or more on your internet bill every month.”

A Simple Yearly Budget & Expense Tracker @ Accidentally Retired – “While Mrs. AR and I don’t typically keep a firm budget, every so often I like to keep tabs on our expenses and see where there is room for improvement.  This tool provides an easy way to do that, as well as a useful way to forecast expenses for the year as well.”

Reality Catches Up @ The Collaborative Fund – “An asset you don’t deserve can quickly become a liability.  Maybe your portfolio surged during a bubble, your company hit a monster valuation, or you negotiated a salary that exceeds your ability. It feels great at the time. But reality eventually catches up, and demands repayment in equal proportion to your delusions – plus interest.”

Reject the Algorithm @ Of Dollars and Data – “Would you rather be yourself and be known by thousands, or be someone else and be known by tens (or hundreds) of thousands?”

Nobody Will Remember Your Stuff. But Hopefully They Might Remember You @ Simple and Straightforward – “Possessions are not the threads that connect us to past times and places. People are. You probably won’t be remembered for that time you bought a new iPhone. But your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, and great-grandkids might remember that time you chucked them in the pool.”

You Are Always The Other Person @ Raptitude – “I am a first-person protagonist in the small and specialized corner of reality that is my own life. In everyone else’s life, I’m an autonomous — and to some degree mysterious — visiting character.  This is true for you too of course. Your primary role in the world, by far, is that of an Other Person.”

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Clips and news from the community:

Interesting clips & news that caught my eye this week…

• “Money doesn’t guarantee happiness, but it does allow you to make different decisions about how to spend your time.” – The Belle Curve

• “When we want to improve something, we often think about what can be added or changed, but one of the rules we have learned from our experiences is the rule of adding By removing; so instead of adding a new habit to solve a problem, think about what you can do without or avoid.” – Mvoca

• The AOC ladies finagled a way to stay in Portugal for a month – FREE (!!)

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Video of the week:

7 Hunna (C.R.E.D.I.T.) [Freestyle Rap Video] via @Dex.McBean – “Breaking down CREDIT freestyle at the Team Roc United Justice Coalition Summit”

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Good morning!

Back again with this week’s favorite articles and other nuggets from around the web – and my brain.

But sadly my brain decided to take a vacation this morning, so I don’t have any special insight for you other than to keep on keeping on and become so financially secure you forget it’s payday!!

A good place to be, and hopefully some of these articles today help get you there faster :)

Blessed weekend 🙏

Posts on Budgets this week:

What about all the FUN debt gave you? — As finance nerds we tend to focus on how terrible debt is and how much we hate it etc etc, but I think we forget just exciting it can be to buy stuff too :) I mean, why else would people willingly go into debt if they weren’t getting something awesome in return? Do you know anyone who goes out of their way to buy stuff they HATE?

Great New Book on The Scene (Giving Away 2 Copies!) — There’s a fantastic new book dropping on the scene and I have two copies to give away! It comes from podcaster, and (early) retired hospice doctor, Dr. Jordan Grumet: “Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life” (Answer the question at the end of the blog post to enter to win – ends Sunday night…)

PS: you can always get these posts emailed to you as soon as they come out if you’re signed up to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter 👍

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Favorite reads from the community:

Selling and Surviving @ The Best Interest – “If you’re young enough to invest your money and pull a Rip Van Winkle, go ahead into 100% stocks. Some people are fine with a multi-decade hibernation of avoiding their account statements. But most people don’t live in that world.”

The FIRE Community’s Greatest Flaw @ Money Flamingo – “When you take a pregnancy test, there are only two possible outcomes: Pregnant or not pregnant. The traditional way to calculate our FI number looks at things the same way: We are either financially independent or not. We all know that investing is nothing like this. It’s not black and white, all or nothing. Markets go up and down and sideways all the time.”

15 Places (other than Possessions) to Apply Minimalist Principles @ Becoming Minimalist — “Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it. With that broader understanding, we can begin to see how the principles of minimalism can apply to other areas of life besides possessions.”

Think Differently by Inverting Your Questions @ Darius Foroux – “Munger created a way of looking at life: “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.” As long as we’re aware of bad outcomes, we can make an effort to avoid them. The problem is that most people are never aware of that. In fact, most people try hard to only look at the upside and want to ignore the downside.”

Kept In A Drawer for 2 years, $4,905 Gold Bitcoin Physical Coin Now $48 Million, According to GreatCollections @ PR Newswire – “When I bought the coin for $4,905, I really had no idea what the potential was, otherwise, I would have bought more than one! After the purchase, I forgot about it, leaving it in a desk drawer. That changed in late 2013 when I saw a headline about Bitcoin being worth $1,000, and it hit me that the coin I purchased for $4,905 was suddenly worth $1 million. It prompted me to work out what Bitcoin was all about, and since that time I’ve been watching it closely. Since the value of the coin increased to $1 million, there were other milestones I remember, such as when it hit the $10 million mark and then again at $25 million.”

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Community news:

Interesting news from around the community this week…

• Crucial Wealth celebrates 3 years of FIRE
• A Purple Life celebrates 4 years of her blog!
• Dragon Gal celebrates 5 years of early retirement
• The Money Commando hits $10 MILLION in net worth (!!!)

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Clips from the community:

Interesting clips that caught my eye scanning articles this week…

• “Remember, life doesn’t take place in a spreadsheet. A drop in the market should not have a significant impact on our life decisions.” – Money Flamingo

• “Many people tend to extrapolate present economic conditions into the future. That always leads to having a future perspective that’s the extreme of today. If today is bad, you assume that the future will be even worse. You extrapolate the downward trend. If today is great, you assume the future will be even greater. You extrapolate the upward trend into infinity. This “over-extrapolation” fallacy is responsible for investing more during bubbles and pulling out of the market during crashes.” – Darius Foroux

• “If I’m trying to do too many things and constantly spreading myself thin, I wind up offering the bare minimum. A shallow version of myself. When I’m living a more minimalist lifestyle I’m free to be able to give the best of myself to the people in my world. I want my people to get the best of me. Not just the rest of me.” – No Sidebar

• “Spend time outside the demands of everyone and everything else. Have one hour in the morning that is solely yours. Before you read the news, look at your phone, or read your email, just be no one/yourself. Delight in your own enoughness. I call it First Hour. It’s yours. Do with it what you will. Treat it with respect, treat yourself with respect. This time is precious. Don’t give it to anyone else.” – Douglas Tsoi

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Video of the week:

The Perfect Amount of Clothes [Video] @ The Minimalists — “In this short video, The Minimalists discuss the perfect amount of clothes to own as a minimalist. This clip is a standalone highlight from The Minimalists Private Podcast.”

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