Bartering, Banned Books, and Some Excellent Hate Mail
Good morning!
I got a new piece of hate mail yesterday on my blog, and thought you’d enjoy hearing it:
“you probably smell like fart”
Lol… I’ve probably re-read it about 13 times now and DIE every time!! So random?! So stupid??! SO FUNNY!!! 😂😂
I can only hope they were doing it in jest, but either way it now resides in my HALL OF FAME HATE LIST, and is another reminder that if you want to accept the goods in life you have to accept the bads too. All apart of the game!
In more exciting news, my @BudgetsAreSexy Twitter account hit 50,000 followers this week!! So cool! I remember being forced on it over 14 years ago and swearing I’d never take it seriously (woops), but eventually it went on to become a surprisingly big part of my daily life and community over the years…
Not only do I still learn a ton logging on every day, but I’ve met some of my best friends there and it was a super helpful lifeline when I went into retirement the past couple of years… So yay for technology! And thanks to all those who chat with me there! :)
This week’s favorite articles and other tidbits from around the community are posted below 👍
Hope you find something good there!
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Posts on Budgets this week!
Bartering Is Alive and Well! — In which I find out a friend of mine gets free tattoos, design work, photography, and piano lessons – all through bartering! That pic up top is one of her newest tats. (This also reminds me of a similar concept we’ve talked about: “Gigs for Goals”)
Create Unexpected Joy 🤍 — In celebration of bringing back Giving Cards, we’re giving 5 readers a $20 card to go out and Do Good in their worlds to show it really doesn’t take much to make an impact in someone’s life… Sometimes we just need a little prompting 🙏🙏
*To get these posts emailed to you when they come out, sign up for the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter
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Favorite reads from the community:
Cream and Sugar First @ Retire Before Dad – “Too often, our lives are like a bad cup of coffee — mostly filled with stuff that doesn’t taste good. Then we sprinkle some sugar and pour a little cream to celebrate the nights and weekends. Our budgets are like this too. Enjoyment spending happens last if there’s anything left ever. So how do we prioritize the good stuff over the bland?”
Lifestyles @ The Collaborative Fund – “Fifty-four years ago this month, The Sunday Times offered £5,000 to whoever could sail solo nonstop around the world the fastest. But it was two participants who never completed the race that generated the most news. One ended up dead, the other found himself happier than ever. Both outcomes came from decisions made at sea, but neither had anything to do with sailing.”
Seven Lessons From Two Years of Financial Freedom @ Clipping Chains – “The best gift of financial freedom is the enhanced opportunity to discover who we really are. Especially in the United States, where so much emphasis is put on hustle and busyness, we are left with precious few hours of quiet time for reflection. The greatest win for these last two years is mental clarity. I’ve learned a lot about motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.”
What It’s Like to Own Just 134 Items in the World @ Becoming Minimalist — “It was never my intention to live with so little. But back in 2020 my husband and I had the opportunity to sell our wine business, house and most of what we own in order to travel the world indefinitely, working online as we go. All I had room for was what would fit in my suitcase, plus a box or two to be stored in my family home.”
You Don’t Need Multiple Income Streams to Build Wealth @ Accidentally Retired – “Focusing on building up one truly kick ass income stream is going to pay dividends far beyond what you can do with multiple income streams. When you focus on being the best you can be in the career you have now, or at the business that you are working on growing, you will yield a far better outcome than someone who has too many balls in the air.”
Trying to Be More Present Isn’t Enough @ Raptitude – “A million years from now, when alien anthropologists begin gathering evidence about what humans were like, they will definitely want to dig up the Self-help and Spiritual/Religion sections of our bookstores and libraries. There they will find direct evidence of what we yearned for and struggled with.”
Property vs Shares: Ten Reasons Why Houses Are Often The Better Investment @ Monevator – “Another semi-psychological reason why property usually appears to be a good investment is because a house that is worth, say, 20% less than you paid for it still does its job as a house. In reality it was a poorly timed investment – it slumped in value. But we tend not to think of our homes that way.”
Lessons Learned from Talking Money Part 1, Remembering Asha @ All Options Considered — “Taking good care of yourself and prioritizing self-care every day doesn’t mean you love others any less. It means you deserve to be healthy in every way and you deserve to be mindful of your own needs. And if you’re anything like Asha it might help to know that self-care can also help you support the people you love.”
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New book coming out!
This one comes out early next month, and is by Dr. (and podcaster) Jordan Grumet – host of the award-winning Earn & Invest podcast which I was featured on recently.
Super chill and smart dude, and from what I hear this book is going to be one of the next big ones in the community similar to Morgan Housel’s Psychology of Money or JL Collins’ The Simple Path to Wealth. You’ll probably be hearing a lot more about it over the next few months!
Here’s a summary from Amazon (I haven’t read it yet):
Written by a hospice doctor with a unique front-row seat to the regrets of his dying patients, this book will remind you to take stock of life now, before it is too late. The goal of financial independence is to have the economic fuel to live a full life and avoid regret. Taking Stock is your guide to taking control of your finances and investing in yourself. Inside you’ll find:
- The three basic archetypes of building wealth, and how to choose which is right for you
- Time-hacking techniques to modify your perception of time passing and fill your moments with meaning
- Tips to invest in education, family, and your own physical and mental health
- And much more!
Don’t wait until the last moment to live life to the fullest!
You can learn more about it, or order it, here: “Taking Stock”
(Links to book are Amazon affiliate links)
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Community News:
Some interesting news from around the community this week:
- Young Money turns 1!
- Crucial Wealth returns to blogging after a 2 year hiatus
- Steve Ark returns to blogging after (another) successful surgery
- Costa Rica FIRE buys a new real estate property (with a view)
- David Cain from Raptitude opens back up Camp Calm – A simple, thoughtful course for learning meditation and other mindfulness skills (that link gets you 20% off)
- Karen Trefzger from Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff comes out with a new book: The Minimalist Challenge: 36 Fun Experiments for a Simpler Life
- Bridget & Alyssa will be hosting an in-person meetup in Calgary, Canada July 28th
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Clips from the community:
Some interesting clips that caught my eye while sifting through articles this week…
- “I remember reading that the average lifespan of a cell in our bodies is roughly seven years, so that in seven years, we are wholly and entirely a new person.” – A Teachable Moment
- “The study found that nuns were happier with their lives than the general population and, because of their higher happiness level, they typically lived longer. A related finding: Happy nuns lived longer than unhappy nuns.” – HumbleDollar.com
- “Political scientist Erica Chenoweth studied hundreds of violent and non-violent protests worldwide (323, to be exact) from 1900 to 2006. She found that non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. Another thing she discovered was the phenomenon she named the “3.5% rule”. In short, when at least 3.5% of a population is committed to a cause and participates actively, it is not only easier to achieve a serious nation (or global) change – success appears to be inevitable. All the non-violent protests that succeeded achieved 3.5% participation during a peak event.” – AlmostZeroWaste.com
- “It was nice to have an occasion to sport up a suit and ascot. For some time I was singlehandedly determined to bring back ascots and handjobs to their former glories but fear I failed on both counts.” – FreddySmidlap.com
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Pic of the week!
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