Good morning from the beach!

We’re in OBX for the week (Outer Banks, NC), and I don’t know how it does it but the sun rises so much more beautiful here than from my backyard at home. 😂

We’ve been having a blast so far, and I even took up SURFING out of nowhere?!!! Some of my extended family brought their boards, and after peppering them with a million questions about how similar or not it is to skateboarding and if they think I’d be good at it, they told me to just take one out for a spin and find out for myself! So I did!

And unsurprisingly, I AM NOW OBSESSED, haha… It’s just as exhilarating/challenging as skating, except when you fall it’s actually FUN ;) And I even stood up on my first try and rode the *entire* wave, going in and out of the rip curl thing and even brushing the side of it with my hands like they do in movies before proudly jumping off at the end…

Which I have yet to reproduce ever since (!!), but now that I have tasted the good stuff there’s no turning back, lol…  One more life experience to add under my belt too which I’m loving best of all. (And none of which would have been even possible just two months ago when I was deathly sick in bed!)

[The board that de-virginized me! ]

We’ve also been having fun playing in the sand dunes here, visiting the skate parks (4 total within 10 miles of each other!) spending way too much at surf shops, and visiting cool little aquariums with all kinds of sea creatures showing off their stuff…

Check out these nasty little nettles!! And these precious sea horses!

Highly recommend if you’re ever in the area: North Carolina Aquarium on Roanoke Island

And if you happen to be around over the next two days, give a shout and maybe we can meet up in real life? Bonus points if you bring your board so I can have another excuse to go out and practice ;)

In the meantime, lots of great reading material down below so sit back, grab a coffee, and get ready to expand your mind (and your wallet!).

Happy 4th 🥳🇺🇸

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Posts on Budgets this week!

Always have a back up plan for stuff you buy! — This has helped me IMMENSELY over the past couple of years, both financially but even more so *mentally*… Every time I buy something (shoes, clothes, books, etc) I have a plan for it if it doesn’t turn out to be exactly what I wanted and goes right out the door STAT… (This is also my first “real” blog post since coming back and I’m pretty proud of it, even if it didn’t take off, lol…)

A Bunch of Great $$$ Resources ✨ — Here’s a list of great resources in our space including FIRE meetups, curation sites, articles around #VanLife, and then recommended accounting software biz owners in the community are using. (I personally need to find a new one of my own after Go Daddy announced shutting down the one I was using – eek!)

(I’m trying out a 2x/week schedule and seeing how that goes… It feels like I’m a slacker compared to my 5x/week days, but it’s also keeping me nice and calm so trying to remember that’s more important 😂 We’ll see if it keeps ups!)

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Favorite reads from the community:

Legal Money Laundering @ Go Curry Cracker – “Cash flow is king in retirement. A little legal money laundering helps keep the cash flowing smoothly, allowing you to spend retirement account dividends before age 59.5, contribute to retirement accounts even when you have minimal cash, and contribute more than you earn to retirement accounts. As a bonus, these efforts will shift the portfolio in a way that helps to minimize future taxes.”

How to Say “No” When It Matters Most (or “Why I’m Taking a Long ‘Startup Vacation'”) @ Tim Ferriss – “Are you doing what you’re uniquely capable of, what you feel placed here on Earth to do? Can you be replaced?”

How to Start a Roadside Produce Stand: $1000 a Weekend Flipping Peaches @ Side Hustle Nation – “Nothing puts a smile on a consumer’s face quicker than a good peach. And it turns out, flipping produce can be quite the profitable side hustle! ($3000 in one weekend from one stand before we recorded.) Shannon has been doing this for 10 years and has scaled up to 100 roadside stands…”

Why I Emptied Out My Crypto Exchange Accounts (Including Stablecoins) @ My Money Blog – “If you have assets at a crypto exchange earning interest, that means they have lent your assets out. This means you are the unsecured creditor of a risky start-up business.”

Return to Real Life (Minimalist Challenges Part 10) @ Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff – “Each of the following three experiments is meant to be conducted over a 24-hour period.  They will challenge habits that have become widespread in our culture within the past 60 to 70 years.”

Don’t Let The Awful Treasury Direct Website Stop You From Buying Series I Bonds @ Impersonal Finance – “With inflation raging and volatility in the stock market persisting, you better believe I jumped at the chance to join in on the newest personal finance craze: Bonds, baby, bonds! With rates of nearly 10%, Series I Bonds make a lot of sense for Millennial investors”

But I Don’t Want to Be Frugal @ Clipping Chains – “If you are new to this game, I recommend you find the bottom. See what it feels like to cut back to bare bones, because you’ll know how lean you can get when necessary. But then find a life you enjoy, and make the financial frame fit the picture. Get a coffee, but not every day. Enjoy the occasional meal out, but learn to cook your own food too. Find joy in simplicity.”

We Regret to Inform You That Your Choice of Deathday Is No Longer Available @ Nature.com – “My fear of death has never been about how much time I have left, but how I choose to spend it. After a lifetime of working hard, my father retired because of cancer, and died battling it. My mother spent the remainder of her time depressed. We don’t get to choose our ends, but we can choose what comes before it.”

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Sites That Have Streaming RSS Feeds

If you liked our “Feeds” page we had back in the Rockstar Finance days where it listed every single blog post being published in the community in *real* time, you’ll like this list of sites below I put together for a friend…

It’s basically like the opposite of curation – “Here’s everything being published in the $$$ world – YOU figure out what looks good or not!” Lol…

• Fiscovery.com — feeds of all FIRE bloggers streaming on the homepage
• FiFeeds.com — similar to the above, but much cleaner/easier to read
• Source of FIRE — similar to above, but harder to read
• CollectingWisdom.com — feeds of all $$$ bloggers in general streaming on the homepage, and many FIRE specific too
• PersonalFinanceBlogs.com/daily-personal-finance-blog-feed/ — great curation site in general, but also has a streaming feeds page as well linked there
• CampfireFinance.com/fire-feed/ — another curation site with feeds page, although not as active as PF Blogs above (the curation part – the streaming part is live and instantaneous)

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In more exciting curation news: I’ll be joining the team of curators over at Apex Money starting next week helping them to find and share more great articles in the space :)

It’s in partnership with the Plutus Foundation and the plan is to promote more bloggers’ content alongside the great main street articles that Apex is already sharing around the community… Should be a fun new way to spread eyeballs around our space! Keep your eyes open for it! –> www.ApexMoney.com

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Clips From Around The Community:

Lastly, here’s a bunch of clips that caught my eye while sifting through articles this week… Some pretty powerful one-liners.

“Money buys happiness in the same way drugs bring pleasure: Incredible if done right, dangerous if used to mask a weakness, and disastrous when no amount is ever enough.” – Collaborative Fund

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“We need to get away from the internet sometimes. It’s open 24/7/365, and we’re not.” –  Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff

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“I have started to implement “date days” with our kids to spend time with each of them individually.” – Accidentally Retired

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Good morning!

I have a message from The Universe to supply to you today – you’re very lucky ;)

Courtesy of Tut.com and reader Greg Pohl who forwarded this to me:

What good does it do knowing approximately where the treasure lies, yet never digging? Having a bank account with millions in it, but never writing a check? Or discovering the fountain of youth, but never drinking a drop?

You must live the truths you discover, break your old rules, defy logic, be the change. Dig, write the check, and drink eternally, one little step after another.

There’s no other way,

– The Universe

BOOM.

If you’ve been waiting for a sign, this is it!! Get out there and start digging!! :)

And perhaps today’s articles I rounded up below will help you with that…

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But first, some important news from yours truly:

#1. I watched Top Gun!! And it was just as good as the entire universe has been saying 😂 (The Universe knows, I’m telling you!!)

#2. I tried barrel-aged coffee this week and hoo-boy did it have a kick! What is barrel-aged coffee? “Barrel aged coffee is coffee that has been aged in retired liquor barrels like whiskey, bourbon, and rum barrels. The coffee beans are aged in the barrels for up to a few weeks at a time, slowly developing more flavor.”

#3. I’m not allowed anymore to make fun of people who use real money to buy fake money in video games… After spending $10 on Robux and Minecoins for my boys….

Alright, recent posts I wrote, and other favorites from around the web, are featured below…

Hope they help! And don’t forget to take action afterwards! Knowledge is useless if you don’t do anything about it!!

Your pal in The Universe,

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Posts on Budgets this week:

16 Good (and Bad!) Changes Since My “Retirement” — If you’re interested in what I’ve been up to over the past few years, this will catch you up! Includes: my new dog, my new office, my new cream of wheat obsession (!), my new cemetery plot, my VANs fanboying, and the selling of my old basketball card collection. Plus some not so good stuff…

Ridiculous videos I made about money! (And some fun Q&As) — Featuring all the videos I created the past two years while experimenting with YouTube! Includes skits on the 3 budgets you need to have, an investment tip that could get you half a million dollars, how to lead a more intentional life, the power of writing your own obituary, and finding your “Ikigai.”

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Favorite reads from the community:

Why I Don’t ’Have A FI Number Anymore @ Financial Panther – “We don’t have to wait around to hit the magic FI number before we go do the things we want to do. Instead, we can figure out what we want now and create a life that lets us do that.”

How To Make a Decision @ Mari Andrew – “What would your 5-year-old self say about your life? Your 85-year-old self? The only people worth impressing, I concluded. These are the only guides in my life who have compassion for what it’s like to be me, and who have the highest standards for me (their standards having nothing to do with constructed metrics of success).”

The Personal Finances of The Simpsons @ Lazy Man and Money — “Recently, NPR had a podcast about The Simpsons and how their finances stack up today. It seems that their critique caught the writers attention. They decided to address the Simpsons’ personal finances in the last episode of the latest season, Poorhouse Rock. There’s a tremendous song in it about how the economy has changed since when the Simpsons first went on the air.”

How to Avoid Early Retirement Failure @ Jillian Johnsrud — “Whatever you do, don’t just keep your head down and push through at work, allowing it to overrun your life in order to get to FI faster. Instead, focus on what you want your FI lifestyle to be and slowly start giving that more of your time and energy.”

Keep It Going @ The Collaborative Fund – “Carl Richards once made the point that a house might be the best investment most people ever make. It’s not that housing provides great returns – it does not. It’s not even the leverage. It’s that people are more likely to buy a house and sit on it without interruption for years or decades than any other asset. It’s the one asset people give compounding a fighting chance to work.”

Inbox Pause? How About an Inbox Reset? @ Cal Newport – “Several readers have recently pointed me toward a productivity tool called Inbox Pause, which allows you to prevent messages from arriving in your email inbox for a set amount of time. You could, of course, simply decide not to check your inbox for this period, but as every knowledge worker who has ever used email has learned, it can be very, very difficult.”

Which is Safer: Rental Houses or Stock Investments? (a Case Study) @ Mr. Money Mustache – “At the root of his question is the core of what it means to “Retire”.  According to my own definition, you don’t have to stop working. But you do have to build up a level of freedom and wealth such that the work you do is entirely by choice, rather than something you grit your teeth and crank through just because you need or want the money.  After all, the real purpose of work is to create something that is meaningful to you. Why would you ever want to quit that?”

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Events in the community!

The July 2022 Uber Frugal Month Challenge! [FREE] via Frugalwoods – “While the name implies this Challenge is only about saving money, it is not. It’s about a holistic restructuring and examination of our relationship with one of the most divisive, fear-inducing, anxiety-provoking, divorce-causing, emotional things in our lives: OUR MONEY. Saving money is great, but until we understand our money–and our reactions to it–we can’t make lasting changes to facilitate a healthy, long-term relationship.

The Uber Frugal Month is a chance to spend quality time with your money and understand it in a guilt-free environment devoid of financial jargon and shaming. I invite you to join me this month for an accessible, easy-to-understand journey to financial health. Plus, it’s free so there’s nothing to lose!”

Starts July 1st | FREE | More info: Uber Frugal Month Challenge

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Plutus Impact Summit [FREE] via The Plutus Foundation — “For two afternoons, the Plutus Foundation will give you the ideas and tools you need to build your community and build your business. This is the virtual event of the year just for financial content creators — bloggers, podcasters, authors, speakers, and anyone else who talks about money online or offline.

Each day, hear from our headline speakers as well as panelists that will cover topics from building lucrative relationships with brands to implementing self-care practices that improve your bottom line. At the same time, all will help you grow your audience, followers, and community. These are the discussions you wish you had when you started.”

July 22-23 | Virtual | FREE | More info: Plutus Impact Summit

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Other community news:

• Accidentally Retired is celebrating 2 years of early retirement
• Steve Ark has to go back in for more surgery :(
• Route to Retire is on an epic road trip, seeing Michael Jackson’s childhood home, the Spam museum, and the town where Groundhog’s Day was Filmed!! (Woodstock, IL)

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Hello friends!!!

We are officially live and out the door now with Budgets Are Sexy and it’s been a whirlwind!!! So many emotions and friends and re-unitings over here :) And to think I almost said “no thanks’ to the opportunity – ack!!! Would have been living in a (much more boring) alternative universe right now!

We kicked off the week with 3 new articles featured below, so if any of them look interesting just click away and get caught up on the past couple of years!

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Post #1: Actually you can ignore this one as it’s just a “we’re coming back” note for everyone not on this list or who follow me on social – which is like 90% of the world, haha… (you guys are the special 10%!! ;))

Post #2: Allow me to Re-Introduce myself, My Name is J. Money (OH! J-to-The-Moneyyy!) — See what’s been going down with my $$$ and life and all kinds of other things the past two years! Also a nice recap of who I am if you’re new here to the list or don’t know much about my blog or past projects..

Post #3: This is the most exciting one!! We’re bringing back our long sold-out T-SHIRTS!!! The popular “I’m Bringing Budgets Back.”, along with two new designs: “Mother Budgeter.” and “I Like Big Budgets and Cannot Lie.” Lol… They come in all different styles and colors, and priced as low as almost possible to be sure to always *ahem* fit within your budget.

Here are some of the designs:

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Big love to Dave from Accidental FIRE for partnering up with me on these and then getting them out the door in lightning speed…

As soon as I saw my old “I’m Bringing Budgets Back.” graphic the other week I immediately wondered what it would take to actually bring the *shirts* back too, and knowing he runs a killer FIRE shop on Amazon I tapped him for advice and we decided to go in together on these.

So without him these wouldn’t exist – so thanks dude!!

Check out the new shop here (via Amazon):
Budgets Are Sexy Store

In other welcoming news, I finally got my infusions scheduled out so I can start managing this disease more solidly now, and while it’s yet another month away at least we’re up and rolling now!!! The maddening part of it though was that my files had been on her desk just sitting there because she couldn’t find my weight to get insurance approved and the right dosage/etc, and then it dawned on her that she could just pick up the phone and call me, and within two hours we had it scheduled and approved and ready to go 🙃

Trying to be grateful, but man — people treat us patients like paperwork but we’re real life human beings (who are suffering, mind you!!!) and waiting anxiously each passing day for news of things!! And then to just callously brush it off with an “oops, sorry – I should have called earlier” just adds salt in your blistering wounds, lol..

But whatever… Life is good and we are moving on!!! :)

Check out the shirts, check out the new posts, and then grab yourself a large latte over the weekend and enjoy the best posts from around the community down below…

Thanks for being here and all your support this week!! I’ve felt it! 💙

PS: We’re not making much on the shirts, but we’ll have to find a fun way to use the profits For Good somehow, like maybe re-starting our old Community Fund or something around those likes… Open to ideas!!

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Favorite Reads This Week:

Minimal on Purpose @ No Sidebar – “Emptiness requires us to either face or lose ourselves. A blank space on our wall or our calendar forces us to think about our options and figure out what to do with that space. A quiet interlude compels us to look within ourselves and perhaps deal with an issue we’ve been avoiding.”

The Four Paths of Retirement @ The Retirement Manifesto – “We found that survey respondents in the heart of retirement divide into four distinct groups, characterized by their attitudes and ambitions, their circumstances and retirement preparations, and their level of enjoyment of life in retirement.”

Marry Somebody With Money? Why Not Become That Somebody? @ Jessica Moorhouse – “I grew up believing I could become whatever I wanted when I grew up (thanks to supportive parents), but I also got messages from Disney and society that the most I could hope for was to marry someone rich… instead of being told I could one day build my own wealth, reach the top of my career path, and not have to choose a partner based on how much they had in the bank.”

What Happens When Prices Fall @ The Irrelevant Investor – “People are discovering that what made them believe in investments was not the investments themselves, but the prices attached to them. Everything that you hold, and I do mean everything, is easier to buy into when the price is going up.”

The Simple Reason Why Renting Will Save You Money @ Kate Horrell – “When you rent, you never pay more than you rent each month. When you buy a house, you never pay less than your mortgage each month.”

Explained: The Benefits of Inflation! @ Mantaro Money – “If inflation makes things more expensive, then it stands that those who own those things will see their value increase. Productive assets (businesses and property) typically outpace inflation. Therefore, inflation punishes consumers and rewards owners… which are you?”

What is Cash Stuffing? #cashstuffing @ Wallet Hacks – “Have you heard of this latest TikTok “craze” called cash stuffing?  The term is new but the strategy isn’t – even if you’ve never heard of cash stuffing, chances are you’ve heard of the strategy.  It’s been around for ages and it’s a solid approach, it just hasn’t gone viral because no one came up with a clever name. 🙂”

Chart: Every S&P 500 Bear and Bull Market in History @ My Money Blog – “Takeaway: You should always be prepared for a drop of 50% in your stock holdings. Enduring such uncomfortable volatility is the price of investing in stocks, and if you don’t pay it, you don’t get the full returns.”

At Death’s Door with a Dollar in My Pocket @ Poor. Choices. – “Here’s a thought experiment with which I have thought about experimenting. When I die, I will give my child one dollar along with a link to this article (or rather a link to my digital home in the metaverse where an NFT of this article will await them on my holo desk).”

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Communities / Meetups Around The Space

A reader recently asked what communities were around the space for like-minded financially-focused people, so I shot him the following list which include both in-person local meetups, as well as online forum type meetings. All of which are generally positive and helpful, so maybe worth looking into for you too?

• Camp FI
• FIREList: Meetups
• Choose FI Community
• Mr. Money Mustache Forums/ Meetups

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Good morning, friends!

I’m wrapping up the re-design of Budgets Are Sexy today so this note will be a bit shorter, but still wanted to hit you as I came across a bunch of great articles this week that I think you’ll enjoy (posted down below, as always).

I’ve had a TON of fun coming up with new designs and scrapping all the old stuff from the site, but now the hard part is here tying up all the lose ends and makings sure it’s ready for the world – the worst!! I’m great at dong the 80-90% of projects, but it’s that last 10%+ that kills me. 😑

I think I channeled Pete’s new mantra of “funtimization” a bit too much, haha, and now I’m left with all the boring – but IMPORTANT – things on my plate… But it’s gotten me to this point so far, so I’m down with the philosophy!

Sometimes focusing on only the *fun* stuff is enough to get a project – or finances, even – off and rolling without getting bogged down in the minutia… Maybe try implementing it yourself if you’re currently stuck and see if it does the trick? He swears its now affected his entire work life “until the day that he dies,” lol, so maybe it’ll be just as dramatic for you ;)

At any rate, here’s a sneak peek of the new site:

What do you think?!

You can click around and see the other changes I’ve made so far too, like an updated about page, press page, a new podcasts page that highlights interviews I’ve done + all my old M.O.N.E.Y. show episodes!, a new hire me page, and more.

Still going through things and cleaning everything up, so if you see anything that’s wonky or can’t find something you wish stayed on the site and was helpful to you, do let me know and I’ll look into it!

THREE MORE DAYS ‘TIL LAUNCH!!!!

Gonna have something Monday, Wednesday, and Friday next week – with Friday being a fun little surprise for all long-time fans of the site ;) You won’t want to miss it. And in fact, if you re-sign up to our newsletter there you won’t! So be sure to do that!

Get Budgets Are Sexy posts emailed to you

Hope to see you there!! You’ll have to let me know if my writing style has changed over the years or if I’m still the same J. Money you remember ;) I *feel* the same inside, but maybe I write like a 40-year-old now?!

We’ll find out soon, haha… See you then!

XOXO,

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Favorite Reads This Week

Financial Slimming @ Humble Dollar — “The fact is, the more accounts we have and the more investments we own, the more precious time we have to lavish on them, and I can think of so many better ways to spend my time. Similar to donating or throwing away old possessions, I find it liberating to relinquish these various accounts, and I suspect my executor will also be grateful.”

Findings from 300 Millionaire Interviews @ ESI Money — “The principles are almost always the same, but their journeys are unique, which makes them interesting. In today’s post, I’m going to detail the stats behind the 300 millionaires who took significant time and effort to share their stories with us.”

Growing Up Poor (and How it Messed With My Mind) @ Get Rich Slowly — “As an adult, my experience has been markedly different than when I was a kid. I’ve gradually moved from poverty to middle class to upper middle class. In the physical world, I am now rich. But inside? I’m still that poor kid living in a trailer house. I am trapped by those thoughts and those emotions.”

What I Did Right and Wrong During the Growth Stock Massacre @ Freddy Smidlap — “I knew this can happen specifically to individual companies after a questionable quarterly report or some specific news or even. What caught me off guard was the violent move down in almost every single growth stock we owned! I must admit I was not mentally prepared for an 80% drop in our formerly largest holding, Shopify.”

The Hidden Costs of Being LGBTQ+ with the Debt Free Guys @ Her First $100k — “We were finance professionals, and yet together we had racked up $51,000 in credit card debt. We realized that there was not only an emotional and social cost to being gay – there was a financial one as well, and that cost was going to ruin our lives if we didn’t make a change.”

14 Reasons I’ve Been Able to Sustain Minimalism for 14 Years @ Becoming Minimalist – “Becoming a minimalist has never been my greatest goal in life—nor will it be. There are greater pursuits in life than simply trying to own less stuff. Minimalism, to me, has always been a means to an end. I want my life to make the greatest difference for the greatest number of people. Owning less frees me to do that.”

Early Financial Independence: Living Your Life in 4 Acts @ Play Louder! — “Many authors and screenwriters would agree that the most interesting stories deviate from the traditional 3-act structure. So I’m thinking that maybe our own lives should too! Hopefully this post will get you thinking, or at least curious, about how you can rewrite the 3-act story of your life, if you so choose.”

The Barista-Coast FIRE Strategy @ Money Flamingo — “With Coast FI, we cover our living expenses by working while our nest egg compounds in the background. The obvious downside is that we cannot touch our nest egg for a really long time.  With Barista FI, we can draw a regular annual income from our investment portfolio, but it is unlikely that we will ever become financially independent with this approach.  We can get the best out of both strategies and avoid their main disadvantages by combining them.”

Financial Greenwashing: How To Avoid Being Tricked @ Bravely Go — “Greenwashing is the practice of companies saying they’re environmentally friendly to sell their product, but behind the scenes are actually making zero sustainable efforts.  Financial greenwashing is the money version of that- when banks, investment brokerages, mutual funds, or fintech products pose as sustainable while actually being environmentally harmful.”

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Book of The Week

Gotta give a shout to Nick’s new book out on the scene: Just Keep Buying: Proven ways to Save Money and Build Your Wealth.

I haven’t cracked it open yet, but I keep hearing – and seeing – good things, so I already know it’s worth picking up. Particularly because his blog is one of the only ones I subscribe to where I devour almost every single post :) So if you’re not in the mood to read a whole book anytime soon, check out his blog instead:

Of Dollars and Data

But here’s more about the book if you’re interested: In Just Keep Buying, popular finance blogger Nick Maggiulli crunches the numbers to answer the biggest questions in personal finance and investing, while providing you with proven ways to build your wealth right away.

Five things this book will teach you:

1. Why you need to save less than you think
2. Why debt isn’t good or bad
3. How to survive (and thrive) during a market crash
4. Why saving up cash to “buy the dip” isn’t a good idea
5. Why you shouldn’t max out your 401(k)

Read more: Just Keep Buying

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News Around The Community

Lastly, here’s a bunch of stuff I flagged going around the community this week:

• Julia Ubbenga @ No Sidebar welcomed home a baby girl: Emelia
• Financial Mechanic celebrates 1 year living abroad in Amsterdam
• Stop Ironing Shirts celebrates (and ponders) 3 years of FIRE
• Lee Huffman from Bald thoughts celebrates 4 years since quitting his job and going out on his own (which he very much does not regret!)
• The AOC duo shares pics and stories from traveling across the country in their new Airstream Trailer! Looks so fun!!

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Good morning fellow friends!!

Another week down, another week closer to your Best Life since I last emailed!! You still making moves over there?? At least one of them? :)

If not, your mission this weekend is to cross off *one* thing that gets you closer to your dream lifestyle, whether it has to do with money, living arrangements, friendships, cars, clutter, lovers (ow ow!), or anything else that’s been on your heart lately. Then if you’re feeling ballsy enough, shoot me a note once you cross it off so I can give you a virtual high five! 👊 (or apparently a fist bump! lol..)

As for me, you know I’m still rollin’ high on life and steroids over here 🤣 I swear it feels like I have caffeine flowing through my veins 24/7 and Gawd I hope it doesn’t stop anytime soon… I’m getting so much stuff done!!

In fact, let’s start there with the latest news –

1) GIVING CARDS ARE BACK!!!! Where we hand out $20 gift cards for people to go out and do GOOD in their communities ❤️ Followers of Rockstar Finance and All-Star Money last Xmas will recall this project, and while it’s always been a fun side thing we’ve done attached to one of our larger projects, it’s now officially it’s *own* with hopes of it continuing on and growing even larger over the years.

Take a peek here –> GivingCards.org

I’m taking a lessor role in this project and helping out as the main advisor to it, but it’s being led my best friend/biz partner, Nate St. Pierre, who originally came up with this idea for me years ago for Rockstar, and whom long term followers will remember from our Love Drop days circa 2010!

If anyone’s interested in participating in the project though in some way, just hit reply to this email or reach out directly to Nate, and we’ll connect you up and add you to the party! We literally just soft-launched it yesterday so it’s SUPER in its early stages even though we’ve proven the concept over the years and know how much love it pours into the world…

It’s about the money, but it’s really not – it’s more about getting people to stop and *think* about how big of a difference they can make without actually needing that much money at all.

We’ve seen people take the concept and turn it into bigger movements in their community, we’ve seen people accidentally 10x the amount when their friends/family get word of their project idea, and we’ve even seen recipients of the love turn around and then pay it forward to someone less fortunate than even them – even though they can barely spare a dollar! It really is such a beautiful concept, and super proud to be a part of it all these years 🙏🙏

You can see some of the creative things people have done with only $20 here: givingcards.org/stories

And then here are all the ways you can participate if you would like!!

• Support the project financially (patreon.com/givingcards)
• Volunteer a skill of yours (email me!)
• Bring the idea to your business/job to do an event with us! (Work with us!)
• Share it across your social channels/newsletters to help get the word out 👍
• Grab a card to Do Good (givingcards.org/request **cards limited at the moment, but hoping to have more once the word spreads and people support us :))

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In other fun news…

#2. My podcast with Grant Sabatier (Millennial Money) just dropped! — This is a very fun – high energy! – show we recorded last week covering everything from my “awakening” after my mysterious disease, the value of community, selling/re-acquiring my blog, life transitions, my latest obsession at 42, and why I blew up all my old habits and systems to reset.

If you’re looking for some good ear candy, check it out! It’s about 40 mins long:

EP38: Second Chance at Life w/ J. Money

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And then the bigger announcement for the week….

#3. I OFFICIALLY OWN BUDGETS ARE SEXY AGAIN!! AHHHH!!!!

I signed the contract Wednesday, wired the $$$$ yesterday, and today woke up with the full realization of what I just did… And can’t be more excited!! Nervous as hell, but excited!!

It’ll still be a week or so until I get it all xfered over and redesign wrapped up (it’s going to look so clean and clutter-free and LEGIBLE!!), but of course you’ll be the first to know once it’s out the door and back in action… Shooting for a re-launch two Mondays from now, June 13th 🤞

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And those are the biggies for now! Hope all your projects and goals and life stuff is going well!

Remember, if you’ve been slacking, take some time this weekend to do *one* thing that gets you closer to your ultimate lifestyle. Pick up the phone, shoot out an email, do 10 minutes of research – doesn’t have to be anything too major, just do SOMETHING which is always better than NOTHING! :) Then tell me what you did!

Favorite articles, and community news!, from the week are posted below…

Have a productive happy weekend!!

XOXO,

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Favorite Reads This Week:

Why Your Future Is Going To Be Awesome @ 1500 Days — “When I first discovered FIRE, I dove in and started consuming All. The. Things. I devoured the information and embraced FIRE without hesitation. But, one thing about index funds bothered me. I understood how index funds worked and why they’re better; it’s very difficult to pick single stocks over the long-term. However, there was something that I didn’t understand: why does VTSAX go up and to the right over the long-term?”

Buy High Sell Never @ Humble Dollar – “Remember Bob when investing during volatile markets, such as the one we’re currently in. If you’re buying stocks today, you have already outdone Bob. But don’t forget the secret to Bob’s success.”

Introducing The Lazy Man Rule of 20 @ Lazy Man and Money — “One of my good friends has an Investment Policy Statement (IPS) that she loves. An IPS puts down in writing how you are going to invest in advance of any market conditions. The beauty is that once you have your philosophy in black and white you simply have to just execute it.”

Spreadsheet Tools I’m Using to Achieve Financial Independence @ Poorer Than You — “A lot of people credit “pay yourself first” as the tactic to fast track them to financial independence. I think that’s great, if you have a really steady income and you can predict ahead of time how much you’ll have to save, and can put it aside before other bills. But me? I’ve had a variable income for most of my adult life. But I figured out a way to make “pay yourself first” work even if I don’t have steady, predictable income: I pay myself first and last. With a “Savings Snowball.”

Bored with LeanFI, FatFI, PovertyFI? @ Reddit (FIJERK) – “Inspired by someone’s comment yesterday about achieving DemonFI ($666/mo SWR), I’ve come up with some new FI levels to aspire to on our collective journey.”

Just Because You Use an Item Doesn’t Mean You Need to Keep It @ Becoming Minimalist – “There is freedom to be found in realizing you don’t need to keep everything you use. In my opinion, “What would I use if I didn’t own this item?” is a much more helpful question to ask than “Do I use it?”“

Sorry, Collectibles Are Terrible Investments @ Full Stack Economics – ”This is the central paradox: if you’ve heard of a collectible, you’re already too late. But collectors and their promoters will often blur the distinction between rare items and common ones, in order to draw new people in.

Scambaiters: Meet the Modern-Day Heroes Who Scam Scammers @ Get Rich Slowly – “I have zero patience for scammers. Zero. I believe they deserve the harshest possible punishments. But, as Rober mentions in one video, it’s like playing whack-a-mole. You put one scammer out of business and five more rise to take his place.”

Favorite Video This Week!

Romano Tours – SNL via YouTube – “Joe Romano (Adam Sandler) clarifies what his tours of Italy can and cannot do for customers.” Hat tip to Apex Money finding this one as I missed the last SNL show :) So true on all accounts this video, whether on vacation or after having hit FI!! You’re still YOU when you get there – your problems don’t magically disappear!!

Some News Around The Community

Lastly, here’s a bunch of bloggers celebrating some big milestones around the community… Always interesting to hear how people fare once they hit FIRE and what they thought would be different or not when actually living it!

And of course similar to the above video, it’s never all sparkles and rainbows even if you’ve mastered the Money Game… There are so many other Games we need to manage in our life!! Money is just one of them!

• Monevator: FIRE Update: One Year Anniversary
• Rich Frugal Life: Early Retirement Update: The Second Year of Freedom
• Retirement Manifesto: 4 Lessons From 4 Years of Retirement
• Retire by 40: 10 Years After Early Retirement
• Mad Fientist: The Best Advice from Mr. Money Mustache (In celebration of Brandon’s podcast hitting 10 years!)

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