Good morning!!

Happy Halloween Weekend!!

Y’all dressing up or hitting any wild parties??! I wish I could say I was, but unless you count chaperoning a thousand kids as they hit event after event after event all weekend as juicy, I most certainly will not be lol…

Though I did find these killer shoes a few days ago I’ll be celebrating with ;)

Aren’t they just perfect for Halloween??? Super cheap too as they were “lightly used” (I love vintage stores so much…)

As for my costume, I’ll probably just go w/the tried and true “skeleton rock star.” Which consists of basically just wearing a black shirt with skeleton bones on it and rocking my ‘hawk. Though perhaps this year with the shoes addition I’ll call myself a “killer rock star”? Hmm…

If you’re still looking for some good – and frugal – costumes, here are a few of my favorites from an old blog post of mine: 16 Last-Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas

• Static Cling – Wear normal clothes and safety pin socks and lint to it!
• Christmas Tree – My all-time favorite costume ever: Wear all green, wrap yourself in Christmas lights, and then plug yourself into the wall :)
• Chick magnet – Tape a bunch of Barbie dolls to yourself. Or use pictures of hot girls!
• Smarty Pants – Tape smarties candies to your PANTS
• The Tanning Bed – Tape glow-sticks up and down your arms. Then go around the party, entrapping people in your embrace: Instant tanning bed.
• Pinterest board! Dress in all white, then hang a cork board around your neck with pictures of cute houses, tattoos, book cases and whatever else people like to “pin”
• Random Hook-up – Drape a lot of random colored extension cords around you, haha…

Whatever you end up going as though, I want pics please :)

Or you can just stay home and binge Budgets Are Sexy all night long – that’s probably the best *treat* for you… Less calories and not nearly as scary! Yum! 🎃

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Posts on Budgets this week:

The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness — A review of Gucci’s latest book on becoming better versions of ourselves… Not nearly as good as his Autobiography I devoured earlier, but still chalk full of great takeaways that I share here.

The Power of Rewards (AKA In Which I Bribe My Kids to Behave…) — It may not be at the top of the Parenting 101 handbook, but boy does bribing sure work 😂 Here are a handful of examples I’ve incorporated into our household lately.

*To get these posts automatically emailed to you on the day they come out, sign up to my blog newsletter here.

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Favorite Articles Around The Community:

My First 6 Months of Early Retirement Sucked Shit: What They Don’t Tell You about FIRE @ Bitches Get Riches – “My body and my subconsciousness understood exactly what was happening to me. “You are very, very depressed,” they told me with crystal clear enunciation. “Sleep ten hours a day, invest 200 hours into a video game you don’t particularly like, and put cheese on EVERYTHING until this passes.””

Want to Be a Lazy Seeker of Financial Independence? Invest in Your 20s. @ We Want Guac — “Almost all of today’s most famous investors are wrinkly old fartbags. This tends to give the impression that A. it’ll take you multiple decades and unfathomable luck ‘til you can enjoy wealth, B. all the good investing opportunities dried up decades ago, or C. young people just shouldn’t try to get ahead until they’re older and wiser. Not so! It’s actually the youngest investor in the room that’s the most powerful.”

Diversify Your Friends And Financial Goals @ A Teachable Moment – “Studies prove that having friends attracts more than good times. Good friends boost the immune system and help protect you from catching a common cold.  Different types of friends provide the most significant value add.”

Waste a Few Hours, so You Don’t Waste Years @ Darius Foroux — “Being productive doesn’t mean utilizing every waking minute to do productive things.  Sometimes, spending a day doing various things around the house, maybe taking a walk or doing some reading, can actually be more useful. These moments help us examine our lives.”

Expectations and Reality @ Collab Fund — “Imagine a life where almost everything gets better but you never appreciate it because your expectations rise as fast as your circumstances. It’s terrifying, and almost as bad a world where nothing gets better.”

My Favorite Nomad Travel Tools! @ A Purple Life — “Somehow I’m going into the 3rd year of my retirement and my nomad travel life. During that time, I’ve amassed an arsenal of tools to help me on the road. Previously, I discussed general tools I love to use in my day-to-day life that help it seem like I have my shit together 🙂, but today I want to focus on things that help me be a more effective traveler.”

Ultimate Detailed Price Battle!!! Is Shopping At A Warehouse Club Really Saving Anything? @ Chief Mom Officer — “When I remove all the items I couldn’t buy at Aldi’s because they didn’t have an equivalent or where I wouldn’t want the alternative option for my family, it’s clear that shopping at BJ’s is the winner for us. Those items would cost $285 at BJ’s compared with $333 at Aldi’s. The cost savings is over $100 when compared with Target, and almost $200 when compared with Price Chopper!”

(Hat Tip to Lazy Man and Money who came out with a different conclusion when he analyzed the costs for his family… How about you?)

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News & Nuggets Around The Community:

Interesting news and clips that caught my eye this week…

• Ali from All Options Considered celebrates 4 years of being FI– woo!
• “It’s as hard to start and run a small business as it is to start a big one. You will suffer the same toll financially and psychologically as you bludgeon it into existence… So if you’re going to dedicate your life to a business, which is the only way it will ever work, you should choose one with the potential to be huge.” – Stephen Schwarzman via Darius Foroux
• “When you buy a home to live in with a plan to later rent it out, you’re doing two things at once. You have to consider the property more from an investment perspective and less from an emotional “I love this house” perspective. This isn’t always possible (or advisable), but, if you live in a hot rental market and have aspirations of building a passive income stream, buying a home that can be turned into a rental can be a great option.” – Frugalwoods
• “I was at a gas station filling up when a man came up to me, excited to see the car I was driving. He gushed over how cool he thought the car was and asked how I could afford it. Embarrassed by the attention and eager to shift the focus to something else, I truthfully explained that I had eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for an entire year to pay for the car. Upon hearing that, his smile waned and I could tell that he doubted the sacrifice was worth it.” – Humble Dollar
• “Decades ago, when I was in Sales, the top contact at my largest customer made a comment to me that I’ll never forget. I was moving on to a new job, and Fred gave me what turned out to be one of the biggest compliments of my life. “You’ve always looked me in the eyes,” he said. “If someone doesn’t make eye contact with me, my experience has taught me to not trust them. You make excellent eye contact, and you’ve been one of the people I’ve trusted most in my career.” When you’re talking with someone who matters in your life, look into their eyes.” – The Retirement Manifesto

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New Job Opp on The Scene!

(From my friends over at the FIRE app, Topia)

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Get paid to think about FI!

We’re on the lookout for an ultra-passionate person from the FI community who wants to join Topia to lead and manage the Topia community. If you love FI and want to get paid to spend your days, thinking, talking and breathing FI then look no further! This could be a full-time or part-time role (min. 15 hours a week).

What this role entails:

• Regular chats with Logan & Grant to talk through the monthly community plan and give updates on how the community is doing
• Drive daily FI conversations, engagement and discussions within the Topia community
• Plan, schedule and manage virtual events within the community
• Find and post FI content into the relevant areas of the Topia community

If you think this could be a good fit please reach out to logan@topia-app.com

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And that’s a wrap!

Hope you get more treats than tricks this weekend! 👻

 

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Good morning!

Your neighborhood friend and curator here ;)

Got an exceptional collection of reads and new apps/courses on the scene for you to peruse today, and hopefully one of them was exactly what you were looking for!

Either way, always glad to be back with you here on Fridays and I do wish you a most blessed – and financially rewarding! – weekend up ahead.

Keep grinding if you’re in the grinding phase, and keep relaxing if you’re in the freedom/”enough” phase! Gotta be able to enjoy those spoils or you’ll never soak up the beauties this wonderful life has to offer ✨

Yours in beautiful peace and pumpkins,

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Posts on Budgets this week:

The Investment Club — Ugo stops by the blog to share his experience being in an Investment Club for over 10 years! Such a fantastic way to connect with other like-minded people and make some $$$ in the process.

4 New Courses/Apps in The Community 🔥🔥🔥 — People are hustling in our space! They just put out a new FIRE app, a FIRE course, a Proofreading course, and a Certified Financial Trainer® course – check ’em out.

PS: to get these posts emailed to you the day they come out, sign up to my blog newsletter here.

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I was also featured in this roundup:

What the Money Experts Want You to Know About Financial Wellness @ Money For The Mamas — “134 personal finances experts share their experiences, best tips, and advice on how you can achieve financial wellness.”

I was asked what the #1 financial tip/hack/thing I wish people knew, and here was my answer: “That you can create your Dream Lifestyle and not have to do what everyone else is telling you to do or doing themselves! The whole point of money is to craft a life you enjoy living, so figure out what *that* is first, and then work backwards towards accomplishing it.”

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Favorite Articles Around The Community:

How Ana Paid Off $100K of Medical Debt @ Her First $100k – “What I thought would be a quick visit to the emergency room to get a cast suddenly turned into a three day hospital stay with around the clock care – a stay that would have to be paid out of pocket because I didn’t have health insurance.”

10 Years of Early Retirement – Ask Me Anything @ Go Curry Cracker – “Here are 10 things I’ve noticed in my decade of whatever it is I’m doing.” (Be sure to check out the comments afterwards as there’s lots of great questions/answers in there!)

7 Things I Don’t Regret Spending Money on as a Minimalist @ Rich In What Matters – “The deeper I’ve journeyed into minimalism, the more purposeful my purchasing behavior has become. What I spend money on now communicates what I value and supports my life.”

The Best Books on Living an Intentional, Happy Life (Before and After FI!) @ Money Flamingo – “I often get asked which books I recommend, especially for those who are considering taking an alternative, more intentional route to FI or are ready to downshift. So in today’s post, I want to share some of the books I find most relevant and helpful for people who want to live great lives along the path to FI (and beyond!).”

How to Buy Unclaimed Amazon or USPS Packages @ Wallet Hacks – “It may surprise you that not every ordered item arrives at the buyer’s doorstep as it may get lost in the mail for various reasons.   Instead of restocking the items or burying them in a landfill, retailers sell them at often discounted rates. As a result, you may be able to buy single items or entire pallets of goodies.”

The Worst Kind of Financial Advice @ A Wealth of Common Sense – “Useful personal finance advice should never make you feel bad about yourself, make it sound like it’s easy, make you believe you can become rich overnight. And it should always take into account your personal circumstances.”

Present Bias: How It Affects Us and How to Overcome It @ Becoming Minimalist — “Present bias is the tendency for humans to settle for a smaller reward in the present rather than wait for a larger reward in the future, in a trade-off situation. It describes the trend of overvaluing immediate rewards, while putting less worth in long-term consequences.”

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News & Nuggets Around The Community:

Interesting news and clips that caught my eye this week…

• Femme Frugality celebrates 4 years of her book, “The Feminist Financial Handbook”
• “I turn our hangers backwards at the beginning of the year and as we wear each item I turn the hanger forwards. At the end of the year I can see what hasn’t been worn, and we donate those items.” – Metro.co.uk
• “Some people turn to alcohol, drugs, or gambling, but when I’m stressed and overwhelmed by life, I turn to organizing and decluttering.” – One Frugal Girl
• “The financial fire drill is pretty simple. You build a baseline budget, i.e., the absolute minimum you need to survive. That means basic shelter, utilities, medical care, food, clothing and debt service (installment loans, child support). The idea isn’t to starve in an unheated garret. It’s to figure out how little you could spend without jeopardizing health, safety and solvency.” – Surviving and Thriving
• “Former U.S. President Barack Obama credits his choice of uniform with his increased productivity. As he told Vanity Fair in a 2012 interview: You’ll see I wear only gray or blue suits.  I’m trying to pare down decisions. I don’t want to make decisions about what I’m eating or wearing, because I have too many other decisions to make. You need to focus your decision-making energy. You need to routinize yourself. You can’t be going through the day distracted by trivia.” – Maximum Gratitude Minimal Stuff

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App of The Week:

“Topia” — The Financial Independence App

This bad boy comes from Grant Sabatier of Millennial Money (and “Financial Freedom” book fame), and Logan Leckie, an entrepreneur and FI fanatic.

Topia is a FREE app that helps you track your progress to FIRE, and pinpoints areas slowing you down… Comes with a community of users and mentors sharing tips too, and also allows you to tinker with your numbers to better understand how you can better reach your “utopia.”

More here for anyone interested –> topia-app.com

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And that’s a wrap!

Have a great weekend! ☕

 

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Good morning!!

THAT was a fast week, wasn’t it???!

I swear we’re getting older and older FAST up in here, lol… Sometimes I don’t know if I should just give up on working and start enjoying it all more in case I die today, or if I should keep going so Future Me can enjoy more of the fruits of my labor :) Though who am I kidding – I kinda don’t work much anyways these days so perhaps it’s more about just *appreciating* stuff more, haha…

Speaking of appreciating and death though – I had my follow up appointment w/ the Pemphigus specialist this week, and he said I’m looking fantastic!! There’s no scarring in my mouth or throat where the blisters were, my body’s coping well with all the medicines, my blood work looks great, and if all continues to go well over the next few months I won’t have to do the next batch of infusions come January.

And I haven’t had a single blister pop up in months!

So things are looking up in the health department these days… Though sadly I’m no longer high as a kite and full of obnoxious energy like I once was months ago, lol… I’m now down to 10mg/day of steroids vs 80 and definitely noticing the difference :) Though I can do without all the additional weight gain it’s spurred – I’m now 20 lbs overweight and can’t stop eating!!

Anyways, hope things are well and healthy with you over there, and I hope you enjoy the smattering of blog posts I’ve highlighted for you below 🙏🙏

Oh – and if you haven’t already entered the 401(k) $1,000 contest from the other week, make sure to get your entries in! It’ll soon be closing up and the odds are def. in your favor as they are giving out THREE awards of $1,000 each (!). Make it happen!!

XOXO,

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Posts on Budgets this week:

$10 or Under? Get it. — A money rule I have that keeps me sane! If something makes me happy or feel good (or look good), and costs $10 or under, I will buy it every time and not feel bad about it.

11 Reasons I Bought a Cemetery Plot Even Though I’m Still Very Much Alive — It’s true! I bought a cemetery plot at 40 years old and love so much that I did… Your turn next, please, so we can be death-pals! ☠️☠️☠️

PS: to get these posts emailed to you the day they come out, sign up to my blog newsletter here.

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Favorites Around The Community:

My Side Hustle (As a Professional Wrestler) @ The Humble Dollar – “Today, landing a wrestling contract is no longer the only route to financial success. In the last 10 years, a new type of professional wrestler has emerged—the true independent. They can make a living on the independent scene, or at least enough that they only require a part-time job to supplement their pay. ”

An Open Letter to the Dutch East India Company @ Poor. Choices. – “It’s the only place I know where the longer you stay, the wealthier you become. I can’t say the same for Target, the strip club, or any of my trips to a casino. It’s one giant real-time measurement of the world’s hopes and dreams, opinions, emotions, and predictions.”

Bank Bonuses That I Do Every Year @ Financial Panther — “Here are the bank bonuses I do every year. Some of the bonuses are more advanced than others or require a bit more thinking and planning, but all of them are generally doable for most people.”

How I Earned $75,000 By Dumping Health Insurance Without Losing Healthcare (or peace of mind) @ 1500 Days – “I’ve been intrigued by health care sharing organizations for a long time. They’re a way to get health care and avoid most of the nastiness that comes with Big Insurance. However, many of them come with compromises or strange rules. Why should health care be tied to religious beliefs? A couple of years ago, my good friend Bill told me about a non-religious (secular), health care sharing organization called Sedera. I grilled him for a while, trying to poke holes in the organization or find The Catch, but it turned out that Sedera is the real deal.”

This Isn’t Your Grandparents’ Recession @ Surviving and Thriving — “When the going gets tough, it’s tempting to invoke our grandparents and their tribulations during the Great Depression. I’m about to commit cultural heresy: A lot of their advice wouldn’t help us.”

Cemetery Plot Real Estate Flip is Successful @ REIClub — “One day I was looking through Craigslist and saw that there were ads for Cemetery Plots for sale by owners. I looked at one which was valued at $2900, but the owner was asking $1900. I immediately realized that the owner was motivated. I thought, what a great way to start practicing, so I researched the value and verified that it was worth $2900. I called and offered $1500.”

Most People Won’t @ Bryce.vc – “Most people won’t. Which means those that do change everything.”

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Podcasts of The Week:

I was on two podcasts this week :)

Budgets Are Very Sexy! Feat. J. Money @ The Financial Griot — “TFG is back from FinCon 2022 and the hype is real! Today’s episode the crew chats with J. Money (Budgets Are Sexy). J. Money is a successful blogger and entrepreneur; one of the pioneers of financial transparency in the digital space. We discuss his journey starting his blog Budgets Are Sexy to owning back his time by retiring. And sharing his thoughts on the value of financial happiness. Pay close attention to how Alainta is fangirl-ing.”

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J. Money on “Why Net Worth Tracking, Goal-Setting, and Budgets, are Sexy” @ Good Cents podcast — “On this episode of Good Cents, we’re tackling BIG money questions. What is the point of money if you don’t know what to do with it? How easy is it to save your first ten thousand dollars? What do you do after you saved it? Eric speaks with J. Money of Budgets are Sexy about why you should start tracking your net worth, strategies to start saving your first $10,000, and how to get started as a beginner investor. J. Money even gives Payactiv listeners exclusive access to helpful spreadsheets on his site to help you get started.”

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Reminder of The Week:

(Thx to Nate St. Pierre for this!)

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Have a great weekend!

You’re so much more than you think you are 🙌

 

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Happy Friday!!

Caught a lot of great articles in the space this week, and they’re all dumped below…

Hope you’ve been enjoying these since I came back! If not, just click that ‘unsubscribe’ link down below and as soon as I wipe up all my tears I’ll be sure to take you off the list ;)

Hope the week’s treated you well!

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Posts on Budgets this week:

6 Ways to Turbocharge Your Savings — A handful of things I do/did that’s really impacted our finances over the years!

The Story Behind “Statement Cards” — A lot of you commented on how much you loved those Statement Cards we gave away the other week, so I thought I’d dig up an interview I did with the founder of the cards, Stefanie O’Connell Rodriguez, to shed more light on the backstory. If you like what they’re about, please pass on the word to help her get more cards out there! 🙏🙏

I was also featured in a blog post over at The Money Principle this week:

Frugal Living: 60+ Tips for Living a Cheap(er) & Rich(er) Life — “One of my favorite lifestyle hacks is waking up at 5 am and getting the day started on YOUR OWN terms. I’m also a huge fan of thrift stores, not only for picking up name-brand quality stuff for pennies on the dollar but also for finding gems to flip for profit. Lastly, I 100% approve of spending money on coffee if it makes your life 10x better like it does for me, however, instead of splurging on lattes all the time I’ll save money by ordering what they call a “poor man’s latte” – drip coffee that you pour into a cup full of cream *first* so it mixes all up and froths as if it were a latte! Tastes almost as good.” – J. Money

PS: want to get my blog posts emailed to you the day they come out? Sign up to my blog newsletter here.

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Favorites Around The Community:

Happiness at Home @ Humble Dollar – “I’m all for the big experience, the search for adventure in a faraway place. I like savoring the anticipation of something new. But I also like making regular deposits to my happiness account here at home.”

7 Cool Resources for Your Mind, Body, and Wallet @ Route To Retire — “There are probably hundreds of great tools and resources that I’ve found helpful for my mind, body, or wallet. So I decided to just focus on a handful of my favorites today.”

Lessons From the Badass Muscular Neurobiologist @ Mr. Money Mustache — “Over the past few months, I have found myself settling into a new routine that seems to be getting better and better as the positive results feed back onto themselves. It has become so good that I thought it would be worth sharing and comparing notes with you.”

50 Ways to Be Ridiculously Generous—And Feel Ridiculously Good. @ Get It Done — “Here are 50 possibilities to inspire you. You could do one item from this list every day, 50 days in a row. It’s going to feel so good. And you’re about to become everyone’s favorite person.” [hat tip to Apex Money]

Before I Learned to Buy Nothing, I Tried to Purchase It All @ Women’s Personal Finance — “When you don’t know what to do, buy nothing. If there’s anything I’m certain of over the last 36 years, it’s this. The second thing I’m certain of is that younger me wouldn’t have believed a word of that first sentence.”

The Investor Opportunity Index Hits a Two-Year High @ The Reformed Broker — “I asked Michael to run the inverse of the S&P 500 and create the below charts. What you are seeing is the opportunity for new dollars invested. That opportunity is going up. Rapidly.”

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News From The Community:

Interesting news that caught my eye this week…

• Financial Mechanic retires at 29 (!!)
• Accidentally Retired releases the 8th FIRE Insights Survey
• Moriah Chace gets her dream position of Deputy Editor at Consumer Affairs!

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Clips From The Community:

Interesting clips that caught my eye this week…

• “A salary is like an addiction, enabling people to maintain a comfortable lifestyle at the cost of 40-50 hours per week.” – Retire Before Dad
• “Each new day brings with it an important choice: either we fill it with our best or we allow it to slip away. There is no other option—the hours are going to pass anyway.” – BecomingMinimalist.com
• “Social media has enabled the village idiots of every town and region to discover each other and band together in the millions. Society is actually regressing intellectually for the first time since the Dark Ages.” – TheReformedBroker.com
• “Never worry if your family will receive access to your financial data and accounts in case of an unforeseen event.  Kubera has an automated ‘Life Beat Check’ that can sense extended periods of account inactivity and send your portfolio to your beneficiary. Before sending, you’ll receive multiple prompts to which you can respond with just a click to reset the timer.” – Kubera.com via Wallet Hacks

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Sign of The Week:

Caught this in front of a local jewelry store, lol… Of course I had to go in and window shop ;)

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Happy Weekend 👊

 

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Good Morning! ☕

A fresh new day has arrived! What are you planning on doing with it??? :)

I was on a podcast recently, and at the end of it they asked me where people could find me and what my next goals were, and without hesitation I blurted out that I’m really not working on anything outside of just *staying alive*, lol…  I mean, I have the revamped blog and this newsletter of course, but instead of trying to promote all my stuff I decided to share a silly little ritual I do every morning instead.

Which is basically:

1. Shoot straight up as soon as I come to consciousness
2. Look from side to side to get my bearings and make sure I’m indeed alive!
3. Press my hands together to shoot off a quick note of “thanks” to whoever’s up there listening for granting me a brand new day 🙏

I pretty much do it out of habit now, and so far it’s working as I continue to wake up ;)

It also reminds me to focus more on the *important* stuff in life too when all trivial stuff tries taking over!! Which I still fall for, but much less in recent years since enacting this ritual of gratefulness.

And when I do get caught up, I try to harness the four magical words of Letting That $hit Go. I literally conjure up that image up there in my head, and almost immediately a little peace comes back into my life, haha… Shout to 5AM Joel for finding that gem, and feel free to steal and share around yourself!

Have a great day out there – thanks for being alive with me 🙌

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Posts on Budgets this week:

Share Your 401(k) Story For a Chance at $1,000! — Love your 401(k) and tell everyone you know to be invested in it too?! Make sure to apply to this year’s 401(k) Champion® Award contest where you can win one of three $1,000 cash prizes! Check out the post to learn more… (3 of the last 6 winners were BudgetsAreSexy readers btw, so the luck favors you! :))

10 Quick Hits 💰 — 10 timely financial tips by Consumer advocate and personal finance journalist, Rita R. Robison. Whose weekly newsletter I just started following as it’s excellent!! And something I rarely do!

PS: want to get my blog posts emailed to you the day they come out? Sign up to my blog newsletter here.

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Favorites Around The Community:

I Used My Emergency Fund, and I Liked It @ She Picks Up Pennies – “The first mistake we make when we talk about emergency funds is talk about making money from them. I have no interest in making money on my emergency fund, and neither should you. I don’t view it as an asset. Instead, I look at it as a safety device. It’s a form of insurance. I want it to exist and hope to never need it.”

The Power of a “What If We Didn’t Own This?” Bag @ Rich in What Matters – “The purpose of material possessions is to be used for some good. If we’re holding onto things that have no value, we are keeping them from fulfilling their true purpose in someone else’s life.  A “What If We Didn’t Own This?” Bag winnows out things from your home that, for you, no longer hold a purpose.”

Custer Had A Plan Too @ A Teachable Moment — “Your quest is finding what works and, more importantly, what helps. Anything else is a waste of time.”

How Will I Take Advantage of Today? @ Becoming Minimalist – “You and I are different, I’m sure, in countless ways:  Our family, our upbringing, our location, our career, our passions, our hobbies, our goals. But there is one thing that all of us have in common:  We woke up this morning.  And we have been provided this day to make the most of it.”

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Clips & News From The Community:

Interesting passages that caught my eye this week…

• Physician on FIRE ruminates on 3 years of being FIRE’d
• “Did you know… You can get rid of your negative thoughts by writing them down onto a piece of paper, then ripping that paper up and throwing it in the trash?  It’s true.  A bunch of studies prove that turning our thoughts into material objects —> increases or decreases our mental impact depending on what we physically do with them.  It works the same with positive thoughts… Writing them down on a piece of paper, and putting that paper in your pocket or saving in a personal drawer will strengthen the positive feelings.” – 5AM Joel
• “Did you know that $SBUX is a bank 🏦 that happens to sell coffee ☕️. The company has more than $1.5B in cash from its rewards and gift cards program. That amount is more than 85% of banks in the US. And get this…10% of the money is never used!” – @BuildingBread
• “No matter why one invests in income stocks, one way to evaluate potential picks is the so-called “The Chowder Rule“. The framework can be summarized like this:  The Chowder Rule is a rule-based system used to identify dividend growth stocks with strong total return potential by combining dividend yield and dividend growth.  It states that stocks are attractive when they offer a good combination of dividend yield and dividend growth — it does not make sense to look at only one of these.” – LazyManandMoney.com
• “The National Foundation for Credit Counseling offers real-time help for getting out of debt. Contact them at nfcc.org or 800-388-2227.” – Rita R. Robison

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Video of The Week

Jerry and Marge Go Large: 60 Minutes’ original story on the Selbees’ lottery loophole @ YouTube — “Jon Wertheim’s report on Jerry and Marge Selbee, a retired Michigan couple who made $26 million using “basic arithmetic” to crack the code on certain lottery games.”

Such a wild story!! It’s 15 mins long but well worth it if you’re into this type of stuff… Makes you wonder what other things are out there right now just waiting to be hacked (legally!). Shout to Apex Money for finding this gem.

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Happy Weekend ⚡

 

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