Morning!

Hope your lives and wallets got a bit more full this week! It does feel like things are finally starting to get a little better in the world, doesn’t it?? Even if it’s slow and gradual? :)

A quick note before we get to the articles this week:

We’re hiring at All-Star Money! We’re looking for a part-time Community Manager to join the team, initially helping us out with content creation/distribution and engagement across our social channels and newsletters, and then secondarily helping with marketing campaign development and execution.

And in a perfect world, this person will come from the PF Community here we all enjoy and love so much :) So if you’re interested or know someone you think would make a good fit, please pass them our way to apply! Details can be found here: https://www.fool.com/allstarmoney/jobs/

Also – if you’re into podcasts – I recorded one recently with Andrew Stotz whose entire show is all around investing FAILS, lol… How brilliant is that???! And of course many of you will know what my biggest one was, which later went on to completely change my life – and money, friends, career, mindset, everything! Proving yet again how fails aren’t always the worst thing in the world :)

You can listen to the story here, as well as other things I’ve learned about money and life over the years. It’s fairly short at 33 mins:

Ep348: J. Money – Break Free From the Crowd to Make
Better Financial Decisions

Now to my favorite articles from the week!

Sports Cards Collection: How To Inventory, Appraise, and Sell To Make Money by OMG My Money – This is part I of a 4 part series where a new blogger friend of mine is going to share the process of liquidating a card collection from start to finish! In particularly, MY card collection from when I was a kid!! Which I’ve been trying to get rid of for years now, but both emotional attachment – and not knowing the best way to sell them? – kept blocking me along the way. As soon as I saw this finance blog which also writes about collecting I knew there was hope so I reached out and now here we are! My guestimation was that the entirety of it all was worth somewhere around $500, so we’ll see how close (or not) I was! :)

What I Learned From Collecting Basketball Cards via Budgets Are Sexy — Going through the above reminded me of a post I wrote a few years ago on my cards (WOW – 10 years ago actually!!!). “GIVE YOUR MONEY A PURPOSE! Whether it’s for debt, college, a new couch – it doesn’t matter. If you can get into the habit of making your money do the things you want it to do, rather than lumping it all together just for the sake of saving, I think you’d come to have a much better appreciation for it like I did.”

How the Bottom-Dollar Effect Can Help Curb Your Spending via Money Ning — “Basically, when we spend the last of our resources on a product, we end up feeling much less satisfied with it. Here’s a breakdown of the bottom-dollar effect and how you can harness it to make better spending decisions…”

5 Lies About DIYing We’re Seriously Sick of Hearing via Bitches Get Riches — “This project can be done in a weekend! … A weekend on the Island of Mermaids, in Never-Never Land, where a single weekend lasts ten thousand years.”

Why You Need an Untouchable Day Every Week via Harvard Business Review — “Some days it can feel impossible to escape constant meetings and phone calls that get in the way of your personal productivity. Here’s one method for getting back some of that precious time.”

Make Fewer Things Matter via The Finance Buff — “Making fewer things matter helps you zero in on things that really matter. It also helps you ward off FOMO and sales pitches. FOMO and sales pitches always try to grab your attention by saying you’re making a mistake.”

Why I Did My Own Death Cleaning at 39 via No Sidebar — “Death cleaning goes a step beyond decluttering in that once you decide the things that you want to keep, you provide guidance to your loved ones as to what to do with those items after you die.”

And lastly, a Financial Freedom Recipe by Penny Pinching Ninja ;)

• 1 Pinch: Not having debt
• 1/2 Dollop: Living below our means
• 2 Dashes: Consistently investing the difference
• Whisk all ingredients together and bake for 15 years.
• **For best results, bake for life!

Happy baking! 💰

// Cupcakes up top by Amna Wasim from Pixabay
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Good morning, friends!

Hope you had a fabulous week over there! It’s been quite eventful in the Money household the last couple of days getting surprise after surprise after surprise, and not all horrible ones! Haha…

First, Mrs. Money and I *both* got alerted that we could get the Covid vaxx out of nowhere when we assumed it wouldn’t happen until at *least* summer?! Then I get a note that a rare plot of land has opened up in the cemetery I want to be buried at (don’t laugh – everyone’s DYING to get in!!! 😂), and then literally hours later we find out that a house in our dream community is coming on the market soon and we might be able to get a sneak peek before the chaos ensues…

(And wow has the chaos ensued in the real estate market here in Virginia!  The last place we looked at had 8 offers come in within 48 hours, of which half of them got into bidding wars with each other AND were waiving home inspections and appraisals and even first born children! It’s no joke out there!! Lol…)

We’ll see how it all turns out, but as long as that Covid/Cemetery combo is a happy coincidence and NOT a premonition, I’ll be one happy dude ;)

But enough about me… Below are my favorite reads (and watches) from the week, and all of them give some dose of knowledge or entertainment or a little bit of both! My apologies in advance if you’re following All-Star Money and already seen half of these… I’ll continue to share non-$$$ articles in these newsletters as well, but now that I’m curating full-time there will probably be some overlap so I don’t burn myself out ;) They’ll always be stuff I love though, so hopefully you find them just as enjoyable!

Peace, love, and blessings ☮️ 💙🙌

*******

Favorite reads this week:

Money is Stored Energy via Monevator — “I think of money as stored energy. You work, beg, borrow, steal, or otherwise obtain money. You put it aside – store it. Later you discharge the power and make something happen.”

7 Ways We Misprice Purchases via Data Driven Investor — “Think of the number zero before considering any purchase — that’s the amount you will spend if you opt not to make the purchase at all. Doing so will prime your brain not to overestimate prices.”

The Power of Low Expectations via Get Rich Slowly — “Just as you can increase your saving rate by improving income and/or lowering expenses, you can deliberately increase your happiness by improving your circumstances and/or lowering your expectations.”

Ergodicity: The Coolest Idea You’ve Never Heard of via The Best Interest — “I have a 100-sided die. I’ll roll the die and you pick a number. If it lands on any other number than your number, then you win $1000. But if it lands on your number, then Mike Tyson punches you in the face and takes your money.”

Why “Can I Afford It?” is a Terrible Filter via Becoming Minimalist — We often find ourselves debating a purchase because we’ve considered what benefit the purchase will bring into our lives. But rarely do we take the time to honestly evaluate what benefits might arise if we said no.

The Effect of “Mental Subtraction” by VIA Institute on Character — “How often do you take time to “smell the roses” in your life? This means thinking about all of the people, things and experiences that make you happy and feeling a sense of appreciation for how they impact you. Want to know a great way to do this? Imagine your life without it.”

I Tried to Get Rich Off Dogecoin and All I Got Was This Lousy Blog Post via Government Worker FI — “I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, and I don’t do drugs. Really, I’m a boring person. But now and then I like to gamble a bit. ”

Favorite video this week:

Turkish Garbage Collectors Make a Library Out of Trash via YouTube — Shout out to J.D. Roth of Apex Money for finding this gem!! What a cool way to literally turn trash into treasure!! :)

*******

// Pic up top by Augusto Ordonez via Pixabay
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G’afternoon friends!!

Hope you’re having a good start to the almost-weekend! :) Lots of great reads to share with you today, but before we get to those I just wanted to THANK YOU for all the kind words and encouragement this week. The launch of All-Star went off really well, and it’s been great to have something to be excited about again!

So thank you!! And if you missed it, you can learn more about the new site on this interview I just did with the other J from Budgets Are Sexy:

J. Money Is Alive!And He Launched a New Curation Site… All-Star Money!

We also cover:

• How semi-retirement has been
• Whether I miss blogging or not
• The state of the personal finance blogosphere
• My current net worth (!)
• And a bunch of new habits I picked up in my ever persistent quest of self-improvement :) Like cutting down my coffee intake to only *one* cup a day! (Gasp!)

If you’ve missed me around these parts, I think you’ll enjoy it :) I tried to be as raw as possible…

In other news, I’ve added up some more collections to PF Swagger! My curation site of the best *merch* in personal finance, lol… (Are you sensing a theme yet??)

If you’re ever in the need for kick ass shirts or stickers that show off your love of finance, I hope you’ll check it out and support the small businesses in our community 🙏 🙏

Here are some of the latest additions:

And those are all my updates! If anything new or exciting is going down in your world, hit reply as I’d love to hear about it!

In the meantime, below are my favorite reads I’ve come across lately, both financial and otherwise. Hopefully you find a gem or two that inspires you :)

Your online fiend forever,

*******

Favorite articles around the web:

The Joy of a Legacy Letter via Humble Dollar — “A couple of times a year, I reread Mom’s legacy letter, written 14 years ago. Her wisdom and advice still speak to me today. How many times do you think I have revisited my mother’s legal will? Never.”

How I Get Paid to Drink Coffee! via Studenomics — “My goal in life is to get paid to drink coffee and I found a way to make this happen. I recently launched a coffee crawl as an official experience on the Airbnb platform. Tourists (and anyone in general) can sign up to do my coffee tour to drink coffee with me at unique shops in my community.”

Dear Daughter, Don’t be a Fruit Cup Girl via New Orleans Mom — “My mom wanted her three girls to be independent, confident, and definitely not reliant on good ‘ol Johnny to open our fruit cup. Fruit Cup Girl became an adjective in our house growing up. She would call us out for not stepping up to the plate. Helplessness was not allowed. The simple line, “Don’t be a fruit cup girl,” is what she would say.”

Souvenir Yourself via Medium — “This post is intended to advise those shopping for themselves while traveling and is comprised of examples that make me smile and remember a fun adventure or locale when I encounter them. They are all designed to fit any budget, and ultimately act as a form of sustainability. ”

Margaret M. DeAdder via The Chronicle Herald — No idea who this person is, but her obituary is is amazing! “Margaret Marilyn DeAdder, professional clipper of coupons, baker of cookies, terror behind the wheel, champion of the underdog, ruthless card player, and self-described Queen Bitch, died on Tuesday, January 19, 2021.”

And then lastly, and don’t ever forget it…

“You don’t need to do anything at all – not today, not next year, not in your lifetime – in order to have value as a human being. You’re amazing and worthy simply because you’re here.” – Financial Superstar

*******

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*Cat doodle up top by cundrastudio

I’m baaaaaaaaaaaaaack! :)

And guess what??

My new project finally launched!! ZOMG!!!

Introducing All-Star Money: where we scan over 1,500 personal finance blogs a day and feature our Top 3 favorites on it – from budgeting to financial independence to investing to everyday decisions to best maximize your life, and your money.

It’s like 2017 all over again – just in prettier wrapping! :)

And if you want to get them as you’re having your coffee every morning, sign up to the daily newsletter! –> allstarmoney.com/newsletter

(If you’re wondering what happened to “Soapbox,” we re-branded halfway through which is why we were so delayed in getting the project out. But it’s much cooler to be an All-Star, right?! :))

Here’s a screenshot of the site with today’s articles featured:

Check it out and let me know what you think!! And if you’re a blogger, be sure to submit your best work over for us to review –> allstarmoney.com/submit

It’s so surreal being back at this after so many years off… I remember launching Rockstar Finance back in the day and so many people either laughing at it or not even “getting” it. And 8 years later curation is not only still a “thing” but continues to prove how valuable it is for the community!

So needless to say, I’m delighted to be back :) Yes to have a project again to work on, but also just to be home with my family once more and spreading the inspiration. There’s SO MUCH good stuff from bloggers big and small out there that never gets seen! So what a privilege to be able to put them front and center to the world!

And gotta give credit to my partners at The Motley Fool too for believing in it and seeing the beauty. It’s one thing to like an idea, but a whole other to fully support it (and me!!) to make the mission happen. So thank you SO much, Fools!! And for doing all the boring stuff so I can concentrate on the fun parts!! ;)

So I’m back, and I’m ready to party!! Thanks to everyone who’s stuck around! :) I’ll try and be better about putting out these newsletters regularly…

XOXO,

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Thank you for all your support this year!

Especially as I transitioned from blogging into semi-retirement/free-to-do-as-i-want-now-but-feels-so-weird-territory! One of the scariest moves I’ve ever made, but which went 10x smoother because of you all :)

And going forward, you’ll be hearing a LOT more from me as we head into 2021 and we (FINALLY!!!) launch our new curation project with The Fool! Among other fun – and philanthropic – things up my sleeves.

But until then, stay safe, stay happy, and of course keep staying on top of that $$$!!! Thanks for being such a big part of my world! :)

XOXO,

PS: I’ve added up two more collections on PF Swagger: stickers and shirts from Playing With FIRE (check out the “My Other Vehicle is a 401(k)” shirt! Lol), and stickers, mugs, and shirts from Bitches Get Riches. Maybe there’s a perfect – nerdy – gift for someone there who shares your love of finance? ;)

*******

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