Morning!

Hope your summers are still treating you well! Can you believe all our kids will be back in school and summer will be over in a matter of weeks??

This will be the first time in 11 years that NONE of my boys will be at home as they’re all school aged now, and I’ll have way more free time than I’ll know what to do with… Exciting and sad at the same time! My squishy babies aren’t squishy babies anymore! :(

On the plus side – FALL IS COMING!! YUM! 🍂☕️🪵

And speaking of kids, I dropped my latest post on the blog this week and it’s all around trying to satisfy their “need” of having extra money to spend… Experiment #1 didn’t work too well, so we’ve now moved onto Experiment #2 ;)

You can read more about it here: No go for the poop!

I also recently went on a fun podcast w/ Captain Fi – an up and coming blogger/podcaster from Australia! – and you can catch our chat here –> Podcast | JMoney from Budgets are Sexy (I reveal a fun new side project on it!)

Stay cool out there!

*******

Articles I enjoyed the past couple of weeks:

The Past is Not True @ Sivers — “We think of the past like it’s a physical fact – like it’s real. But the past is what we call our memory and stories about it. Imperfect memories, and stories built on one interpretation of incomplete information. That’s “the past”.”

A Well Known Stranger @ Happily Disengaged — “I realize I’m saving money for someone else. I’m not saving money for me. I’m saving it for a person I will never know. A person I dream about and think about quite often, yet is just out of reach like a carrot dangling from a stick… This person I’m working so hard for is a sci-fi parallel world alter ego version of myself.”

Rich and Anonymous @ Collab Fund — “I once did some consulting for a family that was worth $8 billion. If you Googled their name, nothing came up. No Forbes list, no gala photos, no profiles, no Wikipedia pages … nothing… They figured out what so many other people – the rich, the middle class, the aspiring rich, and everyone in between – failed to recognize. They lived the most amazing life you could imagine, and they had virtually no social debt.”

The Return on Hassle Spectrum @ Of Dollars and Data — “Return on hassle is the idea that you need to consider the time and work associated with an investment in addition to its expected return. In the case of real estate investors, you have to factor in the mental and physical work associated with finding tenants, maintaining your properties, and taking on debt, among other things. These are all “hassles” that most traditional investments (i.e. stocks, bonds, etc.) don’t require.”

The Tightrope of Discipline @ More To That — “Ambition has its merits and pitfalls, but the key thing to consider is the texture of restlessness that accompanies it. If your mind is constantly occupied by what you have to do next, then you are always living for some imagined state.”

What to Know About Baby Carrots @ Food Network — A Twitter* friend shared this with me when I told the world I’m on a mission to eat an ENTIRE BAG OF BABY CARROTS before they expire – a feat never before been done 😂 This article goes into the history of them and it’s fascinating!! They certainly don’t grow that way!

*I mean X?

12 Things That Look Less Impressive the Older You Get @ No Sidebar — “I used to admire people with luxuries. Now I admire people with inner peace.”

*******

What I’m currently reading:

The Price of Liberty: The Public Debt of the American Revolution by William G. Anderson. I recently picked up a certificate from these revolutionary debt days, and found out this book not only lists a description of it in there (it’s from 1783!!), but also tells the backstory which is simply amazing… We were in SO. MUCH. DEBT. as a nation when we got started, but we climbed out of it to become a major force to reckon with! Even though we’re back to being indebted again, lol… Fun book for all you money/history nerds out there (though it’s rare and will cost you upwards of $100 for it)

*****

// Link to book is an Amazon affiliate Link
// For previous newsletters: Archives
// To connect further: @Twitter | @Facebook | @Instagram | @LinkedIn

Good morning!!

So here’s some big news: I just got myself a new job! Well, kinda sorta but not really – more like a fun side hustle ;) But why now when I’m technically “retired?” Check out my new blog post to find out!

Did I Just Get Myself a New Job?

(You’ll appreciate this one if you’re into board games)

In other news: I’ve had to go in for another round of infusions for my disease, but thankfully this time around we knew what to do and quickly implemented it so I can get back to the hilariously awesome (and handsome) gentleman you all know as J. Money :) And I’m already feeling better from it! Let’s just hope this time around it lasts *years* and not *months*, ugh…

At any rate, hope your Summer is shaping up nicely! That pic up top is the sun rising over the Outer Banks, NC we just came back from. Lots of swimming and surfing (and falling! lol) and spending quality time with the fam… I could honestly live there if I was forced to. There’s a mobile home park RIGHT ON THE BEACH which I’m sure is still hella expensive, but you’d get your minimalist life AND surf life combo right there in the same spot… Gosh that would be sweet.

Anyways, happy Friday :)

PS: My favorite reads from around the community lately:

• Plowman’s Lunch [Humble Dollar]
• How to Improve Your Sentences When Writing [The Minimalists]
• 3 Steps I Took to get to a Simple and Intentional Life in Jamaica [No Sidebar]
• Ranked: Things vs. Experiences vs. Things That Keep Creating Good Experiences [My Money Blog]
• 31 Lessons I’ve Learned About Money [Ryan Holiday, h/t Apex Money]
• You Don’t Need to Invest in AI to Invest in AI [Poor. Choices.]
• Don’t Forget to Swim Now and Then [Raptitude]

This passage from Lawrence Yeo‘s latest article also had me thinking for a while… So true how we show our different “selves” depending on who’s around!

“Whenever we interact with someone – whether in-person or online – a gap emerges between who you are, and who you are presenting. This is why the person you are with your boss isn’t the same as the person on the couch watching Netflix. Or why the person you are with your best friend isn’t the same as the person you are with an acquaintance. Each relationship contains a culture of behavior that you oscillate between, which means that you’re constantly presenting a different version of yourself across a wide range of interactions. What this means is that it becomes increasingly difficult to know who you really are.”

*********

// For previous newsletters: Archives
// To connect further: @Twitter | @Facebook | @Instagram | @LinkedIn

Lots of pool action and volunteering going on over here, but I’ve finally snuck away to the coffee shop to share some thoughts so if you’ve missed me, check it out – a new blog post!

What’s Worse?
Losing a job that pays less but you live on less – OR – Losing a job that pays great but you spend a lot?!

It’s an interesting thing to think about, and a great reminder that it’s not just INCOME that matters with our finances, but also EXPENSES. And perhaps even more so, because after all, the less you need to live on the less you need to make! And quicker to FIRE!! 🔥

So yeah, check out over the weekend as you’re hopefully laying at the beach or pool or at least doing something super fun to celebrate the season :) I also talk about my volunteering adventures and how one of the most valuable commodities at the homeless shelter are BELTS of all things!

Hope you’re well,

PS: Other articles I’ve been enjoying around the web recently…

• These favorite airport tricks from Chris Guillebeau (especially the hotel shuttles one!! Genius)
• The $1 million shot that changed sports contests forever
• This Villian Test by Collab Fund – “Would a ‘villain’ invest in this company if their motive was one of pure self­-interest?”
• This piece on Judas Iscariot that cracked me up 😂 – “My man literally sold the Son of God for an Uber from JFK to Manhattan during rush hour traffic. So yeah, Judas’s deal was pretty bad. But at least he didn’t spend $300,000,000 on two Papa John’s pizzas.”
• This visit to the City of The Future by Mr. Money Mustache
• These lessons from Ryan Holiday on running a bookstore (PS: It’s about so much more than just books)
• This tip on how to instantly increase your credit score
• And then lastly, this unspoken financial cost of early retirement (so true)

PPS: Two books I’ve enjoyed reading (and getting scared from) lately:

• Brave by Rose McGowan
• Mindf*ck: Cambridge Analytica and the Plot to Break America by Christopher Wylie

[Pic up top a gift from my mom – a mohawk skull that glows!!]

* Amazon affiliate links

// For previous newsletters: Archives
// To connect further: @Twitter | @Facebook | @Instagram | @LinkedIn

Happy Friday my little leprechauns! 🍀

Been a while since my last note – y’all good? Getting into anything juicy lately?!

I took over a pretty big task this month (at least for me, lol) and so far I’m still here to tell about it ;)

I TOOK OVER GROCERY SHOPPING FOR MY ENTIRE FAMILY!

And weirdly enough, I’m actually kinda enjoying it? No so much in the shopping part of it per se (takes so much time!!), but more in the “learning something new and trying to make it as efficient as possible” part. Turns out no matter what endeavor I get into that becomes my favorite part!

You can see my full report on how it’s been so far, and what I’ve learned, here:

The New Queen of Grocery Shopping 👑

I also cover some of life’s other adventures as well, such as:

• Cashing out the rest of my crypto (at all the wrong times, of course!)
• My new jaunt back into metal detecting (the best!)
• Updates on my volunteer experiment and dear friend, Lizzy (sad)
• Weekly bowling with my dad for some good bonding time!
• And how I’m getting old and trying to be an adult about it all 😂

I also wrote a new blog post over at Coin Thrill on fake $100 bills that keep showing up in my town (and meant for Motion Picture use – not passing off as being real!), and then I jumped on a business podcast recently to talk about $$$, transparency, and risk.

So it’s been a busy month! And also a slow one… Probably because I still don’t have a real job :P

Hope things are going well for you!! For a list of my favorite reads from around the web this month, see below, otherwise – keep on keeping on! The fight for FIRE is a valiant one!!

Your friend in money and continual self-improvement,

PS: Recently got word that ALL three 401k Champion winners from last fall were all BudgetAreSexy readers!! Congrats everyone! Proof again it (literally) pays to read my blog! ;)

******

Favorite articles from around the community:

Pack Your Bags for A 3-Year-Cruise @ Retire By 40 — “The cruise is scheduled for 1,095 days, 3 full years. They plan to visit 375 ports across 135 countries. The ship will stop on all seven continents. This is a very economical way to visit all these destinations. It’d cost so much more money to visit each destination individually.”

21 Life-Changing Minimalist Experiments to Try in Your Home @ Becoming Minimalist — “Society is constantly calling us to expand and upgrade every area of life: our home, our car, our kitchen, our wardrobe, our technology….  A Living with Less experiment provides us the opportunity to see if there is a more intentional, more focused, better way to live.”

Things Important, and Unimportant @ JL Collins — “Important: becoming financially independent. In doing so you have bought your freedom. Freedom to spend your life and time as you wish without the need to trade your labor for money. Unimportant: whether you choose to retire from your job or keep working once you are FI. Being FI doesn’t require you to quit a job you enjoy. It just means you get to choose.”

The Life-Changing Joy of Tidying My Prison Cell @ Prison Journalism Project — “Every Saturday, like clockwork, I clean and organize my cell. I go through my property box, legal box and shelves and throw away anything that I no longer use. My cellie loves to make fun of me. He tells others: “It’s his favorite thing to do!” He’s right.”

Trust Where You Are @ Millennial Money — “Remember, this is not a race. This is about building a life you love on your own terms and in your own way. There is no set path. Only your path. All progress is progress.”

The McDonald’s Test @ The Best Interest — “The McDonald’s Test is a simple way to ask yourself: am I really enjoying the fruits of my labor?”

The Levers That Money Can’t Pull @ More to That — “If we can zoom out of any individual lever and take a holistic view of what makes us who we are, then we’ll see that money is just one character in the theater of life. That it can influence the direction of many things we care about, but not the things we care about most. That it’s a significant character in this story, but just a character nonetheless. Because in the end, seeing that distinction makes all the difference.”

Cheat on Your Bank—It’s Not Your Girlfriend @ Bitches Get Riches — “When it comes to banks, I am a proud philanderer. Practically a libertine! A player! I keep money here, I keep money there… it all depends on what’s most useful and effective for both my long- and short-term money goals. Here’s where I keep my money and why.”

A Free “Credit Score Boot Camp.” @ Surviving and Thriving — “Every week for six weeks, you’ll get true, actionable advice from Harzog on how to increase your score. Already have a decent FICO? Her tips can help you keep it that way.”

7 Micro-Habits that Changed My Life @ No Sidebar — “Focus on your daily systems, not the goal”

Most Phone Use is a Tragic Loss of Life @ Raptitude — “If the main reason not to smoke is to protect, in aggregate, thousands of our God-given ten-minuteses — which amounts to years — of being alive, we should just as strenuously avoid other vices that incur comparable costs, and should consider the resulting loss of life to be just as tragic.”

The Dose is The Poison @ Money and Meaning — “There are 2.64 million second homes in America for seasonal, recreational, or occasional use. All my middle class friends dream of getting one. Meanwhile, there are over 500,000 people who are homeless. Do the math. There are five times more second homes than people who are homeless.”

******

Favorite book this month:

“How to Be a Gentleman: A Contemporary Guide to Common Courtesy” by John Bridges* — Picked this up purely out of curiosity and haven’t been able to put it down yet 😂 Some things feel terribly outdated here (or perhaps I don’t run in the right circles? Lol…) but most is pretty spot on and a good reminder to just be a kind human being. I put up some of my favorite passages so far here on IG if you want to scroll through…

*Amazon affiliate link

******

Lastly: I finally got my tattoos!

[Click here to see the phases from start to finish.
Unless blood makes you squeamish, in which case AVERT YOUR EYES!]

// Kick ass photo up top by @cchriscurry

// For previous newsletters: Archives
// To connect further: @Twitter | @Facebook | @Instagram | @LinkedIn

Hi! 👋👋

Started a new – random! – experiment last week and just blogged about it!

If you’re into charity or giving back or just like watching someone make a fool of himself, then you’ll want to check it out ;)

• Part I is here: When you’re stuck, just write…
• And Part II is here: Operation Give Back IRL: The Results!

It’s been so freakin’ fun – and nerve-racking – but I haven’t felt this *alive* in a while. If you’ve been thinking of an idea yourself over there for a while, I challenge you to take ONE step today and put it into motion. You automatically win just by DOING SOMETHING about it instead of *thinking* 24/7!

And if you don’t know what to work on next, try this out that I learned from Netflix’ new documentary, Stutz (brilliant btw, and I used to not be a fan of Jonah Hill!):

“When you’re stuck, just sit down with a notepad and start writing… your brain has things it wants to say even if you don’t know what they are.” (paraphrased)

Hope you’re well :)

PS: I’m also in the middle of two other experiments: not wearing any underwear (three weeks in and it’s great!) and running 10 miles a week (1 week in and it’s NOT so great, bleh…)

******

Some articles I’ve enjoyed lately:

I Want to Lose Every Debate @ Sivers — “I never want to debate, but if I had to, I would hope to lose. I don’t want to convince anyone of my existing perspective. I would rather be convinced of theirs. It’s more interesting to assume that they are right.”

My Experience with Check Fraud – And What You Can Learn From It @ Oblivious Investor — “Below is the check I wrote. And below [that] is what the check looked like, when it was cashed/deposited. Apparently somebody intercepted the check, chemically “washed” it to remove the ink on specific portions of the check, and wrote in a new payee, amount, and (partial) memo.”

Could You Live on $25k a Year… And Be Happy? @ Money and Meaning — “My last 30 years were based on three philosophical, environmental, and financial beliefs:  spending more money wouldn’t make me happier, spending more money would degrade the environment, and spending more money meant I would have to work more years.”

Masterfully Crafted: How ChatGPT Wrote a Compelling Article on the Power of Saving and Investing @ Route to Retire — “I thought it would be fun to put ChatGPT on the task of creating a personal finance post for Route to Retire… What you’re about to read is a simple article that’s 100% generated from ChatGPT… in seconds.”

Prepare for the Unexpected Mini-Retirement @ Jillian Johnsrud — “Life can be unpredictably fragile and short. You just never know. You never know if you’ll have a hundred other chances to experience your dream, or perhaps this is the last chance for that dream. Save the money, make a plan, and when the opportunity arises, grab your go bag. And go.”

What is The Net Worth of Josh Dorkin @ JoshuaDorkin.com — “If we take these lists and put them together, it is obvious that Josh has far more assets than liabilities, and as such, has a very high life net worth of over 20 million minutes and almost 400,000 hours of great experiences. He strongly encourages everyone reading to figure out the millions of minutes of net worth that they have themselves.”

It’s Time To Uncomplicate Your Health And Wealth @ A Teachable Moment — “It’s rare to find a situation where simplifying lifestyle or financial choices doesn’t result in a better outcome for end-users… The same goes for investing. Trying harder by creating costly complexities is a poor substitute for bare-boned and easy-to-understand investments.”

******

// For previous newsletters: Archives
// To connect further: @Twitter | @Facebook | @Instagram | @LinkedIn