Good morning!

Can you believe it’s already August??! Wasn’t it the New Year just like last week?! How are those Net Worths going over there? Much more fun updating it this month than last, eh? :)

As for me, I’m still kickin’ it w/ the blog and trying to stay as healthy as possible! Got my 2nd infusion done yesterday which means I’ll now be able to start weening myself off the steroids and other meds I’m hocked up on, and if all goes well I *should* now be past the worst of this nasty disease! I’ll be immunosuppressed for basically forever (the infusions kill my antibody-making B cells!), but at least I got my quality of life back! So suck it, Pemphigus Vulgaris!

(j/k you’re the best – don’t come back to haunt me!!)

Favorite articles from the week down below, along with a fun rap about credit…

Be well 🙏🙏

Posts on Budgets this week:

7 Money Tips From Mark Cuban — Caught these tips off Twitter and thought it would be fun to see how many of these we can check off! I got a 4 out of 7 (eek), how about you?

The Financial Dummy of The Week Award 🏆 — In which I give myself an award for having three $$$ mess ups already this week – and the week isn’t even over yet! Lol…

PS: you can always get these posts emailed to you as soon as they come out if you’re signed up to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter 👍

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Favorite reads from the community:

A Crisp $100 Bill 💵 @ 5AM Joel – “A professor stood up in front of the class holding up a brand new crisp $100 bill. He said, “who wants this?” The entire class raised their hands. Then the professor put the $100 bill on the ground, stomped on it, kicked it around and smashed it with his foot into the dirty floor. “Who wants it now?” Everyone still had their hands raised…”

Stocks vs. Real Estate @ Lazy Man and Money – “Back in 2007, I covered an article in Money Magazine that was interesting to me – Stocks vs. Real Estate. It’s fifteen years later now, and I thought it was worth revisiting…”

How to Create More Freedom With a Portfolio Career @ Money Flamingo – “Designing a portfolio career is really not much different from creating an investment portfolio. It’s a way to combine different jobs, self-employment, volunteer and freelance roles. This approach offers more control over your time, freedom to explore new options and the ability to create your perfect work-life blend.”

How to Get $30 (or more!) Off Your Internet Bill @ Femme Frugality – “Have you heard of the Affordable Connectivity Program?  If not, you might be missing out! This government program can help you save $30 or more on your internet bill every month.”

A Simple Yearly Budget & Expense Tracker @ Accidentally Retired – “While Mrs. AR and I don’t typically keep a firm budget, every so often I like to keep tabs on our expenses and see where there is room for improvement.  This tool provides an easy way to do that, as well as a useful way to forecast expenses for the year as well.”

Reality Catches Up @ The Collaborative Fund – “An asset you don’t deserve can quickly become a liability.  Maybe your portfolio surged during a bubble, your company hit a monster valuation, or you negotiated a salary that exceeds your ability. It feels great at the time. But reality eventually catches up, and demands repayment in equal proportion to your delusions – plus interest.”

Reject the Algorithm @ Of Dollars and Data – “Would you rather be yourself and be known by thousands, or be someone else and be known by tens (or hundreds) of thousands?”

Nobody Will Remember Your Stuff. But Hopefully They Might Remember You @ Simple and Straightforward – “Possessions are not the threads that connect us to past times and places. People are. You probably won’t be remembered for that time you bought a new iPhone. But your kids, grandkids, nieces, nephews, and great-grandkids might remember that time you chucked them in the pool.”

You Are Always The Other Person @ Raptitude – “I am a first-person protagonist in the small and specialized corner of reality that is my own life. In everyone else’s life, I’m an autonomous — and to some degree mysterious — visiting character.  This is true for you too of course. Your primary role in the world, by far, is that of an Other Person.”

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Clips and news from the community:

Interesting clips & news that caught my eye this week…

• “Money doesn’t guarantee happiness, but it does allow you to make different decisions about how to spend your time.” – The Belle Curve

• “When we want to improve something, we often think about what can be added or changed, but one of the rules we have learned from our experiences is the rule of adding By removing; so instead of adding a new habit to solve a problem, think about what you can do without or avoid.” – Mvoca

• The AOC ladies finagled a way to stay in Portugal for a month – FREE (!!)

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Video of the week:

7 Hunna (C.R.E.D.I.T.) [Freestyle Rap Video] via @Dex.McBean – “Breaking down CREDIT freestyle at the Team Roc United Justice Coalition Summit”

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Good morning!

Back again with this week’s favorite articles and other nuggets from around the web – and my brain.

But sadly my brain decided to take a vacation this morning, so I don’t have any special insight for you other than to keep on keeping on and become so financially secure you forget it’s payday!!

A good place to be, and hopefully some of these articles today help get you there faster :)

Blessed weekend 🙏

Posts on Budgets this week:

What about all the FUN debt gave you? — As finance nerds we tend to focus on how terrible debt is and how much we hate it etc etc, but I think we forget just exciting it can be to buy stuff too :) I mean, why else would people willingly go into debt if they weren’t getting something awesome in return? Do you know anyone who goes out of their way to buy stuff they HATE?

Great New Book on The Scene (Giving Away 2 Copies!) — There’s a fantastic new book dropping on the scene and I have two copies to give away! It comes from podcaster, and (early) retired hospice doctor, Dr. Jordan Grumet: “Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life” (Answer the question at the end of the blog post to enter to win – ends Sunday night…)

PS: you can always get these posts emailed to you as soon as they come out if you’re signed up to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter 👍

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Favorite reads from the community:

Selling and Surviving @ The Best Interest – “If you’re young enough to invest your money and pull a Rip Van Winkle, go ahead into 100% stocks. Some people are fine with a multi-decade hibernation of avoiding their account statements. But most people don’t live in that world.”

The FIRE Community’s Greatest Flaw @ Money Flamingo – “When you take a pregnancy test, there are only two possible outcomes: Pregnant or not pregnant. The traditional way to calculate our FI number looks at things the same way: We are either financially independent or not. We all know that investing is nothing like this. It’s not black and white, all or nothing. Markets go up and down and sideways all the time.”

15 Places (other than Possessions) to Apply Minimalist Principles @ Becoming Minimalist — “Minimalism is the intentional promotion of the things we most value and the removal of anything that distracts us from it. With that broader understanding, we can begin to see how the principles of minimalism can apply to other areas of life besides possessions.”

Think Differently by Inverting Your Questions @ Darius Foroux – “Munger created a way of looking at life: “All I want to know is where I’m going to die, so I’ll never go there.” As long as we’re aware of bad outcomes, we can make an effort to avoid them. The problem is that most people are never aware of that. In fact, most people try hard to only look at the upside and want to ignore the downside.”

Treasury Bond vs. Bank CD Rates: Adjusting For State and Local Income Taxes @ My Money Blog – “Treasury bonds are exempt from state and local taxes. This can make the Treasury bond significantly more attractive to some folks, even if the initial rate is the same. This assumes you are investing in a taxable account (not tax-sheltered). US Savings bonds are also exempt from state and local taxes.”

Kept In A Drawer for 2 years, $4,905 Gold Bitcoin Physical Coin Now $48 Million, According to GreatCollections @ PR Newswire – “When I bought the coin for $4,905, I really had no idea what the potential was, otherwise, I would have bought more than one! After the purchase, I forgot about it, leaving it in a desk drawer. That changed in late 2013 when I saw a headline about Bitcoin being worth $1,000, and it hit me that the coin I purchased for $4,905 was suddenly worth $1 million. It prompted me to work out what Bitcoin was all about, and since that time I’ve been watching it closely. Since the value of the coin increased to $1 million, there were other milestones I remember, such as when it hit the $10 million mark and then again at $25 million.”

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Community news:

Interesting news from around the community this week…

• Crucial Wealth celebrates 3 years of FIRE
• A Purple Life celebrates 4 years of her blog!
• Dragon Gal celebrates 5 years of early retirement
• The Money Commando hits $10 MILLION in net worth (!!!)

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Clips from the community:

Interesting clips that caught my eye scanning articles this week…

• “Remember, life doesn’t take place in a spreadsheet. A drop in the market should not have a significant impact on our life decisions.” – Money Flamingo

• “Many people tend to extrapolate present economic conditions into the future. That always leads to having a future perspective that’s the extreme of today. If today is bad, you assume that the future will be even worse. You extrapolate the downward trend. If today is great, you assume the future will be even greater. You extrapolate the upward trend into infinity. This “over-extrapolation” fallacy is responsible for investing more during bubbles and pulling out of the market during crashes.” – Darius Foroux

• “If I’m trying to do too many things and constantly spreading myself thin, I wind up offering the bare minimum. A shallow version of myself. When I’m living a more minimalist lifestyle I’m free to be able to give the best of myself to the people in my world. I want my people to get the best of me. Not just the rest of me.” – No Sidebar

• “Spend time outside the demands of everyone and everything else. Have one hour in the morning that is solely yours. Before you read the news, look at your phone, or read your email, just be no one/yourself. Delight in your own enoughness. I call it First Hour. It’s yours. Do with it what you will. Treat it with respect, treat yourself with respect. This time is precious. Don’t give it to anyone else.” – Douglas Tsoi

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Video of the week:

The Perfect Amount of Clothes [Video] @ The Minimalists — “In this short video, The Minimalists discuss the perfect amount of clothes to own as a minimalist. This clip is a standalone highlight from The Minimalists Private Podcast.”

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Good morning fam!

Hope you had a great week out there! We’re rounding out the last few days of our final beach trip this summer, and while there has been no surfing action this time around there has been some shopping action once my eyes locked onto a VANS outlet store, lol… You’ll have to scroll down to the pic of the week to see my latest find, but make sure your kids aren’t looking as they may get jealous 😂

Oh! I also did my first medical infusion for my autoimmune disease this week! Had to leave super early to drive a couple of hours to get there, but it all went smoothly and so far my body has received it well… 3 more to go over the next 6 months (at $20k pop – good thing for insurance!!) and then my treatment plan should be well on its way…. Never get Pemphigus Vulgaris if you can help it, OK? It’s a nasty little thing that sticks with you forever ;) But at least is manageable with modern meds!!

Hope you guys have a great weekend! Favorite articles (and now shoes) are posted below…

Keep on keeping on 🙏

Posts on Budgets this week:

A Diamond Doesn’t Shine at The Bottom of a Cave — A great story on valuing your stuff (and yourself!) I stole from 5am Joel… And then experienced in real life!

From Debt to FIRE’d and Building Out a Dream Gym 🔥 — An old friend stops by the blog to share his story of overcoming debt and building out his dream gym! He cashed in EVERYTHING to do it! Ballsy!

*As a reminder, you can get these posts emailed to you as soon as they come out if you’re signed up to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter

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Favorite reads from the community:

Sell Slowly @ Of Dollars and Data – “If you compare these strategies over various time periods, you will see that Quarterly Withdrawals beat Beginning of Year Withdrawals anywhere from 62% to 100% of the time:”

Why More Money Won’t Lead to Financial Independence @ Darius Foroux – “I used to have goals like, “I’d like to earn a million bucks in a year!” But as I started to study Stoicism and Mindfulness, I learned to practice non-attachment to outcomes. I gave up on those types of goals. Let me tell you why.”

How I Borrowed Over $250,000 at 0% Interest @ Go Curry Cracker – “in the end, we amassed fourteen 0% APR cards with a total credit limit of just over $250K.  Also, in total the cards offered $2000 in signing bonuses with a small minimum spend.  And all but two of the new cards were “cash back” cards with various reward levels ranging from 1-5%.  It really felt like we’d been paid several thousand dollars in exchange for taking out a substantial loan at 0% interest!”

Why You’ll Probably Never Run Out Of Money @ Mr. Money Mustache – “To train away this fear in myself and others, I like to conduct a thought experiment. And that is to force yourself through the numbers (using a spreadsheet) of these two things…This can be a crazy thought experiment, but in many cases it will also reveal just how much of a ridiculously fortunate fortress you have built for yourself.”

Even Socialists Misunderstand Indexing @ The Big Picture – “Of all the endless Wall Street things to be legitimately angry about – excess fees, leverage, conflicts of interest, risk-taking, bailouts (and everything else to dislike about finance) – this has to be the single worst hot take by any politician on either side of the aisle.”

Adult Kids – Helping With a House Deposit @ Burning Desire for FIRE – “It’s funny – I began the trek of getting to financial independence for a lot of good reasons. But once I got there, the freedom to do all sorts of things I’d never thought of has been amazing. This is just one more.”

Financial Simplicity: What is Your Time Worth? @ Can I Retire Yet – “The value of my time depends on how I feel about the activity. If it’s something fun for me, like being outdoors or tinkering with computers I’ll “work” for $5/hour or less. (That’s another way of saying I’d spend an hour of my time to save $5.) If it’s something I tolerate, say certain house chores, my time might be worth $20-$50/hour.But if it’s something I truly loath like doing taxes, my time is worth $100/hour, or more.”

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Community news:

Some interesting nuggets from around the community this week:

• SexHealthMoneyDeath.com is back to blogging!
• Freedom 35 Blog quits their job and FIRES… at 35
• Captain DIY celebrates 2 years of leaving a toxic job environment and diving into self employment full-time

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Clips from the community:

Some interesting clips that caught my eye while reading articles this week…

• “How many items you should own has nothing to do with a certain number, it’s about whether the items you own fit into the lifestyle you want.” – Simple and Straightforward
• “NYU found for every word of moral outrage added to a tweet, the retweet rate increases by twenty percent. Facebook posts focusing on social discord double likes and shares.” – A Teachable Moment
• “In 1973, FedEx had just $5,000 left in the bank. Fred Smith pitched one of their investors, General Dynamics, for additional funding, but his appeal was rejected. FedEx wasn’t going to have enough cash to fuel their planes for another week, and the business would soon shut down. What does one do when they need to create thousands of dollars out of thin air? Take a trip to Sin City and roll the dice. Instead of flying home after his meeting with General Dynamics, Smith withdrew the company’s remaining cash and headed to Las Vegas for a night.  His game of choice?  Blackjack.  Fortune favors the bold, and Smith had a hot hand that night. 24 hours and $27,000 later, Fred wired all of the funds back to FedEx’s bank account, and they were able to keep the lights on for another week. After his Vegas detour, Smith successfully raised $11M in additional capital, and they turned profitable in 1976.” – Young Money
• “Carver suggests using The Minimalists’ 20/20 Rule to stop holding on to possessions just in case. This rule suggests that if an item you’re on the fence about donating can be replaced for less than 20 dollars in less than 20 minutes, then let it go. Truth is, it’s highly unlikely you will miss it or need to replace it. But simply knowing that you can replace it alleviates the fears that might arise when letting it go.” – Rich In What Matters
• “Often we relate to our tasks as things we “have to” do, as drudgery or chores or routine. What if we related to our tasks differently? Each email is a love note from a delightful person (yes, even spam!). Each task is a way to express ourselves, express our love. What if we brought play and wonder to every task?” – Zen Habits

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Pic of the week!

[Vans Sk8-Hi x Spongebob Imagination Rainbow]

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Good morning!

I got a new piece of hate mail yesterday on my blog, and thought you’d enjoy hearing it:

“you probably smell like fart”

Lol… I’ve probably re-read it about 13 times now and DIE every time!! So random?! So stupid??! SO FUNNY!!! 😂😂

I can only hope they were doing it in jest, but either way it now resides in my HALL OF FAME HATE LIST, and is another reminder that if you want to accept the goods in life you have to accept the bads too. All apart of the game!

In more exciting news, my @BudgetsAreSexy Twitter account hit 50,000 followers this week!! So cool! I remember being forced on it over 14 years ago and swearing I’d never take it seriously (woops), but eventually it went on to become a surprisingly big part of my daily life and community over the years…

Not only do I still learn a ton logging on every day, but I’ve met some of my best friends there and it was a super helpful lifeline when I went into retirement the past couple of years… So yay for technology! And thanks to all those who chat with me there! :)

This week’s favorite articles and other tidbits from around the community are posted below 👍

Hope you find something good there!

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Posts on Budgets this week!

Bartering Is Alive and Well! — In which I find out a friend of mine gets free tattoos, design work, photography, and piano lessons – all through bartering! That pic up top is one of her newest tats. (This also reminds me of a similar concept we’ve talked about: “Gigs for Goals”)

Create Unexpected Joy 🤍 — In celebration of bringing back Giving Cards, we’re giving 5 readers a $20 card to go out and Do Good in their worlds to show it really doesn’t take much to make an impact in someone’s life… Sometimes we just need a little prompting 🙏🙏

*To get these posts emailed to you when they come out, sign up for the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter

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Favorite reads from the community:

Cream and Sugar First @ Retire Before Dad – “Too often, our lives are like a bad cup of coffee — mostly filled with stuff that doesn’t taste good. Then we sprinkle some sugar and pour a little cream to celebrate the nights and weekends. Our budgets are like this too. Enjoyment spending happens last if there’s anything left ever. So how do we prioritize the good stuff over the bland?”

Lifestyles @ The Collaborative Fund – “Fifty-four years ago this month, The Sunday Times offered £5,000 to whoever could sail solo nonstop around the world the fastest. But it was two participants who never completed the race that generated the most news. One ended up dead, the other found himself happier than ever. Both outcomes came from decisions made at sea, but neither had anything to do with sailing.”

Seven Lessons From Two Years of Financial Freedom @ Clipping Chains – “The best gift of financial freedom is the enhanced opportunity to discover who we really are. Especially in the United States, where so much emphasis is put on hustle and busyness, we are left with precious few hours of quiet time for reflection. The greatest win for these last two years is mental clarity. I’ve learned a lot about motivations, strengths, and weaknesses.”

What It’s Like to Own Just 134 Items in the World @ Becoming Minimalist — “It was never my intention to live with so little. But back in 2020 my husband and I had the opportunity to sell our wine business, house and most of what we own in order to travel the world indefinitely, working online as we go. All I had room for was what would fit in my suitcase, plus a box or two to be stored in my family home.”

You Don’t Need Multiple Income Streams to Build Wealth @ Accidentally Retired – “Focusing on building up one truly kick ass income stream is going to pay dividends far beyond what you can do with multiple income streams. When you focus on being the best you can be in the career you have now, or at the business that you are working on growing, you will yield a far better outcome than someone who has too many balls in the air.”

Trying to Be More Present Isn’t Enough @ Raptitude – “A million years from now, when alien anthropologists begin gathering evidence about what humans were like, they will definitely want to dig up the Self-help and Spiritual/Religion sections of our bookstores and libraries. There they will find direct evidence of what we yearned for and struggled with.”

Property vs Shares: Ten Reasons Why Houses Are Often The Better Investment @ Monevator – “Another semi-psychological reason why property usually appears to be a good investment is because a house that is worth, say, 20% less than you paid for it still does its job as a house.  In reality it was a poorly timed investment – it slumped in value.  But we tend not to think of our homes that way.”

Lessons Learned from Talking Money Part 1, Remembering Asha @ All Options Considered — “Taking good care of yourself and prioritizing self-care every day doesn’t mean you love others any less. It means you deserve to be healthy in every way and you deserve to be mindful of your own needs. And if you’re anything like Asha it might help to know that self-care can also help you support the people you love.”

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New book coming out!

“Taking Stock: A Hospice Doctor’s Advice on Financial Independence, Building Wealth, and Living a Regret-Free Life”

This one comes out early next month, and is by Dr. (and podcaster) Jordan Grumet – host of the award-winning Earn & Invest podcast which I was featured on recently.

Super chill and smart dude, and from what I hear this book is going to be one of the next big ones in the community similar to Morgan Housel’s Psychology of Money or JL Collins’ The Simple Path to Wealth. You’ll probably be hearing a lot more about it over the next few months!

Here’s a summary from Amazon (I haven’t read it yet):

Written by a hospice doctor with a unique front-row seat to the regrets of his dying patients, this book will remind you to take stock of life now, before it is too late. The goal of financial independence is to have the economic fuel to live a full life and avoid regret. Taking Stock is your guide to taking control of your finances and investing in yourself. Inside you’ll find:

• The three basic archetypes of building wealth, and how to choose which is right for you
• Time-hacking techniques to modify your perception of time passing and fill your moments with meaning
• Tips to invest in education, family, and your own physical and mental health
• And much more!

Don’t wait until the last moment to live life to the fullest!

You can learn more about it, or order it, here: “Taking Stock”

(Links to book are Amazon affiliate links)

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Community News:

Some interesting news from around the community this week:

• Young Money turns 1!
• Crucial Wealth returns to blogging after a 2 year hiatus
• Steve Ark returns to blogging after (another) successful surgery
• Costa Rica FIRE buys a new real estate property (with a view)
• David Cain from Raptitude opens back up Camp Calm – A simple, thoughtful course for learning meditation and other mindfulness skills (that link gets you 20% off)
• Karen Trefzger from Maximum Gratitude, Minimal Stuff comes out with a new book: The Minimalist Challenge: 36 Fun Experiments for a Simpler Life
• Bridget & Alyssa will be hosting an in-person meetup in Calgary, Canada July 28th

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Clips from the community:

Some interesting clips that caught my eye while sifting through articles this week…

• “I remember reading that the average lifespan of a cell in our bodies is roughly seven years, so that in seven years, we are wholly and entirely a new person.” – A Teachable Moment
• “The study found that nuns were happier with their lives than the general population and, because of their higher happiness level, they typically lived longer. A related finding: Happy nuns lived longer than unhappy nuns.” – HumbleDollar.com
• “Political scientist Erica Chenoweth studied hundreds of violent and non-violent protests worldwide (323, to be exact) from 1900 to 2006.  She found that non-violent campaigns are twice as likely to achieve their goals as violent campaigns. Another thing she discovered was the phenomenon she named the “3.5% rule”.  In short, when at least 3.5% of a population is committed to a cause and participates actively, it is not only easier to achieve a serious nation (or global) change – success appears to be inevitable.  All the non-violent protests that succeeded achieved 3.5% participation during a peak event.” – AlmostZeroWaste.com
• “It was nice to have an occasion to sport up a suit and ascot. For some time I was singlehandedly determined to bring back ascots and handjobs to their former glories but fear I failed on both counts.” – FreddySmidlap.com

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Pic of the week!

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“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.”

That gem is courtesy of Morgan Housel – one of my favorite writers/thinkers in the space :) Tweeted it earlier this week and it went semi-viral getting over 150 shares and 1,000 likes (!!!). More than anything I ever wrote myself, lol…

Funny what ends up taking off and what doesn’t ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

But how true right?! Money can help you up to a certain point in life, but ultimately it’s up to YOU and HOW YOU USE IT that matters the most. Plenty of miserable people without money, and plenty of miserable people with money! (And happy people with or without money too – that’s true freedom if you ask me)

At any rate, another week down in life!! Hope you’re faring well on this beautiful Friday morning!! I’m back from the beach but still dreaming about it and waiting for the next one to hit, which fortunately is only one week away :)

We decided to splurge this year and go to *both* family reunion beach weeks – one with my family and one with my wife’s – and they just happened to be within weeks of each other so it’s been a whirlwind of change after being stuck at home for almost a year straight.

Very much looking forward to it, and especially if I can sneak in some more surfing expeditions!! Not sure how the waves compare at Rehoboth Beach (Delaware) vs where we were at OBX, but we’ll soon find out! Scrambling to find a used board now I can pick up off Craigslist or Offer Up in time for it so I don’t have to mess around with renting one…

In the meantime, we continue to marinate on financial and life hacks so we can afford such luxuries every now and then! Money is made for living and not the other way around!

Favorite posts are listed below, and as always feel free to hit “reply” anytime and say hello 👍

Yours in finance,

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Posts on Budgets this week!

“Money lets me show up” — Some deep thoughts that came out of a convo about how to improve your life once you’ve “made it” with your finances… One of my favorite articles I’ve written lately, that includes a story on how I gave away my favorite skateboard last month (!!)

“I’ve Made $40,000 going after illegal robocallers.” (Side Hustle #84) — Our Side Hustle Series continues!! And this one is a WHOPPER… Gratifying on so many fronts depending on your level of hatred of robocalls, haha… Requires a bit more legwork and patience, similar to our past hustles on being a Forensic Accountant or Patent Researcher, but all very doable and lucrative for the right type of person.

[Btw – if you prefer to get these posts emailed to you as soon as they come out (Mondays and Thursdays), you can sign up to the Budgets Are Sexy newsletter here. That’ll get you them faster than waiting until Friday each week here, but all good either way!]

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Favorite reads from the community:

The Broker Who Saved America @ The Reformed Broker  – “You know Hancock and Washington and Franklin and Jefferson. You might even know Greene and Knox, Henry and Hale. And we know you know Hamilton… But it is very unlikely that you know the name Haym Solomon. This is unfortunate, because he’s the guy who arranged financing to keep the Continental Army alive during its darkest days, finding the money to keep the revolution going when many were ready to throw in the towel.”

From Burnt Out Landlord To Real Estate Investor: How I Sold My Portfolio And Invested In Mobile Homes [$120K/Year] @ Starter Story – “ I buy and sell mobile homes for cash flow to create passive income so I can do the kinds of things I want to do, and not have to do. I buy these homes for cash and offer them to end buyers who pay me in payments over some time to pay off the homes in the future. Essentially, I am buying time with each deal that I do and the cash flow I receive.”

A Timeshare Presentation Survival Guide: Getting to “No” @ Physician on FIRE — “If you find it difficult to say “no” to these nice people who’ve spent an hour or two getting to know you and your travel habits, please stay away. However, If you’ve got ample time, find marketing tactics intriguing, and can get something worth a couple hundred bucks or more, then they’re probably worth checking out.”

The Near-Zero Benefit from Timing the Market @ The Best Interest – “Today’s article explains why timing the market barely affects your future portfolio, is really hard to execute, and makes your life demonstrably worse along the way.”

Crafting the Life You REALLY Want with Early Retirement @ Accidentally Retired – “At the crux of it, the FIRE movement is not about becoming Financially Independent or Retiring Early…it is about living the life you want to live. And that is also why you see so many early retirees blogging, running real estate business, launching a startup, or even…wait for it…working. It was never, ever, ever about retiring early.”

In Defense of Dollar Cost Averaging @ Of Dollars and Data – “When there is blood in the streets, how do you keep yourself calm? When you see your portfolio decline by 20, 30, 40% and beyond, where do you run to? God? A friend? A family member?  I run to historical evidence. I rely on history.”

Money Bought Me Time @ One Frugal Girl – “While my dad was sick, I never had to weigh the importance of a job against my desire to be with him. When my kids were small, I didn’t have to choose between them and a career I needed to pay my bills.  The greatest gift of financial freedom is the time it gives us. I am so grateful for the time it gave me this last year to be with my dad!”

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“Explore Money Journalling Session” (July 17, 2022)

Here’s a fun idea by my good friend Cait Flanders!! A “90-minute guided journalling session” where you individually explore your relationship with money + consumption while in the virtual company of others.

“The idea is simply to take some time for yourself, and go through prompts that might help you see where you’re at/how you feel about your money so far this year. (Whether we like it or not, our emotions are what prompt many of the financial decisions we make… so it’s important to look at this.) This isn’t a workshop. I won’t be sharing any budgeting tips or worksheets or anything like that this time. And you don’t need to prepare anything. This is journalling. Time to reflect, dream, and think about how you might be more intentional in the second half of this year.”

It goes down Sunday, July 17, 2022 at 8:30am PT/11:30am ET/4:30pm UK, and you pay whatever you’re comfortable with for it.

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Clips from the community:

A few clips that caught my eye while sifting through articles this week…

“There’s no student loan for your retirement.” – A Teachable Moment

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“Whenever I see an author I like on Twitter, I make sure to ask the library to add their books to our collection. Support authors!”
– AGaishanLife.com

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“Some stock pickers think that the price of copper predicts the economy.  They call it “Dr. Copper” because they say copper has a PhD in Economics.” – Win Harrington

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Pic of the week!

Christy Wilson rocking a Budgets shirt like the beautiful nerd she is 🔥🔥

Pick one up of your own and then snap a pic so we can make you famous next!

Budgets Are Sexy Merch

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// Killer pic up top by Colin Davis on Unsplash
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