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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