Morning friends!!

Been super busy behind the scenes here, and hoping to be able to share my next project with you soon!

It’s not going to relate to personal finance for once in my life – hah – but it is something that could help save you money and/or improve your business if you happen to run or manage a business :) It also heavily relies on AI, so if you’ve been trying to figure out the best way to incorporate that into your work flow, this may be a good way to get started!

But first – we need some beta testers to help break it/improve it/give feedback!! Check out this note from my business partner, Nate, and if you qualify we’d love to give you a sneak peek of it – 100% free:

We need 10 volunteers

[If you quality – and are interested! – email me and I’ll add you to the list!]

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In other fun news – I’m still publishing regularly on Budgets Are Sexy! Got two new posts on there with one of them being pretty embarrassing and the other hopefully making up for it 😂

Check ’em out:

• My $507.34 Ridiculous Mistake — I’ve been doing something really stupid for the past 5 years: not only have I been paying for a subscription that I’ve never used (!!), but throughout these years the price has gone up 300%+ and I didn’t even notice!
• The 10-2 Challenge — The perfect way to get moving on a project!! Set aside 10 minutes every day for two years straight, and you’ll have spent 7,300 minutes on it or roughly 122 hours. Just like that! The time is going to pass anyways, why not get something extra out of it?

And then here’s a recent post on my coin blog… because I’m a nerd like that:

• What to Do With Fake Coins (and Are They Still Worth Anything?) — This is a follow up post to one I ran over a year ago (oops), and gets into the details of what you can do when you come across fake coins in a collection you’re valuing for someone, or perhaps even one you find in your own collection! It’s not totally a lost cause! :)

It’s been a pretty fantastic month on the productivity side and feeling good about that. On the flip side, I can already tell that life is starting to SPEED UP AGAIN so I gotta remember to slow it down and not rush the month away just cuz I want to get more stuff done! Which is so easy to do when you have deadlines to meet, whether self-imposed or otherwise. We’re always trying to hurry up and speed through tasks but that also speeds through LIFE!!

So if it feels like you’re doing the same right now, take a step back with me and slooooow it down a little. Even if it’s only 10-15 minutes a day. No matter what we’re working on or going through, we have to remember that WE’RE more important than any other task. Get outside, take some walks, incorporate some meditation, do whatever helps you re-connect to the *present* again so we don’t accidentally fast forward everything.

I’ll be working on the same this week :)

Favorite articles down below as always, and if you ever get tired of reading these you can hit that “unsubscribe” link anytime down at the bottom. I’ll only cry for a few seconds, promise!

Your faithful scribbler,

PS: I had to change email platforms as my old one raised the rates by almost triple (!), so if anything looks or feels funny here that’s probably why… Hopefully it doesn’t affect anything else, but if it does please let me know!

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Favorite Reads Lately:

What’s on Your List? via Humble Dollar — “What would you do if you only had one day left to live? Would you plant a tree? Would you rob a bank? Would you tell someone how you really feel?”

It Pays to Know If You’re Making a One-way or Two-way Door Decision via Poor. Choices. — “Use Amazon’s best kept secret for high-velocity decision making when making your biggest purchases.”

We are creating a new town called Esmeralda! via @devonzuegel – “Our team has an exclusive option on a beautiful piece of land 90 mins north of SF, in California wine country… Our five design principles are all interconnected & reinforce each other:

1. Support a multi-generational community
2. Prioritize pedestrians & cyclists over cars
3. Cultivate a culture of learning & building
4. Protect & harmonize with nature
5. Promote health & wellness”

Living A Simple Life Is Actually Cool via No Sidebar — “When you learn to buy less, you learn to live with less. When you learn to live with less, you learn to find joy in more. That, my friends, is the precursor to a damn good life… If you do it right.”

Lessons from Emma the Farmer via Douglas Tsoi — “Attention is the source of pleasure; you can’t enjoy something unless you pay attention to it. In offering attention to what it takes to grow food, we enjoy the food more.”

No College Education – No Worries! @ 5am Joel – “Much to everyone’s surprise, I’ve actually grown up to become a semi-successful human being. I’ve never struggled to find work or accumulate wealth, and I’m just as competent and reliable as the next guy. I live a happy and free life. I missed the college boat and somehow still turned out OK. How did this happen?”

Humans Are About to Learn Like Never Before via Raptitude — “Humans aren’t good at predicting the future, but sometimes you can see a trend that promises something great — like “a genie is granting your wish” great. I think this might be happening right now with one of my genie wishes, maybe yours too.”

Hire My Talented, Full-Time Team via David Perell — LOVE this way of wrapping up a project!! Totally stealing for my next failed venture, lol… (But are failed ventures really “fails”??)

Business Broker Fees: A Complete Guide for Small Business Owners via Nav.com — An old friend of mine, Gerri Detweiler, wrote a piece on selling companies through a broker and what it all entails, including price structures. I had helped broker her own site back in the day, and she kindly highlighted me in it! A good read if you’re considering selling a project or company too 👍 (and *ahem* you know someone who can assist you in this! ;))

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Photo of The Month:

Ran into my homeless friend (remember Lizzy?) and she gave me this bracelet 🥹 Doesn’t own a thing, and yet with a full heart wanted me to have this after I had commented on how beautiful it was! Can you imagine??

Friends who are bursting at the seams with possessions don’t even do this, yet she freely and immediately took it off her wrist and put it on mine to make me happy. (And because I knew it would mean a lot to her, I warmly accepted it.)

Every day I am surprised by how much hatred is directed at others out there, and particularly towards the unhoused community, and then gestures like this reminds me of humans’ capacity to LOVE just as fiercely. So thank you, Lizzy. I will wear it – and appreciate it – every day! And hope to continue learning from you on our daily chats too.

(I was also wearing a bracelet at the time, so I ended up giving her mine and now we roam the streets together – in very different ways! – with this gentle reminder of love :))

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Video of The Month:

#ProjectTurntable | Adobe MAX Sneaks 2024 via YouTube – “Project Turntable technology allows you to see your 2D vector drawings in a whole new way! This feature allows you to rotate your drawings in 3D while still retaining the 2D art style at any angle. This incredible feature also ensures that the vector graphics stay true to their original shape, retaining all the key components of the design even at a new angle.” Crazy what you can do these days! So different than 10, 15, 20 years ago!

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Quote of The Month:

 

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Gobble Gobble 🦃

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