Tricks and Treats 💰

[Hi guys! Thought we’d change it up today and drop my *personal newsletter* here so you can get an idea of what they look like… Each week I share my favorite articles and notes from around the community, updates on my projects, personal stuff, and any other interesting nuggets I think people might find helpful. They go out once a week on Fridays, and you can sign up to it here if interested.  Hope you like it! Now take it away, J. Money! ;)]

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Good morning!!

Happy Halloween Weekend!!

Y’all dressing up or hitting any wild parties??! I wish I could say I was, but unless you count chaperoning a thousand kids as they hit event after event after event all weekend as juicy, I most certainly will not be lol…

Though I did find these killer shoes a few days ago I’ll be celebrating with 😉

Aren’t they just perfect for Halloween??? Super cheap too as they were “lightly used” (I love vintage stores so much…)

As for my costume, I’ll probably just go w/the tried and true “skeleton rock star.” Which consists of basically just wearing a black shirt with skeleton bones on it and rocking my ‘hawk. Though perhaps this year with the shoes addition I’ll call myself a “killer rock star”? Hmm…

If you’re still looking for some good – and frugal – costumes, here are a few of my favorites from an old blog post of mine: 16 Last-Last Minute Halloween Costume Ideas

• Static Cling – Wear normal clothes and safety pin socks and lint to it!
• Christmas Tree – My all-time favorite costume ever: Wear all green, wrap yourself in Christmas lights, and then plug yourself into the wall 🙂
• Chick magnet – Tape a bunch of Barbie dolls to yourself. Or use pictures of hot girls!
• Smarty Pants – Tape smarties candies to your PANTS
• The Tanning Bed – Tape glow-sticks up and down your arms. Then go around the party, entrapping people in your embrace: Instant tanning bed.
• Pinterest board! Dress in all white, then hang a cork board around your neck with pictures of cute houses, tattoos, book cases and whatever else people like to “pin”
• Random Hook-up – Drape a lot of random colored extension cords around you, haha…

Whatever you end up going as though, I want pics please 🙂

Or you can just stay home and binge Budgets Are Sexy all night long – that’s probably the best *treat* for you… Less calories and not nearly as scary! Yum! 🎃

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Posts on Budgets this week:

The Gucci Mane Guide to Greatness — A review of Gucci’s latest book on becoming better versions of ourselves… Not nearly as good as his Autobiography I devoured earlier, but still chalk full of great takeaways that I share here.

The Power of Rewards (AKA In Which I Bribe My Kids to Behave…) — It may not be at the top of the Parenting 101 handbook, but boy does bribing sure work 😂 Here are a handful of examples I’ve incorporated into our household lately.

*To get these posts automatically emailed to you on the day they come out, sign up to my blog newsletter here.

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Favorite Articles Around The Community:

My First 6 Months of Early Retirement Sucked Shit: What They Don’t Tell You about FIRE @ Bitches Get Riches – “My body and my subconsciousness understood exactly what was happening to me. “You are very, very depressed,” they told me with crystal clear enunciation. “Sleep ten hours a day, invest 200 hours into a video game you don’t particularly like, and put cheese on EVERYTHING until this passes.””

Want to Be a Lazy Seeker of Financial Independence? Invest in Your 20s. @ We Want Guac — “Almost all of today’s most famous investors are wrinkly old fartbags. This tends to give the impression that A. it’ll take you multiple decades and unfathomable luck ‘til you can enjoy wealth, B. all the good investing opportunities dried up decades ago, or C. young people just shouldn’t try to get ahead until they’re older and wiser. Not so! It’s actually the youngest investor in the room that’s the most powerful.”

Diversify Your Friends And Financial Goals @ A Teachable Moment – “Studies prove that having friends attracts more than good times. Good friends boost the immune system and help protect you from catching a common cold.  Different types of friends provide the most significant value add.”

Waste a Few Hours, so You Don’t Waste Years @ Darius Foroux — “Being productive doesn’t mean utilizing every waking minute to do productive things.  Sometimes, spending a day doing various things around the house, maybe taking a walk or doing some reading, can actually be more useful. These moments help us examine our lives.”

Expectations and Reality @ Collab Fund — “Imagine a life where almost everything gets better but you never appreciate it because your expectations rise as fast as your circumstances. It’s terrifying, and almost as bad a world where nothing gets better.”

My Favorite Nomad Travel Tools! @ A Purple Life — “Somehow I’m going into the 3rd year of my retirement and my nomad travel life. During that time, I’ve amassed an arsenal of tools to help me on the road. Previously, I discussed general tools I love to use in my day-to-day life that help it seem like I have my shit together 🙂, but today I want to focus on things that help me be a more effective traveler.”

Ultimate Detailed Price Battle!!! Is Shopping At A Warehouse Club Really Saving Anything? @ Chief Mom Officer — “When I remove all the items I couldn’t buy at Aldi’s because they didn’t have an equivalent or where I wouldn’t want the alternative option for my family, it’s clear that shopping at BJ’s is the winner for us. Those items would cost $285 at BJ’s compared with $333 at Aldi’s. The cost savings is over $100 when compared with Target, and almost $200 when compared with Price Chopper!”

(Hat Tip to Lazy Man and Money who came out with a different conclusion when he analyzed the costs for his family… How about you?)

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News & Nuggets Around The Community:

Interesting news and clips that caught my eye this week…

• Ali from All Options Considered celebrates 4 years of being FI– woo!
• “It’s as hard to start and run a small business as it is to start a big one. You will suffer the same toll financially and psychologically as you bludgeon it into existence… So if you’re going to dedicate your life to a business, which is the only way it will ever work, you should choose one with the potential to be huge.” – Stephen Schwarzman via Darius Foroux
• “When you buy a home to live in with a plan to later rent it out, you’re doing two things at once. You have to consider the property more from an investment perspective and less from an emotional “I love this house” perspective. This isn’t always possible (or advisable), but, if you live in a hot rental market and have aspirations of building a passive income stream, buying a home that can be turned into a rental can be a great option.” – Frugalwoods
• “I was at a gas station filling up when a man came up to me, excited to see the car I was driving. He gushed over how cool he thought the car was and asked how I could afford it. Embarrassed by the attention and eager to shift the focus to something else, I truthfully explained that I had eaten peanut butter and jelly sandwiches every day for an entire year to pay for the car. Upon hearing that, his smile waned and I could tell that he doubted the sacrifice was worth it.” – Humble Dollar
• “Decades ago, when I was in Sales, the top contact at my largest customer made a comment to me that I’ll never forget. I was moving on to a new job, and Fred gave me what turned out to be one of the biggest compliments of my life. “You’ve always looked me in the eyes,” he said. “If someone doesn’t make eye contact with me, my experience has taught me to not trust them. You make excellent eye contact, and you’ve been one of the people I’ve trusted most in my career.” When you’re talking with someone who matters in your life, look into their eyes.” – The Retirement Manifesto

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New Job Opp on The Scene!

(From my friends over at the FIRE app, Topia)

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Get paid to think about FI!

We’re on the lookout for an ultra-passionate person from the FI community who wants to join Topia to lead and manage the Topia community. If you love FI and want to get paid to spend your days, thinking, talking and breathing FI then look no further! This could be a full-time or part-time role (min. 15 hours a week).

What this role entails:

• Regular chats with Logan & Grant to talk through the monthly community plan and give updates on how the community is doing
• Drive daily FI conversations, engagement and discussions within the Topia community
• Plan, schedule and manage virtual events within the community
• Find and post FI content into the relevant areas of the Topia community

If you think this could be a good fit please reach out to logan@topia-app.com

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And that’s a wrap!

Hope you get more treats than tricks this weekend! 👻

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