Good morning, HTM Family!

For all of you without a new years resolution, I invite you to join me in a simple goal for 2025: Replacing "have to" with "get to"…

Instead of viewing everyday tasks as burdens, I plan on reminding myself that everything in life is an opportunity to be happy and grateful.

I get to work. I get to buy groceries. I get to bundle up in the cold. I get to clean my house and make it a beautiful place for the family.

Cheers to a great year ahead, full or purpose and gratitude. 🙏💙

OK now let’s chat about money stuff! 👇👇👇

TO DO

Net Worth Check-in 📲

For those of you who don’t know what your net worth is, here is how to calculate it…

1. Tally up your assets: bank accounts, investments, physical property, and any pirate treasure you have hidden under your mattress. Add up all the cash values...

2. Subtract your liabilities: debts, credit card balances, mortgages, and any money you owe to mafia loan sharks. Subtract all this stuff from your total assets value above.

That's it. Assets - Liabilities = Net worth.

Doing this exercise every so often (we recommend every couple months or minimally once a year) helps you monitor your overall financial trajectory and make sure your wealth pile is growing (not shrinking!).

Psst. Free apps like Empower help you do this automatically and chart your progress 💪

SAVING

Annual Budgeting 👀

Most budgeting is done monthly... Which is perfect for checking in regularly and make sure you’re on track to meet your money goals.

But, zooming out once in a while and getting a broader perspective on your financial landscape is a really powerful practice too.

Annual budgeting — or “forecasting” — for the year ahead as a whole helps you identify larger trends, anticipate significant expenses, and set your expectations accordingly.

If you’ve never created a high-level annual budget — here are a few tips and things to think through…

• Review the past year: Total up your 2024 spending categories and use these as a baseline for next year projections. From there you can increase or decrease specific budget categories based on your goals and family changes.

• Anticipate the big 2025 events: Upcoming trips or family travel, weddings or large gifts, job changes that might affect income, large expenses (like new car) etc can throw you off if you don’t plan ahead. So make sure to save ahead of time for these things — creating sinking funds is a great practice!

• Long-term goal review: Take this opportunity to make sure your long-term goals are still relevant, and make adjustments if necessary. Make sure your annual budget accounts for those savings/investments needed to hit your goals.

• Identify gaps to fill: You might discover that the year ahead has a savings deficit, or that you won’t be investing as much as you need to. If you do see a potential gap, start thinking about how you’re going to fill it in 2025. Like getting a side gig to earn that extra income, or dropping down to a bare bones budget to save a chunk. Savings challenges can be helpful too (and fun!)

• Use round numbers: Remember, this is a high level forecast, not a granular plan for every dollar. The year ahead rarely turns out exactly how you forecast on Jan 1, so it’s OK to use round numbers and build in wiggle room!

All in all, making an annual budget can help catch things that monthly budgets do not.

Taking a few minutes to think long term will set you up for an even better 2025!

Related stuff:

• 💻 Budget Methods: 4 different approaches to budgeting

• 🤷‍♂️ Variable Income: For those with volatile paychecks, here’s how you can budget with variable income

• 📲 Budgeting Apps: Our fav is probably YNAB for newbies, but here are 5 others that area great too

TOGETHER WITH BETTERMENT*

Start earning today

Turn out the lights on traditional savings accounts. With Betterment’s high-yield cash account, your money is earning nearly 11x the national average**. Get started.

SPENDING

Addictive Shopping Platforms 🫣

It’s estimated that ~5% of people have a shopping addiction (and this is a low estimate because it’s a sneaky illness that’s hard to track)

Here’s a chart from a an Intuit survey showing the top platforms folks struggle with when it comes to impulse buying…

It’s crazy how good these platforms are at marketing these days…

They know us better than we know ourselves sometimes!

But, if you can learn about and recognize some of their sneaky sales tactics, you have a better chance at combatting them…

Common sales tactics:

• ❌ Time limits and low stock counts… Signs like “Only 3 left in stock” or “Sale ends in 27 minutes” trigger FOMO and make people buy quicker. The reality is high demand items always get restocked. And if you do miss out, life will go on just fine, I promise!

• ❌ Anything with the word “FREE”… Whether it’s “FREE shipping!” or “FREE returns in 30 days”, everyone loves to think they’re getting something for free (even if it’s not really valuable to you)

• ❌ Personalized ads or user trends… Little notes like, “people who bought this, also bought xxxx” it makes you think you probably need xxxx too.

• ❌ Fun music, fragrance, sexy ads… These are all carefully selected to put you in a buying mood.

• ❌ Store layouts… Physical stores are designed to “walk you through” a journey of temptation before you reach the items you came in to buy.

How to avoid these tricks:

• ✅ Remove the temptation! Log out of Amazon, and delete the app from your phone if that’s your weak point. Unsubscribe from marketing emails from your fave brands. Making the buying process one step harder makes it a little less easier to complete mindless purchases.

• ✅ Use wish lists… Add things to your cart or wish list, but don’t complete the purchase until you’ve waited a few days. If you really want to buy after 2-3 days, go ahead. But chances are you’ll feel different when the impulse fades.

• ✅ CamelCamelCamel… 🐪🐪🐪 is a website that shows you price history of individual products on Amazon (you might find that this “limited time sale” actually happens very frequently!)

• ✅ Take advantage of free returns!… If you truly regret a purchase, return it! Most people experience buyers remorse at some point, yet only a small percentage of people actually return stuff and correct their mistake. Don’t be like that.

• ✅ Have a blow-off valve: If you can replace shopping with another activity (like a hobby, exercise, calling up friends, etc) do it! Another option is to set a very small budget for impulse buys, so you get a small taste. But with way less financial harm.

• ✅ Get an accountabili-buddy… “Want to skip going to the mall and hang out at the beach with me instead?” YEP!

The better online shopping technology becomes, the more personal self control it takes to combat accidental overspending.

Stay mindful and don’t give into the traps!

Related stuff:

• 🏷️ HTM Blog: Fending off FOMO and buying less

• 🤷‍♂️ Should I buy it?: A quick checklist to make sure you won’t regret a purchase

• 👨‍💻 Debt help: If you truly are in a big overspending hole, reach out to MMI or NFCC for professional help!

ICYMI

In other news…

Closing Scams 🏡
Reminder for anyone out there buying a house — Escrow scams are super common, where thieves will send you incorrect wiring instructions. Always call to double-check wiring instructions and be on the lookout for anything fishy in the process!

News Junkies 👀
Something cool you might want to try —> Take a News Vacation. Consuming less stuff leaves more room in your brain for creative thinking, not to mention boosts your happiness.

Here We Go Again 🧻
Fear of Trump tariffs is causing Americans to stockpile essential items before prices rise. “the survey found 34% are stockpiling essentials. Toilet paper is at the top of the shopping list with 77% saying they are stocking up on it.”

Nerdy Charts 📈
Via Charlie Bilello, here are 7 Lessons From 2024. A great round up and comparison of market trends and performance vs. past years.

Keeping It Simple 😌 
It’s not rocket science, from Jesse at Best Interest. “So, as you close out 2024 and enter 2025, I’ll give you this advice: Don’t overcomplicate it. It’s not rocket science.”

HAPPY NEW YEAR y’all! Celebrate responsibly, and we’ll see you in 2025!!

Best friends out 🍻