Happy Tuesday, HTM Family!

A couple of reminders for today…

- You control your pace today 🏃🏽‍♂️
- You get to choose the music 🎵 
- You are in charge of your agenda 📝
- You own your attitude 🧠
- You’re the boss of your work output 👨‍💻
- You are smart, hard-working, and all your problems are figeroutable ✅

As tough as life seems sometimes, remember that you are tough, too. Just focus on the stuff that’s in your control and accept the things that aren’t.

OK, now let’s talk about money stuff… 👇👇👇

TO DO

Drop us a voicemail! 📲

Got a money question you’d like us to answer on the podcast? Record a voice memo and send it over!

Just open the voice recorder app on your phone, go to a quiet place, and hit record. Begin with your name and city, then ask your question (and don’t feel like you have to go easy on us!). Then email that recording to [email protected].

It’s as simple as that. As silly as your question may feel, I bet thousands of folks are in the same boat, wondering the same thing. Can’t wait to hear your money query - thanks in advance!!! 🙏

MONEY MINDSET

Asking “Why” Three Times… 🕵️‍♀️

Ever heard of the 3x Why Theory? It’s the process of asking “why” three times to drill down and get to the root cause of a problem.

It works in business and life; best of all, it can help improve your finances!!

Here’s an example: Let’s say you hate budgeting because you constantly overspend and don’t know how to cut back. Let’s ask why 3 times…

• Why did my budget fail? → I overspent on fast food last month.

• Why did I overspend on fast food? → I didn’t keep track of how many times I ate out so basically I forgot how much I had already spent.

• Why didn’t I keep track? → It’s just too time-consuming and manual to keep and tally receipts all month.

In the case above, “overspending” might not be the root cause of why a budget is failing. It’s more about better organization or finding an automated system to help track/tally money.

Here’s another example: Let’s say you hate your job and feel like you want to quit. Ask yourself why a few times…

• Why do I hate my job? → My manager keeps dumping extra work on me so I‘m drowning in projects.

• Why is the manager dumping extra work on me? → I’m the only one on my team experienced enough and trained to handle those projects.

• Why am I the only one experienced and trained? → New hire onboarding doesn’t cover this type of work and management doesn’t know there’s a training deficiency.

In the example above, although quitting feels like an easy solution to a job you hate, other solutions could be more helpful. Like talking to your boss about additional training for other employees, or dropping less important tasks on your plate to make room for the higher-priority ones. (or at the very least you could consider asking for a raise if your experience trumps your coworkers!)

All in all, asking multiple “whys” is a simple way to get better answers when attempting to solve problems.

Not sure if it’ll help with whatever problem you’re wrestling with right now, but it’s worth a try!!

Related stuff:

• 👩‍💻 Budgeting: Tips to fix a failing budget

• 💻 The Muse: Other work scenarios when asking why helps

TOGETHER WITH DAFFY*

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REAL ESTATE

Shrinking Home Sizes 🏘️

Today’s chart is from the Washington Post about median home sizes.

It shows how newly constructed homes have been getting smaller over the past 10 years, to the tune of ~300 sq feet 👇👇👇

A few thoughts and takeaways:

• 🙅‍♀️ Bigger ≠ better: Excess home space doesn’t necessarily mean more value added to your life, and it’s nice to see the general public recognizing that! Townhomes are becoming quite popular (1 out of every 5 new builds) and smaller homes mean less materials and cheaper costs for builders and buyers.

• 🛋️ Efficient spaces: Designers are getting smarter about mixed uses for rooms and spaces. Instead of needing a dedicated space for 1 activity (like a home gym), modern design and folding furniture allow us to be more creative so that each space can serve several different purposes. Before adding that 2000 sq foot extension to your house be sure to rethink your existing spaces!

• 🏡 Location > size: What’s more important, the size of a house or its location? You might dream of living in a massive mansion with a 7-car garage, but it’s the neighborhood that usually makes a bigger difference to your life. Something to consider when home shopping for your forever spot!

• 🏘️ Supply/demand: Smaller “starter homes” mean quicker build times, which is good because there’s a hefty shortage of affordable homes for first-time buyers. Several other levers are at play (like zoning changes, more ADU approvals, etc) which are all working in concert to make more properties available and help increase supply.

The housing market doesn’t change quickly. Don’t expect affordability metrics to change overnight! But it’s heartening to see long-term trends moving in the right direction.

Related stuff:

• 👨‍💻 HTM Blog: How to save up for a home downpayment

• 🙅‍♀️ Redfin Update: Supply is ticking upwards, and a bunch of other nerdy data!

ICYMI

In other news…

Toyota FTW 🚘
Most people are impressed with themselves when their car reaches 200k miles…. Well, here is the world’s highest-mileage truck... It’s a 2008 Toyota Tacoma, and it’s been driven 1.6 million miles!!!!! 😳

ALDI 🛒
Good news, our favorite grocery store chain ALDI announced plans to expand, opening 800+ stores over the next 5 years! If you’re not familiar with ALDI, get excited… more than 90% of their products are private labels, saving folks a ton of money.

Savings Rates 😱
New reports show that Americans are socking away less money, saving less than 4% of their income right now. That’s not even close to enough. If this is you, it’s time to tighten your belt a bit and create more financial breathing room!

Self-Checkout 🙅‍♂️
In an effort to minimize theft, big retailers like Target and Walmart are thinking about limiting self-checkout lanes to members only, effectively making folks pay to check out faster.

20 Lessons 📉
Ben Carlson from the blog A Wealth of Common Sense shares 20 lessons learned from 20 years of managing money. Wise advice from a very thoughtful and experienced dude.

Scrolling 📲
A really good read: How to Break Free from Dopamine Culture via The Honest Broker. Wake up, zombies!

HOW *YOU* MONEY

Allyson, 56, Sacramento CA 🌤️

Occupation & Salary: Self-employed printing sales, between my husband and me, we bring home about $7,000/month

Paycheck deductions: 1099 worker, no deductions
Housing: Own outright (bought a house in 1999 for $163k) paid it off in 2009
Other Debts: No debt
Living expenses: We spend about $5,500 a month (we own 2.5 houses total, so lots of property taxes and stuff

Leftover savings each month: ~$1,000 - $2,000/m

How are you investing your excess savings each month?
We have a lot in 401k and real estate and we are in our late 50’s so any extra cash is going into CDs right now since rates are great.

Biggest “craft beer equivalent” splurge:
Going out to open mics at bars, hosting musical parties, etc. When it builds our community that is super fun and great for one’s spirit. I don’t mind spending the $$ in that case.

Best savings hack/advice:
I luckily have had a FIRE/HTM personality forever, before it was a movement. In my high earning years I would look at a huge commission check and think “that equals 6 months earlier I can retire!” It’s nice to naturally have no desire for conspicuous consumption. And my husband is the same way, so that’s cool. Also we have no kids. We enjoy simple pleasures, sitting outside having a drink, playing games, walking dogs, playing music together, etc. It’s a very peaceful life. When your partner shares your financial values, that eliminates lots of marital stress!

Biggest money challenge right now?
Trying to figure out when my husband can retire. He probably can now, and I’m trying to show him all the numbers to reassure him. He’s not buying it yet, but I’ll keep working on it! I’m afraid we are too cautious about retiring.

Recent money win and how did you celebrate?
I’m sooo late to the game with this, but I literally just joined Costco in 2023. When I was working like a maniac, I never had time or patience to wait in long lines. Now that I’m semi-retired I can go at 9am on a Tuesday - I’m in and out! The savings are amazing.

Anything else you want to share?
Like I mentioned above, I’ve been very practical about money, it comes naturally. When I bought my house in 1999, I was 31 years old and had no clue so I bought a book “Home Buying for Dummies” and learned a lot, easily followed its suggestions, and have been loving the house ever since. Also, I’m not an emotional spender. I see so much of that in co-workers and friends. Glad that’s not me. Thanks for your show!

**How do YOU 🫵 handle your income/savings/investments? We’d love to hear about it & share your story — Fill out this HYM form! (Don’t worry, we won't publish anything without you approving it first)**

Cheers to a great day ahead, controlling what you can, and accepting what you can’t. 💪 😎 

Best friends out! 🍻