Good morning, HTM family!

“I find it amusing
that we’re all pretending to be normal
when we all could be
insanely interesting
instead”
~ atlas

Quick reminder for those that need it: You are NOT normal. You a waaaaaay more than that!

Your individuality is what makes you interesting. Don’t shy away from it — lean into it!

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

TO DO

Audit Your Subscriptions 📺

How much do you spend on subscription services? Studies show that most folks underestimate their subscription spend by $133 per month!!! 🤯

This week: Audit all the things you're subscribed to and figure out whether you use them enough to warrant the cost. If not, dump them and save that cash instead! (There's rarely a downside to canceling services. If you realize you've made a huge mistake you can always sign back up again later.)

TRAVEL

How Much Should You Spend on Vacations? 🏝️

I think we can all agree that an amazing vacation can be one of the most fulfilling ways to spend your money. Travel is priceless.

But, if you don’t properly budget for baller trips, those travel memories can turn sour pretty quickly — especially if your vacation leaves you in debt and ruins your other financial goals.

So here are a few ways to keep your vacation budget in check…

🏝️ The 5-10% Rule: This is just a general rule of thumb, as most folks spend 5-10% of their annual income on vacations each year. If you earn $70k a year that’s like ~$3-7k for trips, which can stretch pretty far if you plan right!

🌍 Up to 30%: If you want to travel and spend more, you can! But it means making other sacrifices within your discretionary spending budget. Based on a 50/30/20 approach, as long as all your needs are met and you’re socking away 20% for your future, you can choose to spend all of your “wants” allocation on vacations and travel.

💪 Earn more, travel more: Let’s say you’re invited to 4 destination weddings this year. How are you going to pay for it all without blowing your budget!? Well, you can pick up side jobs and extra gigs to cover the gap. Making an extra $5k allows you to spend that extra $5k without disrupting your other spending goals.

🏡 Vacation at home: Time off work is important, even if you opt to stay and explore your own neck of the woods You can have a blast and spend a whole lot less. You don’t even have to spend anything if you don’t want to!

🔄 All of the above: Budgets need to be flexible, because, ya know… life happens. Some years you might spend nothing on travel (like back in 2020, or when your kids were first born). Other years you might plan massive trips that cost a ton (honeymoons, milestones, bucket list travel)!

Ultimately, how much you opt to spend on vacations and travel is completely up to you and will likely vary over time. As long as you remember to take regular breaks from work, and save/invest at least 20% of your income, avoiding debt for travel, you can spend as much or as little on vacation as you like. It’s all about being mindful, planning ahead, and finding the balance that works for you and your family!⁠

Related stuff:

• 💻 Full Blog: How Much Should You Spend on Vacations?

• 💳 Travel CCs: Best Travel Credit Card Offers of 2024

• 👩‍💻 Cheap Travel Tips: Ways to stretch your travel budget further

TOGETHER WITH BETTERMENT*

Start earning today

With Cash Reserve, our high-yield cash account, you can rest assured your money will be putting in the elbow grease—earning 11x the national average**. Get started today.

SAVING

Investing Spare Change 🐢

Today’s chart comes from Axios, who analyzed a bunch of data from Acorns — the app that rounds up and invests spare change…

It shows the average Acorns customer has saved about $2,500 in the past 9 years… Pretty cool! 👇👇👇

Saving spare change adds up over time (and investing it grows the pile even further). $2,500 ain’t chump change. It could pad an emergency fund, allow you to embark on a lovely family vacation (as discussed above), and could also make for a pretty sweet lump-sum donation to a cause you care deeply about!

BUT… Does saving spare change build up enough money to make a house downpayment? Not even close. Will it solve a retirement fund shortfall? Nope - no chance. Will it buy you meaningful freedom in life? All signs point to NO.

All things considered: Micro-investing apps are a fun way to save a little extra. But they’re not a substitute for a proactive high savings rate. Micro-saving won’t solve your underlying savings problem because you get micro results.

These apps can be great for smaller money goals. But don’t forsake the other tried and true paths to building wealth! Taking a multi-faceted approach to saving & investing will pave the way to a healthier financial future. 😉

Related stuff:

• 💸 HTM Blog: How to Build Wealth on a Small Income

• 🌳 Acorns App: Invest Your Spare Change

• 🔢 Rule of 173: Small Expenses Really Add Up!

ICYMI

In other news…

Fiduciary 👨‍💼
Starting in September, anyone providing investment advice (advisors, insurance companies, retirement specialists) will now be held to a fiduciary standard. What does that mean? Basically, they need to start acting in the client’s best interest, not their own.

Refund Rules ✈️
The DOT announced new rules to help travelers get refunds quicker and easier when their flights are delayed or canceled. Also, they’re cracking down on “hidden fees” which must now be displayed upfront when folks are booking!

Maintenance 🚘
Consumer Reports just updated their list of cheapest cars to maintain… Tesla takes the cake, then Buick, Toyota, Lincoln & Ford. These car brands feature the cheapest maintenance costs over a decade of ownership.

Shelf Life 📈 
A great article from Ian Cassel about how all stocks have a shelf life and nothing lasts “forever”. This is why investing in index funds (as opposed to individual stocks) is a better long-term holding strategy. 😉

Social Security 💸
Jesse Cramer wrote a great post about how to value Social Security for retirement planning. Spoiler alert - it’s actually quite a large component that many tend to underestimate.

COMMUNITY

$2,580 Raised for Charity — Thank YOU! 🙏

In April we had a friendly little competition to see who could raise more money for charity… (Joel won, and Matt now has to drink crappy beers for the next couple of weeks lol)

But the real winners… are the charities we all helped! Collectively, we all raised $2,580 for these awesome causes:

• Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE)

• Undue Medical Debt

• The Hope Effect

• Helen Keller International

• Against Malaria Foundation

• New Incentives

A massive THANK YOU to everyone who donated. Giving = living. 🙏

Have a great week ahead! And remember to be weird and embrace your individuality. 😜 

Best friends out! 🍻