Happy Tuesday, beautiful people!!

You’ve probably heard the saying “don’t keep up with the Joneses”…

But have you ever heard of the opposite?… “don’t keep down with the Joneses”. This is a great rule too…

Keeping up means others are setting the bar too high for you. It’s not sustainable.

Keeping down with others means people are setting the bar too low. You deserve better for yourself.

Just something to keep in mind this week. Whether it’s your lifestyle, attitude, work tasks, or social situations… Set your own bar. You do you. 👊

OK, on to the money stuff! 👇👇👇

TO DO

Sell Something ☝️

Your mission this week: Grab something you own but never use, and sell it!

Making a few bucks is always nice. But selling things has other benefits like removing clutter from your life, giving someone else a good deal, practicing your negotiation skills, and boosting confidence!

FB Marketplace is a great place to start. Craigslist is also fast and free. Try it!

BUDGETING

To Autopay, or Not to Autopay?… 🤔

Chatting with a friend the other day, they mentioned they don’t have any of their bills on autopay. This piqued my interest because it’s the opposite of what we typically recommend.

Turns out, my friend isn’t the only one who thinks that putting your bills on autopay has some drawbacks…

While having all your bills on autopay means you’ll never miss a payment, sometimes it allows you to turn a blind eye to overspending. Also, you could miss incorrect or fraudulent charges, continue to be billed for services you’re no longer using, or run the risk of overdrafting if bills are more than expected.

Paying everything manually keeps you vigilant, letting you “feel the pain” of all your bills. It could spark some motivation to cut back on your spending.

So, here are a few expenses you might want to think twice about automating:

• Credit Cards- While autopaying your cards in full each month can prevent you from accruing interest, it could also lead to “out of sight, out of mind” spending. Whether you autopay or not, make sure you’re always checking those statements and reviewing transactions.

• Utility Bills/Variable Expenses- If you’ve been taking hours-long showers every day for the past month, we want you to draw the connection between your usage and how much it’s costing you. Plus, a big spike in your energy bill could indicate a leakage!

• Medical Bills- Errors are not unheard of when it comes to medical billing, so make sure to always review the charges (and all the individual line items) before making a payment.

• Annual Payments- You might want a service now, but what if your tastes change over the course of a year? It might not always be possible to manually pay annual subscriptions as many companies only accept credit cards, so if you can’t turn off autopay, make sure to put a reminder on your calendar for when you’ll be charged again.

Whether you autopay bills or not, it’s totally up to you to decide how to best handle your finances. Cruising on autopilot certainly has its advantages — but that doesn’t mean you should check out completely.

Related stuff:

• 💻 HTM Blog: 8 Ways to Automate Your Finances

• 👨‍💻 Feel the pain: Using Financial Stress to Your Advantage

• 🎧 Podcast Ep 215: Ways To Simplify Your Finances

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SAVING

Should You Buy It? 🤷‍♀️

You're browsing social media, and suddenly an ad pops up for a cute summer bathing suit… Now although you don’t really need a new swimsuit, this one has amazing reviews, free returns, and a 30% off sale right now!

Hmmm… Should you buy it?

Here are some questions to consider first…

We’re not here to tell you what you should or shouldn’t be buying with your hard-earned dollars. Everyone’s financial situation and lifestyle are different.

That being said, living within your means, practicing self-control, and knowing when you have “enough“ are invaluable skills in life. They can mean the difference between living paycheck to paycheck your whole life or growing massive amounts of wealth.

Related stuff:

• 📋 HTM Blog: Should you buy it? 10 Questions to help decide.

• 💻 Lifestyle Creep: How to recognize it and avoid it

ICYMI

Recent Buzz…

Summer Jobs 😎
A new Gusto Teen Hiring Report shows teenagers will make out pretty well this Summer with lots of work opportunities and higher pay than last year. The biggest demand areas are sports/recreational, food/beverage, and construction jobs. Go get yourselves paid, teenagers!

Uber Carshare ��
Attention Boston & Toronto… Uber will be launching their newest car-sharing service in your area soon. People without cars will be able to rent directly from people who own cars for xx amount of hours per day. Move over, Turo.

Renters 🥳
The latest Redfin Market Tracker finds asking prices for rent are flattening across the country and even declining in some spots (in the West particularly). Great news for renters — it’s been a rough few years of increased rents!

Productivity 📉
Apparently, we’re all becoming less productive at work, and that’s hurting the economy. Companies need to hire more people but are getting less output from them. (AI may help boost productivity, but we’re in the early stages of seeing any major effect)

Bull Market 🐂
The S&P 500 is now officially in a bull market (up +20% from recent lows). History reveals that gains will likely continue for 6-12 months. But none of this matters anyway, because you are investing for the long haul regardless of what the stock market does this year or next, right? RIGHT!?

HOW *YOU* MONEY

Jess & Kristen from Decatur, GA 🏞️

Occupations: We’re both public school teachers
Salaries: Combined income = $180K. We also make approximately $5K a year being an Airbnb host.

Paycheck deductions: Insurance & taxes each month = $4,000
Housing: Mortgage/insurance payment is $1,400/m. But we pay $1,700/m
Other Debts: None!
Living expenses: ~$2,800

Leftover savings each month: Approx $6,500/m

How are you investing your excess savings each month?
We always carry an emergency fund of $75K year-round.

Each January, we max out both of our Roth IRAs and then invest the remainder in our brokerage accounts on a monthly basis. Between the two of us, we invest around $40K into the market each year on average. Sometimes our emergency fund reaches $100K and then we invest one lump sum, like $25K into index funds. Then our emergency fund drops back to 75K. (making 4%!!!!)

Biggest “craft beer equivalent” splurge:
Craft beer and travel.

Best savings hack/advice:
Well, that's a good question that I feel like I have a few answers for. However, I would say the most important wealth-building strategy we implement is keeping the same lifestyle we had prior to making as much as we do today. Basically, we are still living the same life we were when we had a combined income of $100K. So, don't give into the so-called "lifestyle creep" so many fall victim to. We also chose not to have children. Financially speaking, this didn't hurt our current financial situation.

Biggest money challenge right now?
Keeping our spending roughly the same as it was prior to inflation, during this stretch of inflation.

Recent money win and how did you celebrate?
BOGO at Publix!

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Wishing you an awesome week, doing what you do best!! Byeeeeee! 👋

Best friends out 🍻