Happy Tuesday, happy people!

Our old pal Winston Churchill once said...

"Success is the ability to move from failure to failure, without loss of enthusiasm"

Everybody fails. People fail all day – every day. Life is jam packed with failing. Especially when it comes to finances... Spending instead of saving, going over budget, making silly investment mistakes, etc.

But, failing is how we learn and get better. Failing means progress! It means you're taking action and doing stuff.

Just something to keep in mind after your next little setback... Don't beat yourself up. It's the attitude we maintain in between setbacks that defines us.

Keep going. Stay consistent. You're playing the long game (and you're gonna win in the end!) 😉

OK, on to the money stuff! 👇👇👇

TO DO

Sell An Old Device 📲

Most people have an old phone or two sitting in a drawer somewhere. And the time to get rid of it was yesterday! The value is only dropping each and every day — Why not see if you can get some cash for it?

SellCell, Swappa, and Gazelle are all cool marketplaces to buy/sell used tech. BuyBackWorld gives cash for broken devices and cracked screens. Apple Trade-In gives you credit towards Apple shops. (And if your stuff is too old or broken, they'll just recycle it safely and for free!)

This week, take 2 minutes and get a quote. Even if you only get 10 bucks, it's better than nothing. And it helps e-waste from piling up at the landfill. ♻️

DIY

It's Gardening Time! 🥕🥬🌶️

The best time to start planting a home garden is a few weeks before final frost (AKA right now! Or very soon for most peeps!!).

Growing food at home is super rewarding and enjoyable, but it can be a little daunting for beginners. Luckily, Matt dabbles in home gardening and has some great tips to get you started...

1. Choose the right location: Find a spot in your yard that gets at least 6 hours of sunlight each day and has well-drained soil.

2. Start small: It's easy to get excited and want to plant everything at once, but it's best to start with a small garden and expand as you gain experience. A 4' x 4' raised bed is a good size for beginners.

3. Grow what you'll actually eat: Choose plants that are easy to grow and that you and your family will enjoy eating. Some easy vegetables to start with include tomatoes, lettuce, beans, and carrots.

4. Prepare the soil: Before planting, remove any weeds and rocks and loosen the soil. You can also add compost or other organic matter to improve the soil's fertility.

5. Buying seeds: Costs vary depending on the source and the type of seeds you are looking for. Check out Walmart Seeds, Amazon Packs, Burpee, or Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for rare or specific stuff. Local nurseries are good too, plus you can ask questions and advice there!

6. Water regularly: A good rule of thumb is to water deeply once a week rather than shallowly more often.

7. Monitor for pests and diseases: Keep an eye out and take action early to prevent pests/diseases from spreading. This can include using organic pest control methods or sometimes just googling various problems will tell you a quick fix.

8. Enjoy the harvest! One of the best parts of growing your own food is harvesting and enjoying the fruits of your labor. Be sure to pick vegetables when they are ripe and use them in delicious recipes.

With a bit of patience and persistence, you can grow a thriving garden that provides fresh, healthy food for you and your family. It's fun, and depending on your success it can be really cheap!!

More resources:

• 📺 YouTube Channels: Epic Gardening, MIgardener, and Garden Answer

• 💻 Sites & Blogs: The Prairie Homestead, A Modern Homestead, The Micro Gardener, and Mother Earth News.

• 📲 Social Media: Insta/Pinterest/TikTok are great for inspiration and advice. Look for accounts and hashtags related to vegetable gardening, such as #growyourown, #urbangardening, or #organicgardening.

TOGETHER WITH POLICYGENIUS

The average life insurance policy costs just a few bucks more than your Netflix subscription. And it could save your family or loved ones from a messy financial crisis should something horrible happen to you. 🐻

We partner with Policygenius because they are free and shop around all the insurance carriers out there to give you the cheapest rates for your situation. No salespeople, no tricks. Just free quotes.

Here's a cool calculator if you don't know how much life insurance you might need. And here's an article we wrote about why you probably need life insurance and how cheap and easy it really is to get!

RETIREMENT

How Much is "Enough"?

Here's a chart that's been making the rounds the past week. It comes from a recent Bloomberg survey asking people how much *they think* they need to retire👇

About 30% of respondents in the US believe they need $3 million to retire comfortably. And a whopping 55% seem to think $5+ million is the minimum needed! Whoa! 🤯

Now here's some sad news, and some good news...

The sad reality is that most people won't ever reach $5 million in retirement savings. (We're not saying that to be mean!.. It's just that the median net worth in the US right now is about ~$122,000. Coupled with low savings rates and heavy consumerism, everyone reaching multi-millionaire status is just not probable.)

But here's the good news ---> Most folks don't need that much to retire. People always overestimate their "enough" number, and by a lot! The amount of money you actually need to retire depends on a variety of factors. Like your current lifestyle, expected future expenses, and how your money is invested.

As a general rule of thumb, a safe retirement number is about 25x your annual spending amount. Since the average annual spending for Americans right now is about $63,000 (and the average retiree household spends ~$50,000 per year), this means most people could retire with about $1.25 - $1.58 million.

Anyway, it's always fun to see these surveys and check out what everyone else thinks. But the thing that matters most is knowing YOUR personal lifestyle cost, and calculating your own numbers. Don't be discouraged by other people's money expectations. What the general public thinks has little to do with your "enough" number. 💪

Related stuff:

• 🛟 Safe Withdrawal Rate: Post explaining the 4% rule (how much you can take from your retirement savings once you retire)

• 🥸 For Early Retirees: Mr. Money Mustache's famous The Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement.

• ⏳ Time To Retire: Networthify has a cool little calculator which tells you when you might hit your retirement savings goal. It's based on your current income, expenses and savings rate - not a specific retirement number.

ICYMI

Newsy news news...

Stores Closing 🏪About ~800 retail stores are closing in 2023, so you might be able to snag some last minute deals. Here's the list of the companies via Insider. (about 1/2 of them are Bed Bath & Beyond and subsidiaries, others include Tuesday Morning, Gap, Banana Republic & Party City)

E-Bikes 🚲Electric car manufacturer Rivian is apparently making an e-bike, as they focus more on micromobility. This is cool news for anyone within the handful of US States that offer subsidies for e-bikes!

FSA ⛑️We just learned that 48% of people with Flexible Spending Accounts (FSAs) forfeit money each year because it doesn't "roll over" like an HSA account! If you have a FSA ---> use it or lose it! There are plenty of places to spend it, including Amazon FSA Store, for eligible spending.

FRIENDS OF HTM

Ben Carlson - A Wealth of Common Sense

It's easy to over-complicate finances and investing. That's why Ben Carlson's blog and podcast exist... He wants to simplify money stuff so it's less confusing for regular folks!

We had the pleasure of chatting with Ben a couple years back on episode 235. He's a super sharp dude, with great analogies and relatable stories about investing.

Simplicity trumps complexity when it comes to investing. Check out his award winning blog — A Wealth of Common Sense.

Wishing you an awesome day and week ahead! Don't forget to fail fast, fail often, and keep your head up no matter what.

Best friends out 🍻