Happy Tuesday, happy people!

Feel stuck? Like you’re not moving very fast right now? Well…

🌎 You’re on a planet orbiting the sun at ~16 miles per second.

☀️ Our sun orbits the milky way center at ~143 miles per second.

🌌 The milky way galaxy travels the universe at ~361 miles per second.

Basically, since you started reading this email, you have travelled about 5,000 miles!

You’re moving much faster than you think you are. In the universe, and in life.

Some of the best progress happens invisibly, in the background. Just keep doing what you’re doing – you’re progressing just fine 🙂

OK, onto the money stuff! 👇👇👇

TO DO

Freeze your credit! 🥶

Freezing your credit is just like locking your house... But instead of protecting your personal stuff, it protects your financial identity!

It's free, takes ~15 mins to do, and you can "unfreeze" just as fast if/when you want to apply for a loan. The only small pain is you have to create a userID and request a freeze with each of the 3 credit bureaus. Here are the links...

👉 Experian
👉 Equifax
👉 TransUnion

The good news though — once your accounts are established, freezing and thawing your credit is a simple 1-click process. Do it today — this 15-minute task could save you days/months/years of filing fraud paperwork and fighting to repair your credit if you become a victim of ID theft!

SAVING

Frugal Beauty Hacks 💅

Dear everyone: Matt would like to share his morning beauty routine and the cosmetics he uses daily to stay so handsome…

Kidding! Two dudes running a podcast means we don’t cover much about beauty products or glam hacks.

These notes are from our youngest and most promising team member, Brit DiTocco. She’s an expert on frugal and intentional living and loves any and all life hacks that help save money.

Tips to save money while still looking and feeling good…

• Buy reusable products: Makeup removers, eye masks, swabs, etc. It can get expensive to buy disposable single-use items. Look into reusable products.

• Trade acrylics for press-ons: Instead of nail appointments, try high-quality press-on nails 💅. You can get a few different designs to rotate throughout the year, nail glue, and remover for under $75. Then, as long as you take care of them, you should be able to reuse them multiple times.

• Viral heatless blowout: A few months ago, this heatless sock blowout blew up on TikTok, and it can be done with just a few heatless curling rods and a pair of socks.

• Search for “dupes”: If you have a favorite expensive makeup product, try googling the “best dupes” for it. I’ve found many new cheaper favorites this way! Same quality goods for far less = winning.

• Don’t even walk into Sephora: Every time I used to go into Sephora, I would leave having spent a MINIMUM of $50. So, I stopped going and instead started hitting up stores with drugstore and budget makeup brands, like Ulta Beauty.

• Use Vaseline for everything: Seriously, there are so many beauty uses for Vaseline most people don’t know about. Here’s a list of 44.

• The “ice cube trick”: Simply rubbing an ice cube on your face in the morning can improve circulation, help your skincare to penetrate your skin deeper, reduce puffiness, and temporarily reduce the appearance of fine lines and wrinkles.

• General self-care: Eat healthy, get enough sleep, wear sunscreen, and drink water. Simply taking care of your body keeps you from aging faster. Plus, you’ll feel better, which is always a win.

Read the whole post: 20 x Frugal Beauty Hacks to Look Good for Less

TOGETHER WITH YNAB*

Got a Spare 5 Minutes?

With YNAB, managing your money is quick and easy, and you can do it anywhere. It only takes 5 mins now and then to check in on your budget, update spending categories, or review your investments.

Start turning those little procrastination breaks 📲 into productive budgeting sessions! If you don’t have a solid budgeting system, try YNAB today.

P.S. YNAB is always free for college students 💪

INVESTING

What’s the Best Long-Term Investment? 🤷‍♂️

Every year, Gallup surveys Americans to ask which type of asset class they *think* is the best long-term investment.

Here are the trend lines over time 👇👇👇

Real estate, stocks, and gold are what people think are the best long-term investments at this moment in time.

While it’s fun looking at these charts and seeing what the average American thinks, here are a couple of things to keep in mind…

Beware of “recency bias”: As humans, we tend to favor recent personal events over long-term realities. When stocks are crushing it, we all love stocks! When local real estate is booming, we think it’s unbeatable. It’s important to widen your field of vision and zoom out when investing.

Diversification is still important: It’s OK to love one asset class over others. But, it doesn’t mean it’s the only thing you should invest in. If you have 100% of your portfolio invested in gold or HYSAs/CDs, you’ll miss out on upswings in other assets (and suffer greatly in years those assets don’t perform well).

Apples and Oranges: Comparing which asset classes are “best” or “worst” is kind of unfair because all these investments serve different purposes. They each have pros and cons as well as different risk profiles. There are multiple routes to growing long-term wealth!

All in all, the key to successful long-term investing lies in broadening your perspective, diversifying your portfolio, and recognizing the unique strengths of each asset class.

Related stuff:

• 📈 ALT Investments: Do You Need Alternatives to Get Rich?, by Nick Maggiulli

• 🤷‍♂️ New HTM Blog: How to Save for Retirement if You Don’t Have a 401k Plan

• 🏡 REI: How to Buy a Rental Property - Megapost

ICYMI

In other news…

Forgotten 529s 👩‍🎓
According to a recent Edwards Jones study, half of Americans don’t know what a 529 plan is! If this is you (and you want to save for your child’s future) check out this post on how to maximize 529 plans.

Mortgages 🏡
0% down mortgages are making a comeback. While these might sound nice, having zero home equity and bigger monthly payments is super risky. Even the smallest disaster can/will flip your world upside down. Put in the time to save up a down payment - even if it means waiting longer to buy.

Credit Errors 🙅‍♀️
A Consumer Reports survey just revealed that about 44% of people have errors on their credit report! Some errors were minor, but most were serious enough to affect their credit score. 😳

Ticketmaster 🎟️
The DOJ announced that they’re suing LiveNation, Ticketmaster’s parent company, in an attempt to break up the monopoly they’ve got. (They’re also allegedly selling customer data on the dark web 😬)

FreeFile 🥳
The IRS Direct File pilot program was a success, so they’ve announced it will be a permanent option next year. Yay for those with simple tax returns!

High Mileage 🚘
Consumer Reports just released their list of best high-mileage cars, and what to look for when buying them. (this is a paywalled article — but if you’re truly in search of a new car, it might be worth paying the $10 per month to access all the CR content, then cancel if/when you don’t need it anymore)

COMMUNITY

Cancel/Re-book Travel Hack

Awesome summer travel tip from the HTM Facebook Forum 👇

Many rental car companies (and hotels) offer free cancellation up until a couple of days before your booking. With fluctuating travel prices this year, it pays to keep track of how much you originally paid and jump on any price cuts leading up to your trip.

This works with Southwest Airlines, too. If flight prices drop, you can simply cancel/re-book and lock in the reduced rate. Safe travels!

Cheers for reading, and wishing you an awesome week ahead! ✌️

Best friends out! 🍻