Good morning! And welcome to the final newsletter of 2023…

It’s been a killer year at HTM:

• We tasted and reviewed 104 new beers 🍺

• The podcast had 8,016,759 new downloads 🎧

• We added 133 new blog posts to the website 👨‍💻

• Plus wrote another 59,100 words in these newsletters 💌

• And HTM turned 6 years old this month! 🎂

From the bottom of our hearts — THANK YOU — for listening, reading, sharing, and continuing to inspire us.

Cheers to a great year in the books, and to an awesome new one just about to start!

OK, let’s get to the money stuff! 👇👇👇

TO DO

Start Next Year's Sinking Fund 🎁

I know… buying more presents is probably the last thing on your mind right now. But the longer you give yourself to save, the less it hurts each year.

This week: Start a sinking fund for next year's holiday season.

Set aside an account, an envelope, or digital money bucket and start moving small bits of cash into it. You'll thank yourself come Dec 2024!

SAVING

2024 Money Challenges 🕹️

Want to make saving and investing a little more fun next year?… Start (and commit to finishing) a money challenge!

There are a ton of financial challenges around the internet... But we like kicking off the new year with these four below because they last an entire year, help develop solid habits, and are realistically achievable for most folks!

A No-Spend Challenge is when you cut something completely out of your life and budget. If you’re trying to change a daily habit or correct a spending vice, this is the challenge for you. Here is a printable check-off chart to keep you on track!

Maxing out your Roth IRA is a priority over most other account types. The contribution limit for next year is $7,000, so transferring ~$134 a week into your Roth will get you there (or $583/month). Here’s a 52-week Roth tracking sheet you can print for this!

The 52-Week Savings Challenge is an incremental way to save more and more as the year goes on. You start by saving just $1 in week 1, $2 in week 2, $3 in week 3 etc…. And by the end of the year, you’ll have accumulated a cool $1,378 total! Print this sheet if you want to track this challenge!

And my personal favorite — the Sell Your Stuff Challenge… Each week, you find something around your house that you never really use and post it for sale online. Selling 52 things next year means a cleaner home, reducing waste, and saving all that cash! Here’s a printable chart to keep tabs on your savings!

Soooo…. Which challenge are you going to begin next year? (actually a better question —> which challenge are you going to FINISH next year?)

Related stuff:

• 👨‍💻 HTM Blog: 14 Other Money Challenges to Try

• 💰 Get a Roth: How to Open a Roth IRA (for those that haven’t done it yet!!)

TOGETHER WITH CARD RATINGS*

Earn $900 Bonus Cash Back 💸

Got a small business, side hustle, or do you earn any 1099 contractor income? If so, opening a business credit card can let you take advantage of bigger and better reward programs…

With the Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card, you can earn $900 bonus cash back after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. There’s no annual fee to worry about, plus you get 1.5% cash back on all purchases, with no limits.

Check out more details here. Or look through all top cash back cards here!

_{*Advertiser Disclosure: How to Money has partnered with CardRatings for our coverage of credit card products. How to Money and CardRatings may receive a commission from card issuers.
*User Generated Content Disclosure: Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.}

INVESTING

Inflation vs. HYSA 💵

Today’s chart is from Axios, showing the US inflation rate compared to the highest-paying HYSA accounts over the last 7 years.

As you can see, a nice wide gap opened in 2023. This allowed cash savers to earn interest at a faster rate than the damage inflation inflicted. 👇👇👇

Woohoo! It’s been a great year for savers.

BUT — just how many Americans are actually taking advantage of HYSA’s?… This recent survey shows that only 18% are. The majority of people are still using plain old checking/saving accounts with the crummy big banks, earning them almost no interest at all (and losing their shirts to inflation every day)

While we certainly love High Yield Accounts for stashing cash and saving up for short-term goals, there’s also a big disadvantage when folks get too comfortable and “over-save”. Keeping too much money in a HYSA over time (and not investing it) will hurt your long-term growth. A 5% yield on savings is great, but wouldn’t it have been better to take advantage of the 20%+ growth in the stock market this year!?

The bottom line: Your basic e-fund and short-term savings should be kept in a HYSA. If you don’t have one, you’re missing out on free money and higher interest. Check out one of our personal faves, CIT which is paying north of 5%! Excess savings, however, should be invested. History shows us that the market will outperform whatever HYSA’s are doing in the long run!

Related Stuff:

• 🎥 Ben Felix: Why Cash is a terrible long term investment

• ⚙️ Refresher: The 7 Money Gears

• 🆚 Cash vs. S&P500: Historical Returns (cash is never king for long)

ICYMI

Cool happenings around the interweb…

Internet Speeds 🤷‍♂️
How much internet speed do you actually need at home? This new calculator over at Consumer Reports might help you decide. If you’re currently paying for a higher speed plan than your household requires, could you downgrade and save a few bucks?

Thrifty 🛍️
Goodwill launched a nationwide online store about a year ago… And it’s growing very nicely as more stuff gets added each day! Shopping secondhand can be a real money saver. Keep it in mind as you shop for clothes, etc.

Money > Looks 💅
A new survey from Northwestern Mutual shows some interesting stats about couples and money… Like, “almost half (49%) of Gen Z say financial compatibility is more important than physical compatibility.”

Weird Finance 🎧
Joel made a guest appearance on the Weird Finance podcast with Paco de Leon. It was a fun chat about investing in relationships and how that impacts personal financial health!

2024 Outlook 😳
A new Bankrate survey shows most Americans (63%) don’t think their personal financial situations will improve in 2024. Why the bleak outlook!? Inflation is the biggest culprit, as well as stagnant wages. (A good reminder that if you want things to improve in your financial life, you gotta roll your sleeves up and make changes yourself!)

Welp, that’s it for now! Wishing you all a lovely last week of 2023 and a big HAPPY NEW YEAR celebration!!!

Best friends out! 🍻