Dear everyone:

It has come to our attention that some of you are planning to actually SPEND MONEY this Black Friday 🤮.

Sooooo…. in order to distract you, we will be recording a LIVE podcast show starting Friday morning at 4am, where we will read to you for 96 hours straight all the boring and outdated money books we’ve collected over the years (starting with Dave Ramsey’s Total Money Makeover) and by the time we are done, you’ll be so brainwashed with penny-pinching advice that you will never even think about participating in a consumeristic holiday, ever again!

Sound like a good plan?

OK, we’re kidding. We’re actually not totally opposed to Black Friday or Cyborg Monday…or whatever it’s called…. As long as folks are getting solid deals for things they were going to buy anyway, it’s all good.

Just try not to fall prey to the marketing tactics and spend on loads of dumb stuff you don’t actually need.

OK, good. Let’s get on to the newsletter! 👇👇👇

TO DO

I’ll just take a water, please 🥛

Did you know… As an industry standard, restaurants mark up alcohol by about 3-5x!?!? And that’s before tax and tip.

So a quick way to save money and cut down your restaurant bills (without going out any less) is to simply skip the beverages at restaurants. Doesn’t have to be every time — but exercising the phrase “I’ll just have water today please” will make your wallet much happier. 😎 Try it!

GIVING

Better Gift Giving Tips 🧑‍🎄

We’ve all been there… You open a Christmas gift and immediately get a sinking feeling because it’s something you never wanted and will probably never use 😩

Or worse — maybe you’ve given a gift like this to someone else and accidentally made them feel this way? Oh no!

Well, here are a few thoughts and tips to try and protect against that this year…

• Just ask: 🤷‍♂️ Christmas gifts don’t have to be a surprise. Most adults will happily forgo the surprise element to make sure they receive a gift they’ll actually use and appreciate. So if you’re on the fence about a particular gift idea, consider asking the person what’s on their wish list.

• The “don’t want” list: 🚫 OK, so maybe asking people flatly what they want can take the fun out of it. Instead, ask them for a couple of examples of things they *do not* want. It gives them the chance to honestly narrow down your idea criteria. (For example, if someone asked me I would probably say “I prefer to buy my own clothes. Then hopefully would stay away from clothing items.)

• Replace a “worn out” thing: 💙 If the person you’re buying for has something, in particular, that’s extremely worn out, chances are they love it and use it A LOT. No need to reinvent the wheel. Replacements or upgrades are very thoughtful because they show you take notice of what they use/do.

• Cash with a purpose: 💸 Everybody loves receiving cash or gift cards. But sometimes it can feel a little impersonal, so it’s nice to think up or write out a few things they can put the money towards. For example, “I saw an awesome candle-making kit that you might love, but maybe you want to use this money for another project instead? It’s up to you, my creative friend!”

• Pool money (and ideas!) together: 👨‍👩‍👧‍👦 There’s still plenty of time before Christmas to coordinate and chat with family members about an organized gift exchange, or to pool money together in order to buy higher-end quality gifts. This can be a really effective strategy if we’re talking about buying an experience like renting a cabin in the woods for a weekend family get-together.

• Honest conversations: ✋ You’re not the only person trying to have a frugal/fun Christmas — Chances are most friends and family members would welcome discussions on how everyone can save on gift buying (without reducing the fun of course). Setting spending limits, splitting meal costs and chores evenly, etc.

• One in, one out: 🎁 If you’re worried about gifts creating clutter in your home (especially kids’ toys!) institute a “one in, one out” policy where for every item you bring into your home you have to get rid of or give away one thing. This teaches kids to be mindful of clutter, helps them understand giving, and keeps your house clutter-free too!

(Feel free to ignore all this stuff if you crush Christmas each year!)

If your family holidays are morphing out of control, it might be time to reign in the spending and remember what Christmas is really all about! (drinking eggnog 😉)

Related stuff:

• 🎙 Podcast Ep 439: A Very Merry Minimalist Christmas w/ Meg Nordmann

• 👨‍💻 HTM Post: Making a Holiday Spending Plan

TOGETHER WITH MINT MOBILE*

Buy 3 Months, Get 3 Months 📲

Woot woot!! Here’s a Black Friday deal we approve of!!! Mint Mobile is back with a killer promotion!!! Buy 3 months of service, and get 3 months free.

Let's say you switch to an "unlimited everything" plan... you'll only pay $90 for 6 months of service (with NO contract)

Mint Mobile already features the lowest prices in the cell service space - even without any promotions! So if you're paying more than $30 per month for cell service, check out Mint mobile plans for you and your family. (Then put all your excess savings towards investments!!!! 🤑)

SAVING

Streaming Costs 📈

Today’s chart comes from The Verge.

It shows the increasing costs of popular streaming services over the past few years (premium tier plan prices) 👇👇👇

We talk a lot about subscriptions and how sneaky their cost structure is. Many folks grossly underestimate how much they pay each month. And with rapidly increasing costs, it’s just making the problem worse. (Yes, more price hikes are expected to come in the near future).

We’re not saying subscriptions are evil and you should cancel everything. But it’s a good reminder to audit your subs regularly and ask yourself if you’re still getting value from that service. Things have likely changed since you first signed up. As prices rise, brutally reassess those subscriptions in your life!

Pro tip: You’ll save a decent chunk of money each month just by choosing the ad-supported version of your favorite streaming service. And if you opt to cancel and end up missing that service, it’s incredibly easy to re-subscribe!

Related Stuff:

• 🪐 Attention space nerds: NASA just launched a streaming service! It’s ad-free and requires no subscription.

• 📉 Rule of 173: A quick way to determine how much tiny monthly expenses would equal if you invested the money instead.

• 💳 Expense Tracking: If you don’t even know what’s being charged to your credit cards, you should read this and sign up for a free tool like Empower. It’s the easiest way to catch mistakes and reoccurring expenses you might need to get rid of.

ICYMI

In other news…

Tipping Culture 💁
Pew Research just released a huge survey about tipping norms across the US. Interesting stuff, like: Over 72% of Americans are being asked to tip more these days but less than 1/3 actually know when or how much is appropriate! We’re all confused!

Cooling Inflation 📉
October’s inflation report came in lower than expected last week (CPI increased 3.2% over the last 12 months). That ‘soft landing’ that everyone’s been hoping for just might be a reality!

2024 Tax Brackets ⚖️
New tax brackets are out, as well as an increased standard deduction for 2024. Married couples filing jointly have a standard deduction of $29,200 and single folks at $14,600.

EOY Checklist ✅
Before the year runs out it might help to run through our annual financial checklist and make sure you’re taking advantage of all the accounts and opportunities 2023 has to offer before it ends!

HOW *YOU* MONEY

John & Elisabeth; 46/36, Nova Scotia 🇨🇦

Occupations: John - COO, Elisabeth - Project Manager
Salary: $325,000/y CAD combined

Paycheck deductions: ~$2,200 CAD/month (don't have private health insurance so pay OOP for some things; living in Canada, basic medical care is all free).
Housing: $2,700/month mortgage + $970/month other housing expenses
Other Debts: None!
Living expenses: ~$5,000/month

Leftover savings each month: ~$15,000/month - across personal and (our own) business savings. Since the corporate tax rate is lower than the personal tax rate, we don’t pull extra money out of business until we need it, choosing to invest through the corporation in the form of unregistered short-term GICs.

How do you invest your excess savings each month?
- We’ve paid down our mortgage quickly (<7 years) - our accountant was not originally impressed with this tactic, but is now congratulating us as we happily watch interest rates rise. We max out monthly payments + prepayment opportunities.
- Term investments; in Canada, we primarily use TFSAs (tax-free savings account GICs).
- RRSPs (the Canadian equivalent of 401Ks)
- Education funds for children (RESP; when we contribute, it is partially matched by the Canadian government.

Biggest “craft beer equivalent” splurge:
John - good headphones, Star Wars LEGO
Elisabeth - thrifted blankets and storage containers from IKEA

Best savings hack/advice:
- Make a grocery list while consulting sales flyers (and cook according to what’s on sale).
- Buy second-hand (clothes, decor, tech, vehicle). We purchase 90% of our clothing secondhand.
- Leverage rewards programs. Our two favorites: 1) Aeroplan - a frequent flyer program, 2) Shoppers Drug Mart in Canada has a points program that, on average, provides $27 of savings for every $100 spent.
- We always pay off credit cards and use them exclusively as vehicles to buy what we need while earning points/cash-back.
- We check receipts after leaving stores - every time - and regularly catch errors.
- Maximize consumer goods warranty policies. We have gotten $1,000s of products replaced that were still under warranty.

Biggest money challenge right now:
Investing. We’re both risk-averse and have missed opportunities to make our money work for us. For example, we were coached to invest in Bitcoin when it was $2/per. We didn’t really have the money at the time but we look at that as one that “got away.”

Recent money win and how did you celebrate?
We got a notice that our mortgage is 80% paid off! No celebration yet…that will come when it reaches 100%!

Anything else you want to share?
We were willing to play the long game. On paper, less than a decade ago, we were living below the poverty line in subsidized housing while we co-founded two small businesses.

When we were finally able, we bought a house with a mortgage well below what the bank was willing to offer. We always aim to buy things that are well within our means (including many second-hand items), though admittedly those means have grown considerably.

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Wishing you a lovely Thanksgiving week. We are extremely grateful for YOU 🫵 

Best friends out! 🍻