Good morning, HTM family!

“I think the key to happiness is maximizing each day. So if you’re unhappy, here’s a simple prescription: Live harder.”
– Laird Hamilton

A great reminder for this week: When you pack as much “living” as you can into your days, that’s when small victories and beautiful moments begin to present themselves. 😉

OK, now onto the money stuff… 👇👇👇

TO DO

Ask for a Credit Limit Increase ☝️

Your mission this week: Call your credit card company and ask them to increase your credit limit.

Although you probably don’t need access to more credit, increasing ⤴ your available credit will decrease ⤵ your overall utilization ratio, which has a positive impact on your credit score.

This is one of the quickest ways to boost your credit score, and many card issuers are able to approve your request and make changes immediately!

TIME MGMT

The Price of 60 Minutes… ⌚️

According to a new Empower survey, American’s think their time is worth $240 per hour, on average.

Is it just me, or does this sound crazy high?

Based on a 40 hour work week (and 50 x weeks year), this works out to be $480,000 per year! Here are the survey results broken, by generation…

Knowing how much your time is worth can be incredibly helpful. But, if you’ve inflated or over-exaggerated the value of your time (I’m looking at you millennials!) it might cause more harm than good.

⏳ How to calculate your “hourly wage”:
Take your annual salary, and divide it by 2000 (assuming 50 weeks worked a year and 40 hours a week). For example, someone making $100,000 a year = $50 per hour.

🤷‍♂️ Why it’s helpful to know:
With your hourly wage in mind, you can use it to help evaluate whether tasks are worth spending time on. Or, when it’s ok spending money to reclaim spare time. Things like:

• DIY fixes or maintenance: Just because you CAN change your own car oil, should you? If it takes you 2 hours and your time is worth $50 an hour, you might be better off paying a pro $70 and saving that time.

• Shopping: Consider the time that goes into saving a few bucks when buying things. If you spend 4 hours comparing products just to save $10, it might not be worth it. But spending 10 minutes to find a coupon that can save you $50+... that’s a great time investment!

• Outsourcing: Depending on the cost, you can determine whether it’s worth paying others to do things you don’t want to do. Housecleaning, landscaping, random chores or errands.

• Comparing 9-5 jobs: Commute time, getting ready in the mornings, working after-hours, travel for work, etc. Including these time costs in your hourly rate can help you compare different workplaces and how much you’re actually getting paid.

• Side gigs & freelancing: Valuing your time correctly gives you the confidence to charge an hourly rate that’s truly worth it for you.

⚠️ Cautions and considerations:
Of course, it’s not always so cut and dry. If you only focus on the financial aspect of a decision it could degrade your happiness. Things to consider:

• What do you enjoy? Hey, if you love changing your oil and spending 3 hours fiddling with your car, do it! The same goes for low-paying side hustles and hobbies. It’s OK to spend time (and money!) on the things you love, even if it doesn’t make sense to others.

• Don’t outsource too much: Just because your hourly rate might be $50 an hour, it doesn't mean you should farm out ALL work under that threshold so you can sip lemonade all day. (not that you shouldn't have leisure time, just know the tradeoff!). It's also hard to put the genie back in the bottle. If you start hiring folks to do those services for you, you begin to think you can't live without them.

• Time > money: In many respects, time is invaluable. Because it’s a limited resource you can never get more of. If you’re 70 years old and have $20M+ saved, you’ll want to base most daily decisions on time, no matter the cost.

More Resources:

• 🔖 “Time is Money”: Ben Franklin’s infamous quote

• 👨‍💻 HTM Blog: When to DIY or Hire a Pro

• 🎧 Podcast: HTM Ep#99 - Benefits of Knowing Your Hourly Rate

TOGETHER WITH BETTERMENT*

With Cash Reserve, our high-yield cash account, you can rest assured your money will be putting in the elbow grease—earning 11x the national average**. Get started today.

HOUSING

Home Equity Boom 🏠

Today’s chart is from Axios, showing how American’s home equity has grown over the last couple decades. WHOA!

This is just for properties with mortgages (about ~40% of US properties are owned free and clear) 👇👇👇

A couple thoughts:

1. Get rid of PMI: For owners who purchased within the last few years and are paying private mortgage insurance, you might be able to request PMI cancellation based on a new assessment. If you have more than 20% equity you can contact your lender to discuss options to remove PMI.

2. Beware of the “wealth effect”: Generally speaking, when people “feel richer”, they tend to spend more money (even if it’s just paper wealth, not increased income). So for all of you who have new-found home equity, it doesn’t necessarily mean you should inflate your lifestyle. Congrats on the net worth increase — now, don’t blow it!

3. Should you refinance or get a HELOC? Given today’s interest rates, it’s hard to justify pulling out home equity. The cost of borrowing that money will likely be higher than the ROI wherever you put it. The answer for most folks is to leave it untouched. Home equity should be seen as a part of a broader, balanced financial strategy rather than a piggy bank or source of liquidity.

All in all, skyrocketing home equity is nice for homeowners — but there are real limitations to this “wealth”.

Related stuff:

• 👨‍💻 Ask HTM: Should You Borrow Money to Invest?

• 💸 Renters: Tips to Negotiate your Rent (now that the rental market is slowing!)

ICYMI

In other news…

Price Cuts 🛒
Good news for shoppers — Big retailers like Target have begun lowering prices for the summer. Costco, ALDI, and Walmart are following suit. There’s a lot of competition in the grocery market, so look out for specials and promos!

Flights 🛩️
Woohoo! Southwest Airlines routes are now included on Google Flights searches. And for those flying internationally, prices are dropping in 2024 compared to last year, especially folks booking early and being “flexible” with travel plans.

Old Rusty 🚘
We’re big fans of driving your car ‘til the wheels fall off. Well, it seems more Americans are doing just that! The typical car in the US now remains on the road for 12.6 years, on average.

Child Care 😳
New data shows that childcare costs in 2023 were more expensive than rent for the average American family (based on 2 kids, and national average rent). Cray cray!

S&P 500 vs. US Economy 📈 
Great article and stats from Ben Carlson… “If you ever find yourself thinking that the stock market doesn’t make a lot of sense that’s because sometimes it marches to the beat of its own drummer. At times that drummer is a raging lunatic.”

Wise words 📝
Stephen King shares “What I’ve Learned” via Esquire mag. Just a cool and thought provoking list of lessons from a 76 year old writing legend.

HOW *YOU* MONEY

Deacon H, 41 Scottsdale, AZ 🌴

Occupation: Financial Blogger
Salary: $100k

Paycheck deductions: ~$2,100
Housing: $1,500
Other Debts: n/a
Living expenses: ~$5,800

Leftover savings each month: ~$500

How are you investing your excess savings each month?
We put $6500 or more into retirement accounts and buy index funds

Biggest “craft beer equivalent” splurge:
Four Peaks Wow 🍺

Best savings hack/advice:
We started a side business which eventually replaced my full time job and gave us more resources to tackle our debt.

Biggest money challenge right now?
Income has decreased significantly over past couple years

Recent money win and how did you celebrate?
We paid off our home and became completely debt free!

Anything else you want to share?
Paid off $52,000 of debt in 18 months when we got married. Also, Joel and Matt are awesome!

Editors note: Want to be featured in an upcoming newsletter? Fill out this HYM form and share your story! (Don’t worry, we won't publish anything without you approving it first)

Cheers to a great week ahead — remember to live harder! 💪

Best friends out! 🍻