Happy Tuesday, HTM family!

Have you ever called the Peptoc Hotline when you’re having a bad day?..

For those of you that don’t know: If you’re ever feeling sad, down, unmotivated, etc… Just pick up the phone and call (707) 873-7862.

It has a bunch of pre-recorded messages from school kids that will cheer you up and put a smile on your dial. 😊

Try it out! Kids are experts at simple happiness. Sometimes us grumpy adults just need reminding.

OK, now let’s get to the money stuff! 👇👇👇

TO DO

Get Started Early! 🎁

There’s no rule that says you can’t buy holiday presents NOW. In fact, late October —> early November is an awesome time to start shopping for gifts, because it allows you to watch/wait for deals, and avoid supply chain issues and last minute convenience prices!

This week: Start thinking about your gift list. Try and nail some of the tougher gifts ASAP to make things cheaper and easier before the rush begins! 🧑‍🎄

SAVING

Personal Finance in USA vs. Other Countries… 🌎

Did you know… In Brazil 🇧🇷, the revolving credit card interest rate is 417% APY!?!?!

And I thought the US was bad at ~28%... I wonder if having more ridiculous rates here would make people think twice about getting into heavy cc debt?

Here are some other interesting finance factoids from around the world:

• In Australia 🇦🇺: All businesses contribute a mandatory 11% of salary into a worker’s retirement plan, called superannuation (it’s like our version of a 401k). This is on top of their salary, even if the worker doesn’t make any contributions themself. 🤯

• In Luxembourg 🇱🇺: The average household savings rate is ~18%! That’s about double what US long term savings average is. Must be a lot of early retirees over there!

• The Ivory Coast 🇨🇮: Is the highest taxed country, with a top income tax rate of 60%! Could you imagine being taxed 60 cents out of every dollar you earn? (Folks in the Bahamas pay no income tax!)

• In Argentina 🇦🇷: They are dealing with 113% inflation rates this year! OUCH. Kind of makes our current 4-6% seem really small.

• Denmark 🇩🇰 & Norway 🇳🇴: Both of these countries tie first place for having the highest financial literacy, at 71%. (Probably has something to do with the mandatory financial education for all 7th-9th grade students!) In the US, our financial literacy rate is 57%, and there’s a decent variance from state to state.

• In Finland 🇫🇮: It’s very uncommon to fix your mortgage interest rate. Most (over 90%) of Finns have variable rate mortgages — kind of scary in times of rising interest rates! In the USA it’s almost an inverse, with 90% of homeowners having 15 or 30-year fixed term loans.

• In Panama 🇵🇦: Public universities are FREE for everyone, including international students! Probablemente querrás dominar el español!

• In Singapore 🇸🇬: If you want to own a car, you need to bid for a certificate of entitlement which costs ~$106,000 USD!! That’s ON TOP of the price of the car itself, taxes, reg, insurance, etc.

As interesting (and scary) as it is to learn about how these countries handle money, what really matters is the opportunities/guidelines YOU have available in your situation.

If you’re in the USA 🇺🇸:

• Open a 401k and get a match if you have the option!

• Start contributing to a Roth IRA every year

• Buy cheaper, used cars (or utilize cheap public transport/bike)

• Go to cheaper in-state universities (or a local community college)

• Maximize credit card points

• Use fee-free banks and brokerages

• Live well below your means

Related stuff:

• 💰 2024 Contribution Limits: The contribution limits for most retirement plans will increase next year! Woohoo!

• ✅ The 7 Money Gears:  What to do with your money, next.

TOGETHER WITH EMPOWER*

Automated (and free!) Expense Tracking

It’s hard to direct your future dollars if you don’t know where your past ones are being spent! That’s why tracking expenses is one the of cornerstones of personal finance.

Empower (used to be called Personal Capital) is a fin-tech app that connects to all your credit cards/bank accounts and monitors all of your spending. Then it neatly groups and summarizes all your transactions so you can make the best budgeting choices going forward!

If you don’t track your expenses currently and have no idea where your money goes, check out Empower. It’s free. And it will change your life.

INVESTING

A Winning Mindset 💡

Found this graphic inside Brian Feroldi’s newsletter a while back, and it sparked some thoughts on how to stay positive during events outside of your control… 👇👇👇

We cant control what the stock market is doing. But we can control our attitude and during the ups and downs. There’s always a positive side.

Reminds me of another article recently about how being an investor is both very easy and very tough right now…

Investing is easy because: We have a huge amount of data, history, and resources to learn from and be wiser. We have access to extremely low cost funds, free tools to self-manage our money. Plus, technology is making things more convenient every day.

Investing is tough, also, because: Having too much information and too many options can be overwhelming. Self-managing your retirement funds can be stressful, and overstimulating news makes it difficult to think long term and stay patient.

There are always two ways to look at things. Two scripts we can tell ourself. A positive side and a negative side.

Our ongoing advice is: Dwell on the positives — especially for stuff that’s outside of your control. It’ll make your money journey a happier one, and will cultivate a healthier attitude towards finances in general!

Related Reads:

• 📉 DCA Wins Again: Dollar Cost Averaging in a Bear Market via Ben Carlson

• 🤷‍♂️ Stop Worrying: Is the Stock Market as Bad as it Seems? via Nick Maggiulli

• 🎙 Episode 129: Becoming Financially Optimistic

ICYMI

What else is buzzing…

RIP Silent Hero 🪦
One of our favorite humans and role models, Chuck Feeney, died last week at age 92. Chuck built up an $8 billion fortune, and then spent his life giving it all (yes, ALL of it) to charity — mostly anonymously! What a legend.

EV Credits 🔋 
Good news for all you EV shoppers... Starting January 1st you’ll be able to get federal tax credits immediately when you purchase (instead of waiting to until you file your tax return). The credits are $7,500 off the sticker price of an new *eligible* EVs or $4,000 off the cost of a used EV.

Shopping Trends 🎁
A new PWC survey shows shopping insights for the upcoming holidays. Interesting stats, like…. “38% of women want gift cards this holiday vs. physical gifts”. 😳

Good Looks = 👎
Apparently ugly people are better at picking stocks!?!? “In this paper, we study the relationship between stock fund managers’ facial attractiveness and fund outcomes. Utilizing the state-of-art deep learning technique to quantify facial attractiveness, we find that funds with facial unattractive managers outperform funds with attractive managers by over 2% per annum.”

Home Sales 🏡
Here’s a chart from Visual Capitalists, showing the 30-year fixed mortgage rate vs. existing home sales over time. “high mortgage rates + rising home prices + low inventory = US housing affordability is at it’s lowest rate since 1989“

HOW *YOU* MONEY

Maddie & Joe, 35/38, Los Angeles, CA

Occupations: HS Teacher & Freelance Writer
Salary: ~$130k/y combined

Paycheck deductions: ~1,000 taxes
Rent: $2,500
Other Debts: N/A
Living expenses: ~$4,000/m

Leftover savings each month: ~$3,500

How do you invest your excess savings each month?
We save some for self-employment taxes, some for our Roths, and move the rest into our main brokerage account when cash savings gets too high. TBH we’ve almost reached FI already so we're starting to take our foot off the gas saving/investing. Kind of just coasting right now.

Biggest “craft beer equivalent” splurge:
Happy hours!

Best savings hack/advice:
We leaned a bit too hard into rental properties when we first started out, which ended up backfiring because we lost enthusiasm as our portfolio grew bigger with more headaches to manage. So my advice for younger folks is to “begin with the end in mind”. Think about your future ideal portfolio and don’t go overboard in one particular investment type. Oh, and if you earn 1099 income, open a Solo Roth 401k – it’s a secret weapon not many people use.

Biggest money challenge right now:
Finding the balance between spoiling our kid with everything we never had growing up vs. giving him nothing and making him work for it all.

Recent money win and how did you celebrate?
Found an old gift certificate to a fancy spa someone bought for me several years ago. Celebrated with champagne and relaxing with a friend!

**Editor’s note: This How You Money segment is one of our favorites in the newsletter because it reveals how everyone handles money differently according to our different circumstances. Help us keep these profiles going by filling out the HYM form and sharing your story!. (Don’t worry, we won't publish anything without you approving it first)**

That’s it for now! Cheers for reading and have a wicked day ahead! 💪

Best friends out! 🍻

PS. There’s also an emergency “Callin’ Oates” hotline if you’re having a bad day — just call (719)-266-2837 to hear some immediately soothing Hall and Oates music to cheer you up!