Hello friends!!

Happy New Year!! It’s nice to see so many of you at the gyms and yoga studios and veggie aisles these days :) Everyone’s so energized and motivated – be sure to do whatever it takes to KEEP UP WITH IT!

Remember – even if you fail one day or two (or two hundred days), it doesn’t matter – it’s literally in the past. All that matters is what you do TODAY! So get back out there and try again!! A record of “1” in a row is better than a record of “none” in a row. #TRUTHBOMB

** Awkward transition **

Did I tell you my best friend and I created a new project recently? And by recently, I mean almost a year ago but I keep forgetting to tell you about it because I just poured over my archives here and can’t find a mention of it anywhere?? ;)

Yup, my boy Nate St. Pierre and I devised it* late one night on a rare visit together (we’ve been internet besties for around 14 years now but only see each other in real life maybe once every few years!) and the very next morning we built it and put it out into the world.

Though for once it’s a project not actually meant for the *world*, but for a specific *person* who made our day.

It’s called, I Met You Today, and the concept is simple:

1. Whenever one of us meets someone who blows us away with their kindness, genuineness, or brilliance, we hand them a card that says “I met you today. Check this site in 24 hours: IMetYouToday.com”
2. We then post up a note letting them know how much they impacted us!
3. They then (hopefully) remember to come back and visit the site to see what a difference they made to us :)

Now some of us are better at remembering to pass out these cards than others**, but at the end of the day we show them some love and hopefully it brings them as much joy as they brought us. If nothing else, it gives us the chance to think through these encounters and put ’em down on paper, that way when we’re feeling depressed about the state of the world we can look back at the archive of people who are actually cool! Lol…

We’ve done about 10 of these so far, and you can find them here if any in particular pique your interest. Some are short, some are long, some are random, but every single one is from our heart:

• A Real Life Friend Request
• Old Paperbacks, With a Side of Ranch
• Back in the Game
• Namaste
• Free Cupcake
• Lunch at the Pier
• A Real Life Actual Phone Call
• Serotonin, Inked
• Let’s Give Hugs
• Unexpected Space Force

(Can you guess which ones *I* wrote vs those from Nate? ;))

It’s been a fun project and reminds me there’s still so much goodness in people if you pay attention enough. Anyone can hate on others (and we’re often quick to do so!), but it’s a lot harder to focus on the opposite. Maybe it’s time we change that this year? Feel free to steal this idea if you like it! You don’t need a website to do it – just open your heart and show them you care.

See you back here again sometime soon! I’m continuing The Year of The Flow so who knows what will be occurring next ;) From homeless shelters, to board games, to juicing, to yoga – it’s been a helluva unexpected year! And that’s just the way I like it!

You friend today, and always,

——————–

*Okay, so Nate actually came up with the main idea, but if it never gets fleshed out and put into the world does it really ever count?! ;)

**Hi, I’m the problem, it’s me… Nate is GREAT about handing out these cards the second he realizes he’s in the middle of a beautiful experience, but for me it usually takes a couple of days as I’m slow. It usually dawns on me when I catch myself telling loads of people about the experience later, and then I quickly hop onto the computer and write it up! Which of course is then way too late, lol, but often times I run into the person again so it’s more of a “I Met You A Few Weeks Ago Actually, But Still – Check Out This Nice Letter I Wrote To You on This Website – KTHXBYE!”

[This post, A New Project To Say “Thank You.”, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

What’s up y’all!

Stealing this idea from The Frugal Girl who free flows new things in her life every week, and thought I’d do the same as I’ve immersed myself into a LOT of things lately and kinda just want to blurt it out rather than neatly craft up individual posts… Unless you want a whole article on Pokemon?! Which I can certainly do for you!! ;)

Here’s what’s been brewing lately…

1) I joined a soccer league for the first time in 10 years! Except my friend who convinced me to join it didn’t tell me the games were at 10pm at night!! AT NIGHT! Can you imagine?! I didn’t think I could do it, but surprisingly once I hit the field I didn’t even notice and all my muscle memory came back and it WAS ON. We even played one game in the middle of a rain storm in the freezing cold! Haha… Of course, I’m one of the oldest ones out there at 43, but hey – It makes me feel younger just being surrounded by everyone ;)

2) I’m a yoga addict now! A chance encounter at a coffee shop led me to finally go for it after years of thinking about it, and now – four weeks in – I’ve already done around 25 classes! No joke.  I knew I would like it, but man – had no idea I would enjoy it THIS much, haha… I didn’t realize how powerful it would be for both my body AND my mind?

Here’s a short video I did on it after hitting 3 weeks if you’d rather watch that than read ;)

I just love the culture around it, and all the people, and *especially* all the words that are used throughout. Like “gratitude”, “mindfulness”, “kindness”, “energy”. One of the teachers even ends each session with “If you haven’t been told lately that you’re loved, I love you.” That hit me hard the first time I heard it!! Everyone’s so welcoming there…

I’ve also been experimenting with the different types of yoga too, like Restorative Yoga, Yin Yoga, Vinyasa Yoga, and most recently – Hot Yoga! Which is really something!! Haha… I almost passed out the first time I walked into the room, but my body has finally acclimated and it’s now one of my favorite ways to wake up in the morning. It’s so hard, and refreshing, at the same time!

(Also fun fact: my Wordle scores have been off the chain lately which I 100% attribute to yoga And now I can actually KEEP UP with all those young whippersnappers at my soccer games too! Lol…)

3) If all that exercise wasn’t enough, I also joined a Gym! Which was NOT something I ever would have guessed as I hate gyms, but as I mentioned in my personal newsletter last week when the world keeps hinting at stuff you have to listen… And for whatever reason, this voice keeps telling me to MOVE MY BODY more so for now at least I’m listening ;)

And it turns out gyms have other things than just weights too – like classes! So I’ve been very much enjoying their early morning Boot Camps which I alternate with the early morning Hot Yogas…. Apparently I thrive more in group sessions than being left to my own devices, lol…

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Quick aside:

I was trying to explain all these recent events to a friend the other day, and it dawned on me that I’ve basically replaced spending time on “online projects” with spending more time on “the project of ME”.

Instead of hitting the laptop at 5 am I’m now hitting the gym and yoga studio, and instead of watching clicks and traffic every day I’m now watching my body and general mood! It’s quite a shift for someone who’s so used to being stationary and looking at screens all the time….

And maybe something to consider yourself as well? When was the last time you worked on the Project of YOU?? Could you carve a little time away this week to build it out again?

It may not be soccer or yoga, but anything that improves your quality of life is worth spending time on. And I’ll tell you this much – just starting somewhere, *anywhere*, is enough to get the ball moving. As I recently read somewhere, “you must begin from where you are.” And I promise you it gets easier from there

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4) And lastly, the other new thing in my life lately is that I caved and I now collect Pokémon cards Which I blame on my boys who insist on me taking them to the card store every other day (!!), eventually wearing me down as I was so tired of waiting around doing nothing while they peruse! Which, incidentally, is also what led me to skateboarding the other year after taking them to skate parks and waiting around, haha… So I guess I can’t hate on them too much ;) And now I actually know what they’re talking about whenever they discuss Pokemon which of course they love! So dad FTW!

Here’s Mimikyu btw, my favorite who’s as cute as he is scary (and the one main card I’ve chosen to collect so far):

[He’s shy and hides underneath an old rag pretending to be Pikachu, lol..]

******

And then here are some updates on things that are OLD!

Veggie Juicing – Still going strong!! Though my family has dropped off from joining me so now I only need to make it every other day as it makes enough for two glasses which cuts back on a LOT of time… All that cleaning and prepping gets old fast, not gonna lie, but man are the benefits still worth it! My weight loss has stagnated, and actually started going back UP (I’m thinking maybe because of all the working out/yoga and building up more muscle?!) but the blood pressure is still low and I’m still avoiding most sugars and junk food too. So a great habit I plan on continuing

Volunteering – Dropped off a little since taking all those yoga classes, but just recently jumped back into it again and helping clean up/maintain our homeless shelter’s clothing closet. My fave! I haven’t seen Lizzy in a while, but hopefully that’ll change now that I’m back, and meeting a ton of other new friends in the process. You always tend to focus on the job at hand and the “why” behind volunteering, but really the best part of it is just *being there* with people and talking with them! At the end of the day we’re all the same and very much need connection.

Underwear Skipping – Remember when I tried going without underwear earlier this year???! Well, I’m happy/embarrassed to say that it’s stuck, haha… And usually only wear it now when I’m working out/yoga’ing because it’s just so much MORE comfortable without! I wish I’d done it my whole life! (And I KNOW some of you are doing it too because you’ve told me so, so don’t you give me that look ;))

Jigsaw Puzzles – While I was hooked there for a hot minute over the holidays, I actually can’t even tell you the last time I broke one out… Probably January?! It was fun while it lasted, but then I got tired of feeling so lazy and had to join Real Life again, haha… And I’m glad I did. Else none of those new things up there would have come to pass! Cuz puzzles take so dang long!!! I’ll probably whip one out again this upcoming holiday season (why do puzzles feel so good at Xmas??!), but my obsession there has come to an end.

*****

So there you have it! I’ve turned from a coffee shop reader/lazy puzzle person earlier in the year, to a gym/yoga/soccer ACTIVE person now here towards the end of it! Wouldn’t have ever predicted that, but as the Year of The Flow continues, I’m constantly being surprised at what life puts in front of me, and even more excited to see what’s coming next…

Now tell me what you’ve been up to! Any new and fun habits of your own forming? Has anything completely surprised you lately, for the better or the worse!? How are those finances going????

Probably good to at least talk about money for a second here since it’s still somewhat of a finance blog ;) As for me, the growth continues to climb with having so much invested in the stock market these days, but recently we stopped contributing to the pot with me being out of work and not wanting to siphon away too much from our savings. So that’s the *bad* news.

The good news, however, is that we more or less break even every month which means I can continue with this WifeFI adventure for however long we like without tapping into investments! And right now, “we” most certainly like ;) I’m sure I’ll stumble into some money making venture at some point, but for now – Namaste! The Project of ME continues!

Your friend in money and body (and soul),

PS: For more themes I’ve recognized over this past month, check out my latest newsletter (always free – and fun! – to subscribe to): Cascading Actions (And Watching For Hints)

[This post, The Project of “Me”, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

So… I started juicing recently and now I’m OBSESSED.

I don’t know why some things just click and others don’t (I’ve never been a veggie man in my life!) but here we are going into our 5th straight week now and I have yet to miss a single day without my new favorite green cocktail.

IT FEELS SO GOOD!!! And I blame you, Madiha, for introducing me to it!!

She wrote me this note last month and it’s completely transformed my eating habits:

*****

“Hey! Please watch the documentary, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead. Part 1 and 2 on youtube. The director, joe cross, did 40 days of green juicing exclusively to lose weight and cure himself of autoimmune skin diseases. It really works, God Willing. I hope and pray for your good health.”

*****

Of course at first I rolled my eyes and was skeptic as hell, because come on – it screams scam!! And MLM! And any other “fast fixes” out there! But I also know that sometimes things are legit (like FIRE, Britney Spears), and if someone took the time to recommend something to me I’m at least going to check it out for a minute and not be a dick….

So I loaded it up on YouTube and a few seconds turned into a few minutes, and a few minutes turned into 30 minutes, and before I knew it I had consumed the entire thing – and its counterpart, Fat Sick and Nearly Dead 2! – and immediately knew it was for me. It just clicked. As if Jesus himself came down to me and proclaimed “The time has come!! Drink your veggies!!” Lol…

I figured there were no downsides in trying either. Worst case I eat a lot of vegetables (*gasp*), but best case I get healthier and happier and just better feeling all around! Which is really saying something since I’m already a pretty happy guy, but hey – you can always strive to be *better* right?

Well, it’s now been over a whole month and I can confidently tell you this freakin’ juice works :) And before you roll your eyes too, let me just show you what’s in it so you know it’s literally just veggies! No magic pills or powder or herbs or whatever else people are hawking these days. It’s as natural as it gets.

[Kale, green apples, cucumber, lemon, celery, ginger root]

I just throw all this into the juicer – and voila – I’m sucking down more nutrients in this one helping that I normally would have in a month! And much more efficient than TRYING TO EAT ALL OF THIS too as a) there’s no way – bleh, and b) it hits your bloodstream much faster in juice form than chewing! (At least per the scientists in the doc).

And that’s all there is to it. No magic sauce, no powders, nothing.

I drink 1 of these every single afternoon, and then supplement it with a fruit/veggie/oats smoothie in the mornings and it’s completely revitalized me. I’m sleeping better. I’m feeling better. I haven’t had a headache in weeks (not that I got them too often, but usually after a coffee binge I would!! Lol) and so far not a single outbreak of my skin disease either (*knock on wood*).

Here’s the recipe for it if you’re already sold  ;)

“Mean Green Juice” Recipe:

• 1 cucumber
• 2 green apples
• 4 celery stalks
• 1 bunch of kale (if you can get it with stalks, get it! 8 stalks)
• 1 Lemon (or 1/2 a lemon, depending on your taste)
• Ginger root (only one inch worth!! Do not burn your face off by putting an *entire* root in like I did at first and almost spraying it across my kitchen cabinets! Ginger is no joke!)

The single best effect this has had so far though is that it’s completely infiltrated my *entire* habits around eating now.

Similar to waking up about your personal finances or relationships/etc, you start to see the bigger picture and realize how all these little habits you’ve formed over your lifetime has been holding you back. Like the bagel I used to have every single morning, or all the late afternoon snacks I’d need to keep me energized and filled up on the daily.

The last time I had a bagel has now been over a month (!!) and the last time I had a bag of chips or cookie was…. well, yesterday! I’m not a masochist!! LOL… But it was only the 2nd time I allowed myself to indulge in such a treat since this “juice awakening” and let me tell you – it tastes soooo much better when it’s not a “habit treat!” And if you can believe it, I’ve even turned down big juicy pieces of Pizza too… PIZZA!!! Somebody stop me!!

It’s like my eyes have finally been opened for the first time in 40 years, and I now realize how poorly I’ve been treating my body.

There’s been a handful of other interesting effects too:

• I don’t eat as many helpings during dinner anymore (instead of 2-3 per usual, it’s down to 1-2)
• I’m accidentally losing a little weight! (Down 10 pounds and back to my usual “norm” before getting sick last year)
• My blood pressure has dropped significantly (I was hovering around “hypertension” at 140-something over 70-80, and the past two weeks now averaging 115-125ish over 60-70! A pretty big drop!)
• I’m finally using all those things in the kitchen I never use. (Minimalism win!! Lol) Like the blender and peelers and all those extra sets of drinking glasses we’ve gotten as gifts but had never really needed until now! We go through soooo many glasses now with all these extra drinks added on!
• That nagging thought of “needing to be healthier” is slowly fading… (I no longer have those pangs of regret/wishful thinking about eating better, very much like my new volunteering efforts because I’m finally DOING SOMETHING ABOUT IT!)
• But probably the best side effect is how excited my kids are too :) Not only do most of them drink my concoctions every single day (even my 5 y/o!!) but one likes it so much that I told him he never has to eat veggies again if he continues it up, haha… Which is hilarious because a) there are SO MANY MORE VEGGIES in these drinks than the few we put on his table each day , but also b) he cannot STAND spinach to the point he has to crumple it up and down it with a large glass of milk every night *while plugging his nose*, and yet he doesn’t even notice it at all in these cocktails… It’s the perfect kid hack!

So yeah. Super wild and random this whole juicing phenomenon in my household right now, but again, like other things in life when something just feels right and clicks you gotta run with it as far as you can!

And if you’re wondering about the costs, yes – it does get pretty pricey as you’re just loading in sooooooo much food with every single drink. AND you constantly need to be buying more of it because only so much fits in your fridge and you want it to be as fresh as possible!! But – it also leads to less snacking and over-gorging yourself with food in general (at least if you have the same effects as I do), so that certainly defrays the costs. I may be spending loads more on vegetables every week, but I’ve also cut out 90% of the garbage!

The other pricey part can be getting your hands on the juicer itself. But until you’ve tried it and KNOW it will stick, just borrow one from your friends and family instead! I guarantee one of them has one stashed away in the back corner of their cabinets somewhere from failed attempts of their own, lol… Maybe even you too?

I borrowed one from my sister (pictured below) and will be forever grateful for it… Because unlike other experiments, you DO unfortunately need one of these guys to fully give it a go. A blender will get you partially the way there, but the juicer is where the magic lies.

I should also note that that’s exactly what this is here for me – an experiment. Something I’m trying out and hoping to do *more* of as time goes on, but for now just building up slowly and taking note of how it’s affecting me.

In the documentary the main subject (Joe Cross) takes it to an extreme level because he found himself in a pretty extreme situation: fat, sick, and nearly dead as he puts it ;) So he decided to try out a 60 day “juice fast” drinking nothing but this Mean Green juice and that’s it. No snacks, no meals, no dinners – nothing! Which of course makes it a compelling documentary to watch, if only to see if he survives in the end, lol…

But for me it was more of a wake up call realizing just how little veggies (or thought, really) I put into my diet on a daily basis. So as the inspiration struck I decided to just go for it and start juicing as a “supplement” to see how it goes rather than any “meal replacements.” And as you can see it’s already had some quite profound effects! (If you are interested in going the “meal replacement”/fasting route fyi, then beware you need to float it by your doctor first to make sure it’s safe!)

Oh, and the taste?! You would assume it’s gag worthy and anything but enticing, but it’s actually not that bad! It’s weird and *different* tasting, for sure, but it’s also oddly refreshing. And the bit of ginger you put in there gives it a nice little kick that you often don’t get with this “healthy” stuff. It literally feels like a shower for my insides every time I take a sip, haha… It cleans out all the dirt and bad stuff in there and makes it all clean and pretty again!

We’ve started incorporating other juices in our household as well to spice things up. Namely a beet one, and you can probably guess why it’s now one of the kids’ favorites ;)

[Recipe: 3 beets + 4 carrots + 2 oranges!]

All this to say that if any of this juicing stuff interests you here in the *slightest*, please please please AT LEAST watch the trailer of the doc and see if it inspires you! If it’s boring and lame then of course go on your merry way, but if it sparks something like it did for me, then keep going and see where it takes you!

Just adding one glass of green juice to your diet can be enough to improve your life!! You can never have too many veggies!!

*******

[Fat, Sick & Nearly Dead: “Overweight, loaded up on steroids and suffering from a debilitating autoimmune disease, Joe Cross was at the end of his rope and the end of his hope. With doctors and conventional medicine unable to help, Joe traded in junk food and hit the road with a juicer and generator in tow, vowing only to drink fresh fruit and vegetable juice for 60 days. Across 3,000 miles Joe had one goal in mind: To get off his pills and achieve a balanced lifestyle.”]

*******

Big thanks again to Madiha who accidentally turned me into this freak, and big thanks to you all for reading as well ;)

If any of you decide to give this a shot – please tell me how it all goes!! Friends who juice together, stay together!!

XOXO,

PS: I really liked this clip from someone who started juicing in the 2nd documentary … It really is the best part of it all:

“I didn’t realize how bad I felt for so long, until I felt this good… And, in fact, losing weight is probably an important but small portion of the whole equation. Just the introduction to juice into our household has significantly increased the amount of fresh fruits and vegetables that the entire family eats. And I think that’s really the main benefit of all this.”

Other fun juicing pics!

[Beet juicing!]

[Colorful ingredients of the beet juice]

[The perfect storage containers for extra juice/smoothies! Whenever I’m ready to down them I just pop off the lid and gulp! They’re awfully cute too.]

[This post, I’ve turned into a juice freak!! 🥦🥬🥕, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Good morning!

So after rejoicing in all my kids’ challenge accomplishments last week, I was feeling a bit left out and wished someone had granted ME a challenge I could try too ;) And particularly, one around exercising more as I’m now 20 pounds overweight from all the meds I’m on!

And then out of nowhere, BOOM – a challenge fairy swooped by and dropped off a doozy in front of me:

The 100/day #PushupChallenge:

100 push-ups every day, for an entire month – eek!

At first I hummed and hawed as it seemed like A LOT, but then I did what you always do when you secretly want to do something but are too scared to commit – I tweeted it out loud ;) And just like that, I got dozens of accountability partners and it was on!

So as of November 1st, the push-up challenge has officially been activated and so far it’s been going brilliantly… I’ve knocked out all 100 of them each day so far (amazing what you can do when you actually try hard enough!), I’m motivated, I feel like I’ve got way more energy, my confidence is up, and I’m actually having some fun! Exercising – hah!

But best of all – my family started seeing what I was doing and now they’re in on the action too :)

So what started out as a simple personal challenge, has now turned into a community of 20+ of us doing it together and cheering each other on – so cool.

We even have a spreadsheet tracking it all like nerds ;)

[Add in your own name and join us!]

It reminds me of my early days in the PF community… Where you stumble across a whole new world and one challenge leads to another, and then before you know it it’s gone on to completely change your entire life :)

Which I know is a long shot here since exercising really does NOT interest me and we’re only on day #3, lol, but I can see how the community and side effects of it all might change my mind. Or at least get me into the HABIT of exercising more which is really the ultimate point of it all!

The push-ups aren’t going to do much to my weight, but it IS getting me going so far, and if there’s one thing I know about myself it’s that I’m really good at habit stacking once I get rollin’. One of the guys doing this with us has even added *other* exercises to the challenge which I can totally see myself doing later too!

One habit leads to another, and then another, and then before you know it it’s just your usual routine!

This is the hope with it all, at least :) Perhaps next week I’ll burn out and have to come back here and delete this whole post, haha, but in this moment I’m feeling good and really hopeful it’s the start of a brand new (healthy) me.

If you need a push too, come on over and join us!! Just add your name to our spreadsheet or follow along on Twitter and we’ll gladly welcome you aboard.

Even if you can’t do the full 100, *any* will work as again, it’s the habit we’re really going for here. And if you prefer to stick with *money* tracking instead, I’ve got some goodies for you there too!

• The “Financial Snapshot” Spreadsheet
• The Early Retirement / FI Spreadsheet
• The “When Can You Retire” Spreadsheet (pay particular attention to the “years to live” line, lol…)

Whatever your mission though, JUST BE SURE TO TRACK IT ALL!!!

It’s all in the tracking…

and the starting…

and the wanting…

and especially in the surrounding yourself with accountability partners…

It’s never an overnight thing though. Big goals take daily practice and commitment. But one day compounds to more days, and before you know it you’re a rock star millionaire with 6 pack abs becoming the best version of yourself you can be ;)

And I don’t know about you, but that’s sexy as hell.

Let’s get it.

UPDATE: It looks like I had tried this challenge over 10 years ago too! But never made it past Day 1, lol.. I’m proud to say this time around we’re much better, now going into week 3 without a single day missing it ;) It’s actually getting easier as the days go by – I’m already feeling stronger!

UPDATE 2: Mission completed!!! Over 72,000 push-ups combined from the community and the habit has now sunken in… So much easier to do with other people joining and cheering you on :) Month #2 of challenges will be 100 SQUATS a day – spreadsheet here if you want to join/track! #LETSGO

[This post, The 100/Day Push-up Challenge 💪, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

What up what up!

Have an awesome idea to share with you today :)

It comes from Ugo Chiulli who entered our t-shirt giveaway the other week saying he wanted the “Index and Chill” shirt to rock at his investment club, and as soon as I heard those two words together I immediately begged him to write something up for us!

And he complied! Thanks brother!

Here’s what he sent me below… Such a fantastic idea – we need one of our own!!

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J. Money,

I’m writing to follow up telling you about how a group of guys that wanted to buy some property as an investment ended up starting an investment group.

A friend of mine (who’s name is actually J – yes, just the letter J) is part of a group of guys that went on “annual guys trips.” During these trips they discussed buying property as an investment. They soon discovered that they’d need more money than the “spare money” they had laying around to be able to actually buy property.

Not losing focus, they decided to start an investment club where they would continually pool their money together monthly and invest. They use online platform Bivio to track it all, and got a lot of help from the book, “The Millionaires’ Club: How to Start and Run Your Own Investment Club and Make Your Money Grow.”

Two of the members had some experience in trading stocks and so they decided to invest their money up front into the stock market. The goal always being to buy property. They met for a few months and came up with an Operating Agreement and By-Laws.

The monthly buy in was (and still is) $150/mo per member. There has been a consistent 12-14 members. Additionally, the mentality was to be that the monthly buy in was EXTRA money that would not be missed in the extreme case where they “lost everything”. Money where they could experiment with investments, take risks and not worry.

That’s how the Investment Club got started.

The goal of the monthly meetings is to present one or two stocks to consider investing in. Members alternate presenting. Investments are voted on. Votes for IF to invest and HOW MUCH to invest are had. Various investment strategies are also reviewed and tested. Additionally, all investments are reviewed on their acquisition anniversary to determine if the investment still fits our portfolio needs. Votes are held whether to sell or keep investments on review dates. ALL decisions are made via vote.

One funny story is that on their FIRST meeting, the first presentation was for a stock (DEK) that was “vetoed” for purchase but ended up being a HUGE winner over time. The group constantly references that missed opportunity.

For the first few years they weren’t fully invested. Often having as much as 50% in cash. They also bought and sold based on unrealistic goals and on emotion. Reflective reporting showed that “tons” of money was lost by selling too soon (often when the market was down but then went back up, and higher than original). All in all, they did OK though.

I joined the group 3 years after they started (about 10 years ago). I was recruited by J. We work together. I was no investment pro, but did have about 20 years of various investment experience. He thought I might be a good addition to the group. I like to think I am too :)

Since joining we’ve gotten ALL money invested. I’ve gotten tons of exposure to stocks presented by members that I’ve added to my own portfolio. I’ve contributed by helping make changes to the By-Laws and Operating Agreement for the betterment of the club.

Stock selection is up to individual members. Various sources are used:

• “The Little Book That Beats the Market” by Joel Greenblatt — the book that helped us select our first investments and strategy to follow before we started creating different portfolios with other strategies.
• “A Random Walk Down Wall Street” by Burton Malkiel — a great read for setting investment expectations and providing a proven and consistent way to get steady returns that MATCH the market performance.
• Motley Fool’s investment services — provides a steady stream of suggested stocks and material showing why recommendations are made.
• TREFIS — a good tool that shows relative stock value and stock’s value makeup that provides a great comparison to current prices.
• “The Only Investment Guide You’ll Ever Need” by Andrew Tobias — provides an awesome A to Z explanation of what you need to know about investments (from piggy banks to stocks markets).

The group began to flourish (thanks to an awesome investment environment in the last 10 years). We had actually reached about $500K in value about 5-6 years ago. We now finally began to look into Real Estate opportunities. We looked mainly at private REITs (Real Estate Investment Trusts). None met our needs… until the last one.

I introduced the group to a Real Estate investment opportunity that we felt met our needs. Buy in was $100K with a 4-5 Year Investment time frame. It provided for a 6% distribution that is paid monthly. Investment target is to achieve 2 times on original funds at time of investment sale.

Additionally we’ve invested (via FundRise) in a small business as well as a much smaller commercial REIT.

At the height of the market about a year or so ago, the group’s valuation reached $1 Million! Not bad!

We’ve since gone through some changes. We’ve had two members resign (friendly resignations), and one member sadly passed away. The market also has turned down. We’re a smaller group but still very viable!

The best is yet to come!

– Ugo

PS: Below is a rough outline of our meeting agenda. While the group has evolved as have the investments, the monthly meeting remains the same:

• Check-in and approval of minutes – 5 MIN
• Treasurer’s report – 15 MIN
  • Review “moves made” in prior month
  • Review all account balances and purchasing power
  • Review all past due accounts (late payments)
• Review our stocks/holdings – 15 MIN
• Review stocks up for Annual Review
• Old Business – 15 MIN
• New Business – 30 MIN
• Assigned Presentations
• Announcements
• Adjourn meeting
• MAKE MONEY!

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How awesome, right? Not only for potential income, but for all the camaraderie and learning experiences and really just the ability to hang out with people who “get it” and are actively working to improve themselves! Such a rarity I find offline, and what a blessing to have that many people around you invested in such a thing. (No pun intended)

Also – love that all the club contributions have to be “extra” money too so you’re not playing with core savings and regret anything. I’d 100% join a club like this if there was one set up in my hood… $hit, I’m halfway tempted to even start one right now myself after reading about this! It’s the perfect social club!!

And I think for people like me who are so stuck in their indexing ways it would help force me to be more open to other strategies and opportunities out there too… But really I just think it would be fun as hell getting together every month and talking shop with friends!

So thanks Ugo! Appreciate you taking the time to write all this up, and answering my 101 follow up questions :)

If anyone else has any, or would like to share their own experiences being a part of such a club, comment below so we can all learn from it! Happy investing!

PS: I’d make my Investing Club a “drinking” club too where you have to bring a 6 pack of beer or bottle of whiskey to each meeting for others to enjoy ;) But you couldn’t start drinking until after the presentations/debates so nothing gets too cloudy, lol…

*Links to books above are Amazon affiliate links

[This post, The Investment Club, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

How much do you love your 401(k)?

How often do you share your love of your 401(k) with your colleagues and anyone else who will listen?! ;)

If you have good answers to these questions, you should stop reading this right now and go enter Jackson, Grant’s annual 401(k) Champion® Award contest where you can win one of three $1,000 cash prizes!

>>>> ENTER HERE <<<<

They give out $3,000 every year, and out of the last 6 winners, 3 of them were eliteedgemoney readers!! Which means either we’re super lucky as hell over here, or more probable – we’re smart as hell and know a good deal when we see one :)

In either case, if you’re over 21, a legal resident of the U.S., and currently enrolled (and in love!) with your 401(k) plan, be sure to take the time to enter! And don’t half ass it either – just a few extra minutes can be the difference between $1,000 and $0.00. Here are some of the winning essays here and here to give you an idea of what they’re looking for…

The deadline to enter is October 20th, and they’ll announce the winners November 14th.

Go go go!!

As for the love I have of my old 401(k)??

Oh gosh, I can’t even put it into words, but I’ll try…

I love 401(k)s more than…. Britney Spears!! (Woahhh!)

And beer! (double woah!)

And sex!!!!!

Okay, well maybe not sex (is anything better than that?), but I’m not exaggerating when I say that investing in my 401(k) was one of the best things I ever did for my finances. And while I no longer have access to one as a self-employed degenerate (), I still carry on the tradition of maxing out my SEP and Roth/Traditional IRA every year which alone will get you to millionaire status in just a matter of time. Even if you spend every other penny you get!!

Here are 4 reasons I love 401(k)s so much:

#1. It’s FORCED savings! And you don’t even notice you’re doing it because it’s automated!!

#2. It SNOWBALLS when you leave it alone. Which was mind-blowing for me over a decade ago, and I can still remember to this day watching it climb to $50,000 and not believing how easy it was all because I never touched it… Something that excessive fees and penalties helped with as it only lowered the temptation to pull from it, unlike with savings!

(so PRO TIP: If you want to stash your money somewhere that’s hard to access, make it your 401(k)! And then see how fast it takes to become a 401(k) Millionaire like our friend Fritz )

#3. FREE MONEY is involved! (Usually!) I’ve had employers match anywhere from 3% to 100% of my salary contributions (not a typo), and each time I soaked up as much as I could while it was free for the taking… Especially with the 100% company which was just INSANE, and even more so – the fact I was only one of 3 or so who actually contributed to the plan!!!

As soon as I found out about this I upped my paycheck contribution to 90%, thereby living off $200 paychecks (and draining my savings! Lol), until enough months passed where I hit the legal limit of $16,000 or whatever, and then dropped it down to 0% once it was maxed out to start refilling my savings again…

Easiest $16,000 I ever earned. Three years in a row!

(And really, as you know, it’s *much* more than $16,000 as it’s compounded year after year after decade now, easily crossing the $100,000 mark with how the markets have been these past handful of years…)

So something to think about when you decide not to invest or save, even for just one day. As my friend Jim Wang recently said,

“When you delay your savings for one day, you don’t lose today. You’re losing that last day your money would’ve been invested before you started taking withdrawals. If you’re going to invest for 20 years, that’s 7300 days of investing. You’re not giving up Day 1, you’re giving up the fact that Day 1 will have been invested for 7300 days. That’s a lot of money.”

Keep investing and grabbing that free money!

#4. And lastly, the more you invest, the higher your CONFIDENCE gets. Especially if you’re in the early part of your financial journey…

There’s a big difference between having $1,000 in your savings account and $100,000, the least of which is feeling more solid and confident in your overall standing and decision making! It’s a lot easier to make moves with a nice cushion behind you than it is without, whether we’re talking career moves or starting new businesses, or even asking a girl out on a date! More money gives you confidence across the board, and your 401(k) is a fantastic, easy way to get that train going…

(For those who don’t have access to 401(k)s, btw – OR – have employers who don’t believe in offering free matches (!!), start by maxing out your ROTH IRA first if you qualify (max limit for 2022 is $6,000), and then if you have extra left over from there move to your 401(k) to keep stashing away. Even without matches they still offer some solid benefits (like tax-free growth!), but you’re tied to your employer’s fund choices which aren’t always the best. Thus, why people recommend starting with an IRA first which you control 100% yourself, then moving to the 401(k).)

(And also – if you have multiple OLD 401(k)s laying around, take the time to consolidate them all into your IRA too! No reason to keep being invested in less than optimal funds if you’re no longer forced to!! And will help with overall management and planning too )

So yeah, huge fan of 401(k)s even if they do seem to attract hate these days, so if you currently have access to one and are *not* contributing at least to the company match, please do yourself a favor and fix that by the end of the week! It should only take 5 minutes to log onto your company’s portal or pick up the phone/take a trip to your HR department…

And then I want an email when you hit your first $50,000 too, or better yet – $500,000! :) There’s no way you won’t get there if you keep at it year after year, but you gotta get the ball rolling NOW so Future You can bask in its glory!

Make it happen!!

And make sure to enter the contest for a chance at that $1,000 too. Who knows, maybe you’ll be the 4th eliteedgemoney reader to win?!

Yours in investing and Britney Spears,

PS: I’m not affiliated with the 401(k) awards at all – just love what they’re about and want you to get free money!!

[This post, Share Your 401(k) Story For a Chance at $1,000!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Tattoos.

Design work.

Piano lessons.

Photography.

All things a friend of mine gets free through bartering!

Remember that old fashioned way to transact?! Something our ancestors did for thousands of years before cash money became a thing? :)

I’ll be honest and say I haven’t given it any thought in at least a decade (I once wanted to trade a website for a house – thinking it would be cool to exchange a digital property for a physical one, lol…), but now my brain is on fire with all the possibilities!

I ran into her the other day, and after noticing she had way more tattoos on her than I remembered, I struck up a conversation and here’s how it went down:

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ME: “Woah!! Look at all those new tats!! You’ve been busy!”

HER: “Thanks! I bartered for them!”

ME: “Excuse me, what?”

HER: “I bartered for them! We have this thing going on, where my tattoo artist hooks me up with free tattoos whenever I want them, and I hook him and his wife up with haircuts whenever they need them. It’s been a great partnership.”

ME: *** hurriedly makes mental notes for a blog post later… ***

ALSO ME: “Gosh that is cool…. Do you barter for anything else or just tats?! I feel like you could do a lot with this!”

HER: “Oh yeah, I give haircuts for design work for my albums, free photography, and lately even piano lessons… Which I definitely lose money on, but I also don’t spend any money so it comes out worth it in the end.”

*I should mention my friend is a professional hair stylist – thus why everyone wants her scissor hands… She’s also an up and coming local musician, so all the design/photog work has been a blessing in getting her album artwork done without having to scrounge up the money for it.

HER: “I also make sure to check in with everyone every few months just to double check they’re all still happy with the set up – especially the tattoo artist. And then we adjust if needed… It’s been working out great.”

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And I would say so given that I saw at least 5 new tattoos on her since the last time we met! Here are a few of the more colorful ones for your eyeballs’ pleasure:

[That last one actually MAKES me want to get out and jog!! Haha… That could be a cool hack to get you to do stuff more – just tattoo it on your body! ;)]

What I love best though outside the savings, is the mutual *respect* each of the parties has to have for one another in order for this to work.

If either person doesn’t think the other is talented enough, then there’s no way you’d exchange anything for it, no less actually *want* what the other person is offering. So with each new barter here you’re basically saying, “Hey – your stuff is awesome! I’d love to have it!” and vice versa. Particularly with the tattoos since, you know, they are PERMANENTLY MARKED ON YOUR SKIN FOREVER, lol…

In a way this also reminds me of another kinda sorta but not really bartering-related mindset I call “gigs for goals” – where you assign each income stream to an expense so they even out and you can appreciate it more.

Kinda like this:

There’s no bartering being transacted here, but by assigning each gig to a goal you’re effectively doing the same thing in terms of mindset – “doing this one gig gets me this one item.” It gives you a more concrete reason to hustle, but also honestly just FEELS better and more motivating than just working harder for “more money.” At least for those of us who are emotionally intertwined with money like I am.

In fact, I’ve been kinda doing a combo of this bartering/gigs for goals concept myself with my own consulting services…

I’ve noticed that whenever I tell someone I’d love to have X, Y or Z but am too frugal to pony up the money for it, they’re more inclined to hire me and we both get a nice win out of it! Like a few months ago when I tweeted that I wanted a rare book for $75 and asked if anyone needed some work done so I could buy it. I had over 5 people reach out to hire me and I was able to pick up the book by the end of the week! (Thanks guys!!)

I even made a Wish List of this type of stuff last month to see if I can continue my luck :) Here’s a sample of some of the items I put on it, again mainly things I’d love to have but just can’t get myself to spend the $$$ on:

So far only one person has taken me up on this Wish List route, lol, but hey – one is better than none! And again – it’s just a more fun and exciting way to think of this stuff than a more colder “pay me $100 and I’ll help you” type of transaction. And most times you’re going to convert your earnings into *something* anyways, so why not visualize it from the start to make it more real?

At any rate, all this to say that bartering is very much alive and well, and if you haven’t considered it before (especially if you’re cash flow is low or you’re just starting out in your journey!) do give it some thought and see if you can make something work!

You don’t have to be a professional hairstylist or tattoo artist or anything really to make it happen, but do figure out what you’re *best* at and then start sharing it around and see if you get some hits… You’ll be amazed at what people would pay or trade for, and we usually don’t give ourselves nearly as much credit as we should as we always assume “everyone knows this stuff” which is rarely the case!

So make a list of your skills (or passions), have your best friends and family members do the same, and then exchange notes and see if there’s any good match ups there. Or better yet – approach the places/people who you know offer what you want and then pitch them on a trade! Worst case they say no and you’ve wasted what, approximately 2 minutes of your life?

Here’s a list of stuff I enjoy helping with and am good at – if anything here is needed in your life/business, feel free to practice pitching me and we’ll see if there’s a fit :)

• Blogging / branding / building / marketing / monetizing
• Money / saving / debt / mindset / lifestyle design
• Community building / branding / engaging / growing
• FinTech / connecting / marketing / branding / engaging
• Coin collecting / evaluating / inventorying / liquidating
• Micro-philanthropy / engaging / fundraising / strategizing
• Blog brokering / buying / selling / valuing

(More about my services/testimonials here: J$ Consulting)

Or of course you can always just buy me something off my Wish List and make this blogger happy!! Haha… Like a used surfboard that is not there yet but I really need to add as I JUST LEARNED HOW TO SURF last week and I’m now (unsurprisingly) addicted!!! OMG it’s so much fun – it’s just like skating, only hurts 10x less when you fall!!

But more on that for another day… If you have a surfboard though sitting in your garage doing nothing, I WANT IT and will trade any of my services for it!

Alright, now 1-2-3 go barter!!!!

Make your ancestors (and your wallet) proud!

UPDATE: Okay wow…. As soon as I finished this post my good friend Nate called me and you’re not going to guess what he and a friend just came up with??! They decided to give each other 10 hours of their time each week to help them build out their projects!! One will be doing SEO/Email Marketing/Content-related stuff for the other, and the other will be doing Networking and Business/Product Development.

In other words:  THEY’RE EXCHANGING THEIR SKILLS – I.E. – BARTERING WITH EACH OTHER!!

Talk about a coincidence on timing!! I told Nate I hated him so much for telling me this cuz now I have to go back and edit this post again!!, lol, but man gotta love it… So many ways you can get what you want in the world, with or without money! Just gotta get creative!

[This post, Bartering Is Alive and Well!, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Morning!

I hope you’re in search of some eye candy today as I’m serving it up hot! ;)

Stumbled across a bunch of ridiculously silly, yet somewhat helpful!, videos we created for All-Star Money last year, and thought you might enjoy the change from my novels here lately…

These came about from pouring over 200 articles a day in the space, and then plucking out my favorites and doing a little skit around them. Which looks like they may have only taken about 17 minutes to produce, but oh no! These puppies took around 10 hours total EACH by the time we concepted them, wrote out the script, set up the camera (aka phone), did all that glorious (ly bad) acting, and then finally edited and compiled everything together (shout out to Harry and Zach for taking on that role!).

My respect levels to all vloggers went up immensely after doing this, I’ll tell you what… And as you can imagine, it didn’t last long until we cut these from the schedule, haha… But not before we were left with a dozen or so gems to forever appreciate! Along with an insane amount of learning experience!

Here were some of the more nugget-rich skits we put together, each with its own fun spin to it:

• The 3 Budgets You Need to Create Today
• An Investment Tip That Could Get You Half a Million Dollars
• How to Lead an Intentional Life by “Opting Out”
• Saving Money and Space With the 4 Rs
• The Power of Writing Out Your Obituary
• Channeling Your IKIGAI – or Your “Reason For Being”

As silly as some of these are though, I really am pretty proud of them. Especially for this being my first real foray into making videos! I’m certainly under no illusion of becoming a YouTube star anytime soon, haha, but I’d def. give it another go if anyone ever wants to employ me ;)

But you check them out and let me know what you think…. And if you’re a fan, be sure to follow my YouTube channel so you get alerted of any new stuff I create down the line!

Oh, I’ll also drop some fun Q&As at the end too we did earlier this year. Where people from the community shot over questions for me and I answered them via video (which was a LOT faster and easier to do! I think that took me approximately 30 minutes total, lol…)

Some of these questions are also pretty random (like my go-to choice in nail polish, or if I’d rather go into war with one horse-sized Chihuahua or 100 Chihuahua-sized horses?!), but there were were some good life and money pondering Qs too. As well as a clip where I read off the best hate mail I’ve gotten over the years which I DIE laughing at every time cuz they’re so horrible!

Alright, let’s get to them… Bookmark for some good weekend watching if you don’t have the time now! I promise it’ll be worth it… (no I don’t).

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A Visual Representation of Financial Disasters [2020]

[Inspired by Wealthy Retirement: A Lesson From the Sinnemahoning Rattlesnake Hunt]

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The 3 Budgets You Need to Create Today

[Inspired by The Penny Hoarder: Good, Bad and in Between: Why You Should Have 3 Versions of Your Budget]

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An Investment Tip That Could Get You Half a Million Dollars

[Inspired by One Cent at a Time: How to Become Rich by Saving One Hour of Wage Per Day // Money Makers hat and Abundance shirt by Abundance Community.]

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How To Lead an Intentional Life by “Opting Out”

[Inspired by Cait Flanders: Adventures in Opting Out // Shirt by Accidental FIRE: Index And Chill (Amazon affiliate link)]

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A Football Analogy To Help You Manage Rejection

[Inspired by A Lawyer and Her Money: The Easy Hack I Use to Make Failure Fun]

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Save Money (and Space) with the 4Rs. Plus: A new FIRE song!

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A Slightly Morbid Exercise: Write Your Ideal Obituary!

[Inspired by Rich Habits: The Incredible Powers of the Human Mind // Shirt by: MadFientist.com]

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Dividend Investing: A Popular Way to Grow Wealth

[Inspired by Dividend Diplomats: Dividend Income from YOU the Bloggers]

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Find Your IKIGAI by Exploring These Four Quadrants

1. What you love
2. What you’re good at
3. What the world needs
4. What you can be paid for

Check out the video, and then try this method to find your own IKIGAI!

[Inspired by Physician on FIRE: Love Your Job? Why You Should Still Pursue Financial Independence]

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This 8-Year-Old Makes 2 Million a Month on YouTube (!)

[Inspired by: GrooveWallet.com (no longer online)]

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Forrest Fenn’s Treasure + The War Ratio

[Inspired by The Physician Philosopher: Saving Money. How Much is Enough? The 30% Rule // A Purple Life: P.S. I’m Bi]

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And lastly, here are some fun Q&As we did with the community… They’re batched into 3 videos and covers everything from my mohawk budget to creepy hate mail to why I’m called “The Miley Cyrus of Finance” and more. Check ’em out!

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Q&A with J. Money (Batch #1)

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Q&A with J. Money (Batch #2)

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Q&A with J. Money (Batch #3)

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And there you have it! My video producing debut!

Unless you count my famous music video that went viral 8 years ago – “Cash in A Box” – a cover of “D*ck in a Box”, lol… But I wouldn’t advise you watch that unless you have a strong stomach

XOXO,

PS: If you liked these, “follow” me on YouTube so you can catch future nonsense I create over the years ;)

PPS: Mad love to my bff and biz parner, Nate St. Pierre, for helping me with all these crazy skits, as well as to Zack Taylor and Harry Huncken for their fine editing skills. Highly recommend them if you ever need some video work yourself!

[This post, Ridiculous videos I made about money! (And some fun Q&As), was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

INSIDE: Added up a bunch of the best finance and money memes around savings, debt, student loans, income, being rich, being broke, and more. Enjoy!

I’m just gonna paste up a bunch of my favorite money memes, because why not?

If I missed any good ones, let me know :)

– J to the Dollar Sign

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Funny Memes About Money

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Money Memes About Financial Freedom

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Memes About Work, Side Hustles, and Making Money

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Money Memes About Coupons

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Money Memes About Investing

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Money Memes About Lending Money to Friends

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Money Memes About Student Loans

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Money Memes About Taxes

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Money Memes About Saving

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Money Memes About Spending

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[This post, A Page Full of #Money Memes, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]

Happy Memorial Day everyone!!

While you’re out reflecting and celebrating today, let me suggest another fun (and FREE) activity to include for your enjoyment: Filling out this Lifetime-Net Worth-Simulator!

[UPDATE: spreadsheet no longer online…]

From a new blogger on the scene, Money Is a Solved Problem, who wants to help in his own way of giving you freedom :) And considering it’s only his 2nd post on the blog, I’d say he’s off to a great start!

[Download spreadsheet here (Excel)]

The currency is currently set to Euros (€) as he lives in Sweden, but as he notes, “If you do not like € replace it with $. If you are living in 2950 when both do not exist anymore, replace them with your currency. I hope Excel is still a thing in 2950.” Lol….

But here’s why I like this compared to others – it shows the FULL CYCLE of your money and not just to your *retirement date*! Even though that latter half is the part most of us don’t want to see as it has our money going in the OPPOSITE direction, haha…

But since that’s the circle of life, it helps to give you a better overall picture of things :)

It can also help you with the following according to him by playing around with the variables a little:

• How powerful compound interest can be
• How inflation can eat up your savings!
• How your income, expenses and annual investment returns affect your long term worth
• That you can amass a lot of money working at a normal job and keeping expenses low
• That you need a very high income if you want to become a billionaire ;)
• And overall how NOT to run out of money when you’re older

Here’s the link to his full blog post on it to learn more: The Lifetime-Net Worth-Simulator
And then here’s the direct download link again to it: Simulator Spreadsheet

Let me know if it gives you any epiphanies!! :)

[UPDATE: spreadsheet no longer online…]

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PS: to put things in even more perspective, pair this with your Lifetime Wealth Ratio!

[This post, The Lifetime-Net Worth-Simulator, was first published by J. Money on Elite Edge Money]