Celebrity Budgeting Tips, Vaporizing Medical Bills 💉, & Selling Everything Except Your Soul

June 14, 2022

Good morning, happy people!!

Did you know… when a tiny domino 🁼 falls over, it has the ability to knock over another domino that’s 1.5 times it’s own size?

Same with the next domino… it can knock over another that’s 1.5x it’s size. And so on and so on… and if this compounding continued, it would only take 29 consecutive dominos to knock over the Empire State Building!!!

Crazy, right?

The power of compounding is hard for most humans to wrap their heads around. Pushing over a building seems impossible, but pushing over a small domino is very easy.

Something to ponder this week… What tiny domino in your life can you knock over now that might grow to huge dominos later?

Massive things happen with tiny beginnings. 👊


TO DO

Action of the week: Sell Something!

Here is your mission this week, should you choose to accept it…

Grab something you no longer use in your house, and sell it. Craigslist, FB Marketplace, OfferUp… There are a ton of free apps to choose from and it takes less than 10 minutes to create an ad. Decluttering + making some cash = winning! 🥳

And if you really want to take it up a notch, download our Sell Your Stuff Challenge pdf that we created earlier this year. We both committed to selling an item every week this year, but if you’re just joining, go ahead and start with week 24- we won’t hold it against you!

PS. Share your story with us — we have a prize for whoever makes the most $ selling something this week!


BUDGETING

Budget like… a celebrity?

Keira Knightley Tiff18_2 GIF by TIFF - Find & Share on GIPHY

Check out these frugal celebs and what they have to say about their budgeting styles and how they keep their expenses down:

  • Keira Knightley told Glamor magazine she has a $50,000/year budget… “Yes, it’s something around that. I mean, if I want or need something that goes over that, I get it, but, yes, around that.”
  • Ed Sheeran has a net worth of over $200M… But his monthly allowance is “Maybe a grand. I really don’t spend much money. I spend most of it on taxis!”
  • Hilary Swank ain’t afraid to bust out the coupons… “When you open the paper and see those coupons, it’s like dollar bills staring you in the face”
  • Kristen Bell loves coupons too… “The best coupon you can get, possibly in the world, is the Bed Bath & Beyond coupon… They’ve got like 20% off… I may or may not steal them out of my neighbors’ boxes sometimes”
  • Shailene Woodley says “I exclusively buy used clothes… In an industry where sometimes materialism is the main focus. It’s kind of my way of grounding and remembering what’s important to me.”

So there you have it. It’s not just us regular people, the peasants, that have budgets and use money saving tactics! Many of the rich and famous are conscious spenders as well.

PS. My all time fav celeb budgeting quote is from Angelina Jolie… “Save one-third, live on one-third, and give away one-third.” 😍

Related:


WFH

Work, work, work… 🤓

Nobody is saying that Covid was just a figment of our collective imaginations, but the majority of Americans have gotten back to living mostly normal pre-pandemic lives.

When it comes to going out on the town, it certainly seems like we’re putting on our fanciest sweatpants and partaking in our favorite activities once again! 💃 

But despite the fact that travel, entertainment, and leisure are all rebounding quite nicely, a huge percentage of folks are actively giving the Heisman hand to their boss when asked about returning to the office. Check out this chart courtesy of the fine folks at Kastle.👇

Will a huge chunk of workers be able to put off a return to the office forever? That remains to be seen. Elon Musk, for one, wants all his employees back in person immediately. That could be a harbinger of things to come or just the rantings of an eccentric billionaire. 

While the flexibility of WFH is massively beneficial, and we haven’t seen major drops in productivity, humans are still social creatures. Face-to-face interactions aren’t necessarily a thing of the past. And it turns out that younger workers in particular benefit from an in-person office environment.

That’s something to consider! Even if you don’t have to show back up to the office in person like a Tesla employee, it might be worth flashing that winning, corporate-ladder-climbing smile, in person.


ICYMI

Making the rounds this week…

Gas Prices 😭
We all know they are ridiculous at over $5/gal, and sadly, they might not get better any time soon. It seems we’re going through a perfect storm of events causing high gas prices.

AMZN Stock 📉
No, Amazon’s stock price didn’t go down 96%… It just did a 20 to 1 stock split to make the price of a single share more affordable. The value of the company (and any existing shares you own) still remains the same.

Mortgage Payments 🏡
Even if your local housing market is cooling, the continued rise of mortgage rates means that buyers are paying significantly more than they were just a few months ago. As always, make sure that you’re paying attention to the actualcost of homeownership.

S&P 500 🐻
It’s official- after skirting near losses of 20% about a month ago, the S&P 500 closed at 21% down yesterday. But just like your grandma didn’t run for the exits during a blue light special, neither should you- continue to invest!

Father’s Day 🙋‍♂️
Reminder — it’s THIS weekend! One of the best (and free) gifts you can give a Dad is just spending time with them, and telling them you love them. Awww 🤗


COMMUNITY

Kicking medical bills to the curb 💵

Kudos to listener Jason who fought back against a medical bill and triumphed! 🎉

Medical bills can be a pain in the butt. But did you know that they are negotiable? Here’s the thing, Jason didn’t just get a discount, the entire amount was forgiven because he knew the right questions to ask.

If you want to know how to fight back against overpriced medical bills in your life, check out this HTM episode that teaches you how to fight back and WIN if an outrageous medical bill lands in your mailbox. 💪


That’s all for today. See you next week — same bat-time, same bat-channel! (anyone old enough to remember that?)

Best friends out 🍻

PS. It’s World Blood Donor Day today. Thank you to all those who give blood and save lives (even if you’re not making some money on the side)! 💉

*****

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