Unique Side Gigs, Rapid Recoveries, & The Arrival Fallacy 💸

Hey there, top of the morning to you! 🎩

Have you ever heard of the “arrival fallacy”?

Arrival fallacy: The false belief that “once we make it, once we attain our goal or reach our destination, we will reach lasting happiness.”

This is really common in personal finance… People often think:

“when I get this upcoming promotion, all my money problems will be solved”
“if I can perfectly time this investment or trade, I’ll be set for life”
“when I finally achieve financial independence, life will be easy and I’ll never have to do anything hard, ever again”

But the truth is… Happiness from such events is fleeting. Longer-lasting satisfaction comes from enjoying the journey, celebrating micro-wins, focusing on the present, and working on stuff that makes you feel good.

Just something to think about this week… Make sure you’re enjoying the journey, not just the destination! 😎

TO DO

Switch to an online bank already! 📲

🏦 Traditional Banks: Have thousands of brick and mortar branches, complex legacy computer systems and expensive sponsorships and advertisements… With such high overhead they need to charge more fees and don’t offer many checking/savings incentives. 👎👎👎

📲 Online Banks: Zero physical branches, run on modern & efficient banking apps and grow via affiliate marketing and user referrals… With very low overhead, most online banks offer free accounts, no fees, no minimum’s, and the highest interest rate returns for checking/saving accounts! 👍👍👍

We recommend:

CIT Savings: currently offering 2.70% APY!!
Ally Savings: currently offering 2.25% APY!!

Both have $0 account minimums, $0 monthly fees, take less 5-10 minutes to open online, and offer great all around banking services. Open one of these and move your emergency fund into it, right meow. 🐈

SIDE HUSTLES

Unique side-gigs making $1,000+ per month…

There was a pretty cool Facebook group chat recently about side hustle ideas, and I loved reading about some really interesting hustles our community members have…

Organizing Women’s Only Group Travel: Shared by Shannon L… “I started a company running small, women-only group trips around the world because I realized that not everyone wants to travel solo and I know how hard it can be to find people to commit to traveling with you”. Shannon is a seasoned traveler and planner, so she creates and bundles packages as her side hustle. Win/win. (You can check out her site here — this month’s trip is touring Spain!)
Teach on OutSchool: Teaching online isn’t a new idea… but what I love about this OutSchool platform is the variety of topics, experiences, arts, social clubs or games you can “teach”. You don’t need to be a certified teacher and can host a class on anything you want. For example, Michelle L hosts a “Stranger Things Fan Club” class where students pay $15 per class to learn/watch/discuss the tv show. Fun + making money = win!
Reselling Clothes and Shoes: Courtney C. makes 3-5k a month from this! And shared these tips… “I’ve learned everything I know from watching YouTube and following resellers on Instagram. I shop at goodwill and yard sales. I sell on ebay, poshmark, mercari, and some on Facebook. Shipping depends on the platform, but I get free priority mail supplies from usps for poshmark and anything that’s shipped priority on other platforms. I buy 100 packs of poly mailers on Amazon for things under 1 pound. I store everything in plastic bins divided by category.”
Woodworking: A friend of mine Paul O. from San Diego builds and sells wooden surf board racks… Materials cost about ~$40, he builds standing frames that hold 5-6 surfboards and sells them on Craigslist for $150-$200 each. He can make 4 sets of racks in 1 weekend, and he genuinely finds it fun! (Here’s another *really successful* example of woodworking side hustle: Blacktail Studio)
Pet Sitting: Renee E. shares great advice… “same as any other small business really, start broad to build your base of customers, find your niche (I only do cats because they’re much lower liability and I’m great with them), and be consistent for your regulars”. Apps like Rover and Wag are great to start with, but ideally finding private regular clients is best for long term ease.

In our opinion, the “perfect” side hustle is something that a) you are passionate about, b) fits your skill set and c) gets you PAID!

While the hustles above might not fit you exactly, just reading about them might get creative juices flowing and maybe you can think up something out of the box that’s suits your life.

Do you have old retirement dollars floating around aimlessly?

Did you know… 20% of 401(k) accounts tend to get lost or forgotten!?!? And with average balances of $55k, we’re talking A LOT of retirement funds going missing (not to mention all the compounded growth)!

But thanks to our buddies at Capitalize, you can make sure your hard-earned $$$ doesn’t fall victim to the same fate. They track down your old 401(k)s, help you choose a new IRA, and manage the transfer process. The best part? The service is FREE because they get paid by the IRA providers.

Plus, rolling over your 401(k) means control of your future is back in your hands—you can choose your own investments + potentially save money on fees. Capitalize works with all the low-cost investment companies we love like Fidelity, Schwab, & Vanguard.

So if you have an old 401(k) and you’re not sure it’s 100% working for you, check out Capitalize.

Also — Here’s a full Capitalize Review we wrote based on our personal experience!

INVESTING

Historical returns —> After a crash…

This week’s nerdy numbers chart comes from Ben Carson over at A Wealth of Common Sense.

And hopefully it provides a bit of comfort for folks who are kinda new to the investing game and seeing their portfolio down by 25%…

When the market crashes, things don’t just recover… they recover quickly and with great force.

Now, It’s important to note that the past can’t guarantee the future. There might even be more pain in the immediate future. But all in all, there is most likely more upside than downside in the long term future.

So if you’re feeling bad about your investments or scared about the future, remember this chart. There are green pastures ahead!!

Related stuff:

💻 HTM Blog Post: Things to to when the stock market crashes (4 min read)
🎙 Podcast Ep 473: Crashes, corrections and your reactions (54 min)
📚 Book Rec: Just Keep Buying by Nick Maggiulli (~250 pages)

ICYMI

Financial happy haps…

Pay Transparency 🥳
California just passed a law that requires employers to include pay ranges on job listings starting Jan 1st!! (for all companies with 15 or more employees). CO, NV, WA and CT have similar laws in place already, and NY is implementing their rule starting Nov 1st!

Kimmie K 💅
Last week Kim Kardashian settled her charges with the IRS, agreeing to pay a $1.26M fine for promoting crypto on Instagram and not disclosing that she got paid to do it. Reminder to everyone: Don’t take financial advice from celebrity influencers, no matter who they are, even if you are “broker than them“.

Goodwill Online 🛒
Your favorite thrift store just launched GoodwillFinds, an online store! Now you can shop second hand stuff from the comfort of your own home. The site is super sortable by brand and category- check it out!

Cool Food App! 🍔
If you live in a big city (or travel through one) check out Too Good To Go mobile app — it connects you to restaurants and stores that have surplus unsold food so you can order it on the cheap. Big in Europe, but is starting to spread across major US cities. (Cheers to Kari E. for sharing this!! 🙏)

Struggle Meals 📺
If you’re looking for cheap and easy meal ideas — check out Struggle Meals, a funny/quirky cooking show featuring meals for less than $5 a head. Available on Hulu, or watch online free with ads here. (h/t to Logan J. for sharing this in our FB group! 🙏)

FRIENDS OF HTM

Community Spotlight: Young Money! 💻

Jack Raines is the brilliant mind behind Young Money, the “best finance blog you’ve never heard of”…

What he covers: Saving, investing, economics, travel, and other general personal finance stuff.

Why we like him: Jack has a refreshingly wise perspective for a young dude. His articles are the perfect blend of education + fun, and he writes as if he’s just chatting to you.

Check out his site: Young Money 👍

Cheers to a great week ahead, enjoying your journey!!

Best friends out 🍻

*****

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_{* User Generated Content Disclosure: Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser’s responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.}