My Fave Reads This Month 📖

Happy Friday!!

Been catching a lot of killer articles in the space lately and they’re all dumped below…

If they spark something for you over the weekend let me know!

And also if there’s anything life changing YOU’VE seen lately :)

XOXO

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wheel of fortune

How I Made $39,000 on Wheel of Fortune via Dads and Dollars — “Without going into too much detail, I will point out that the first round was what is called a “perfect round”. The wheel was very, very good to me in that round, and I never relinquished control. Oh, and it was a jackpot round, which I hit, and I got a half-car. And I had been worried I would fail epically on television.”

The Difference Between Getting By and Getting Better via Raptitude — “I decided it was worth getting better at this one small corner of life. So I began to make a game out of having warmer and more deliberate checkout exchanges. I speak up, engage, smile. It amounts to a straightforward switching of intentions: each purchase is now a chance to become a slightly more personable customer (and person), rather than simply the final step of the shopping process.”

Exposed! Mr. Money Mustache’s 2019 Bachelor Spending! via Mr. Money Mustache — “My expenses are really easy to track: I funnel all my spending through a rewards credit card, which saves me about $2000 each year… Meanwhile, I hook up a third party financial app to automatically monitor these transactions, alert me to any unusual activity, and – the best part – automatically categorize and add everything up for me. I’ve been using one called Truebill for a couple of years*, and it has the simplest interface of anything I’ve tried.”

front door

How $39 Changed Our Mortgage Payoff Journey Forever via She Picks Up Pennies  — “On May 28, 2015, I made our first extra payment toward the principal. I paid $39.04. It almost seems cute, but that small amount was so powerful. In so many ways, it was the first domino that led us to exactly where we are now.”

A fun (and highly profitable) psychological trick to try on someone via Quora — “It’s called “The Five Dollar Auction.” You stand up in front of the group, and hold up a five dollar bill. You explain that you will auction this five dollar bill off, and the highest bidder gets it, even if the high bid only a dime. Bidding starts at 10 cents, and goes up in increments of 10 cents or more. There’s just one trick to this auction, and that is that when the auction ends, whoever has the second highest bid also has to pay, but doesn’t get anything.” [h/t to my evil friend and biz partner, Nate St. Pierre, for passing this one over to me :)]

11 Reasons Not to Become Famous via Tim Ferriss — “13 years, 5 books, 1,000+ blog posts, and nearly 500M podcast downloads later, I’ve learned a few things about the promises and perils of seeking fame…. If you suddenly had 100,000 or 1,000,000 or 10,000,000 more followers, what might happen? I thought I knew, and I was naive.”

FIRE t-shirts

Apparel that shows your FIRE pride by Accidental FIRE — “You have it together, you’re investing wisely and getting closer to financial independence every day. Show the world that you’ve chosen to live differently, and on your own terms!”

The Shirley Temple King via @chezspence — “Just found this instagram account that’s a kid who calls himself the Shirley Temple King and goes to restaurants and gives brutally honest reviews of their shirley temples. It’s so pure and I love him so much.”

Treasure Fever via Hakai Magazine — “Nearly three million vessels lie wrecked on the Earth’s ocean floor – from old canoes to the Titanic – and likely less than one percent have been explored.”

jarret freeman

The American Dream vs. The American Trap via Daily Collegian — “I have had the pleasure of traveling to about twenty countries and meeting many young people along my travels. I learned a lot about these people through my experiences, but I have learned even more about myself and the country I call home. No experience has compared to my encounter with Maria. I will never meet her again, but I will also never forget her and what she taught me.”

Google Flights — “A super easy way to price flights with filtering for airlines, dates, times and class of service. You can even track flights, see how the cost compares to average, and receive email updates on prices.” – mentioned in 5 Strategies to Improve Your Cash Flow and Savings via XY Planning Network

You Can Literally Sell Your Poop For Cash via Scary Mommy — “I know. I KNOW. Who on God’s green earth would want to donate their dung? Well, according to The New York Times, quite a few people would. And not only are these people making a pretty penny for handing over their chocolate lava, but they are helping to save lives in the process.”

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Video of The Month:

Obvious to you. Amazing to others. by Derek Sivers — “Any creator of anything knows this feeling: You experience someone else’s innovative work. It’s beautiful, brilliant, breath-taking. You’re stunned. Their ideas are unexpected and surprising, but perfect. You think, “I never would have thought of that. How do they even come up with that? It’s genius!” Afterwards, you think, “My ideas are so obvious. I’ll never be as inventive as that.”” [Hat tip to Working Mom Life for passing this over to me… This is so true, and I catch myself almost every single day wondering how I’m still able to blog here, haha…]

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Premonition of the Century:

no escaping telephones

[H/T: @RetireManifesto]

Happy telephoning :)

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12 Comments

    1. J. Money February 7, 2020 at 11:11 AM

      I passed it around to all my friends and family too, haha…

      I should make a prediction right now about something in 50 years, and then set a calendar item to Tweet or FB it or whatever we’re doing to share info by then (Telepathically??? You heard it first here!!!)

      Reply
  1. Cubert February 7, 2020 at 7:22 AM

    Here I thought you were going to mention books! I just bought a used copy of Alexander Hamilton. I figure it’s the next best thing to seeing the live performance – just queue up the soundtrack in the background…

    Great picks — Good to see this money stuff never gets old! ;-)

    Reply
    1. J. Money February 7, 2020 at 11:39 AM

      Nice man!! Just saw the play in real life last month – AMAZING!! And had no idea the entire play is LITERALLY the songs back to back to back to back haha… Never seen a play like that before but SO MUCH BETTER watching along with listening :)

      Reply
  2. Adam February 7, 2020 at 10:14 AM

    Man, that Tim Ferriss post reminds me of that fancy wedding I mentioned a couple months ago. So glad those problems are not my problems. What a gut-punch. I’ll stick with being famous only among my friends please, thanks.

    On a brighter note, that apparel is fantastic! My wife is a diehard Coca-Cola fiend; she’s down to a can or two per week, but she loves the stuff. I’m tempted to get that “Enjoy Retirement” shirt to surprise her with in ten years. She’ll be 48 — do I order a small or a medium? Or both? Treading dangerous waters here…

    Reply
    1. J. Money February 7, 2020 at 11:40 AM

      haha… I say give it to her NOW before you get yourself in trouble ;)

      Reply
  3. Chris ODonnell February 7, 2020 at 10:51 AM

    That Tim Ferris article is scary. And it’s 100X worse for any woman online with his level of fame. (A point he does make in his post)

    Reply
    1. J. Money February 7, 2020 at 11:42 AM

      I can only imagine!! I’ve gotten a few nasty threats over the years, but nothing attacking or commenting on my boyish good looks ;)

      Reply
    1. J. Money February 7, 2020 at 11:43 AM

      Yeah man! Keep the designs coming!

      Reply
  4. Michelle February 8, 2020 at 1:28 AM

    Great list! I love those t-shirts.

    Reply
    1. J. Money February 10, 2020 at 6:38 AM

      I think you should rock one at the next FinCon :)

      Reply

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