What I'm Reading, Watching, Playing
Reading
As usual, I’m juggling far too many non-fiction books, but two that I’ve picked up recently that seem especially binge worthy are:
- ‘How to Know a Person: The Art of Seeing Others Deeply and Being Deeply Seen’ by David Brooks. If you’re looking to create deeper connections with people in your life, I highly recommend this one.
- ‘Unreasonable Hospitality: The Remarkable Power of Giving People More Than They Expect’ by restaurateur Will Guidara. It’s usually a good sign when a story in the first 20 pages of a non-fiction book almost brings you to tears. This seems like a special book.
Watching
One of the little-known things about me is that I’m a huge fan of rom-coms. So, when I heard that Kristen Bell and Adam Brody (blast from ‘The O.C.’ past!) were co-starring in a Netflix rom-com called ‘Nobody Wants This’ and it was getting rave reviews, I knew I was going to enjoy it.
And enjoy I did!
4-stars from me and it felt like just the story for this modern age. I won’t give any spoilers, but highly recommended all around. The acting and writing are wonderful, the supporting cast of characters are priceless and it’s just an overall enjoyable watch.
Playing
This has mostly been a strikeout for me the last month on the playing-front. I was supposed to play pickleball with friends, but unfortunately, I got pretty sick and couldn’t join.
“Oh, and if you need a GREAT game for your loooooong flight put Balatro on your phone. It's the number one game in the Apple Store right now, and of course android is going to have it. It's a mashup of solitaire, poker, and a deck builder. No internet needed. just trust me on this.
My son introduced me to it, I am utterly hooked on it, and my non-gaming brother has been playing it a bunch too. It's just so freaking clever for being so simple.”
Here was a review and some strategy instructions I found in The Guardian: “Balatro: this fiendish mashup of solitaire and poker has taken over my life.”
Positive Mindset: Ted Lasso Edition
Last month in my ‘Reading, Watching, Playing’ segment I mentioned how I binge-watched the entire ‘Ted Lasso’ series on Apple TV+.
It is one of the most positive, heartwarming shows I’ve ever watched and I highly recommend it.
The Facebook algorithm, in its infinite wisdom, served this list from the ‘Ted Lasso Clips’ page to me and I thought it perfectly encapsulated the positive mentality we all should be trying to cultivate:
Things I’ve learned from Ted Lasso:
- "Be curious, not judgmental"
- "Doing the right thing is never the wrong thing."
- "I have a really tricky time hearing folks that don’t believe in themselves."
- “Change Isn’t About Trying to Be Perfect. Perfection Sucks. Perfect Is Boring.”
- "You know what the happiest animal on Earth is? It's a goldfish. It has a 10-second memory. Be a goldfish."
- "For me, success is not about the wins and losses. It's about helping these young fellas be the best versions of themselves on and off the field."
- "I think that if you care about someone and you got a little love in your heart, there ain't nothing you can't get through together."
- “I think that you might be so sure that you’re one in a million that sometimes you forget that out there, you’re just one of 11.”
- "Taking on a challenge is a lot like riding a horse, isn't it? If you're comfortable while you're doing it, you're probably doing it wrong."
- "I promise you there is something worse out there than being sad, and that's being alone and being sad. Ain't no one in this room alone."
ChooseFI: Friends of the Library
We save thousands of dollars each year by using our public library, and I wanted to pass along a PSA reminder to all of you:
Libraries are a great way to save money, and in this day and age of ebooks and audiobooks, it’s more convenient than ever to use your public library!
It takes me about 45 seconds and maybe 4 clicks to go from “let’s see if they have this book available” to reserved, downloaded and on my Kindle.
With apps like Overdrive, Libby and Hoopla in use by nearly every public library, the process is so simple.
Your action item 1: See if your public library has ebooks/audiobooks available and walk through the process and take out your first book!
Your action item 2: Download the free Library Extension app for your web browser of choice. It shows you the books/ebooks available at your local public library when you’re searching through Amazon and GoodReads.
My 1% better was verifying the deposit in my teen daughter's Roth IRA. I transferred money into the account and checked it a few days later to make extra sure it got deposited - THANKFULLY - because I had forgotten about the step to move it from core position to Fidelity 500 Index Fund (FXAIX).
If I hadn't have done that, I likely would not have realized it until my annual review. Lesson learned - check accounts when you deposit money to make sure it doesn't stay in the core account.
Just switched the AutoPay of my car insurance bill from my 2% cash back rewards card to my card that is offering 5% back on insurance payments, up to $20; the net benefit of doing this is less than $8, but given the fact that it only takes 5 minutes between changing it now and changing it back in two months to re-optimize, this small task is equivalent to about $91/hour with virtually zero effort :)
As Ben Franklin once aptly noted: "watch the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves."
My 1% this week was to start investing in the ETF VTI.
I will be debt free by Dec 2024, except for the mortgage. Years ahead of any other plan. I'll then take those debt payments & dump more into the VTI.
I looked up where to buy the ETF VTI so I could buy without fees [Brad Note: Fee free ETF purchases are available at most brokerage, including Fidelity, Schwab and Vanguard] and set it to auto invest challenge of $5 every day it trades.
I wanted to start now instead of waiting until I paid all my debt so I could just start!
I just turned 60 so I'm in a rush to add to my retirement and this is the one piece that I have wanted to do since I first heard you all talk about it. I always thought I would retire at 65, then 67, then 70. At this stage in planning FI I am hopeful I may be able to retire at 62.
My 1% better is I found out I have 16 months of Post 911 GI bill left so I'm using to major in Organizational Leadership and get paid doing it.
My 1% better is that this summer I was able to save over $1000 by thinking creatively and doing things just a little differently. We took my kid out of daycare for 2 months. We have a friend who is a teacher and was out of school for the summer looking for some summer income, we paid her to watch my son in my home for 3 days a week and my mom and mother-in-law watched him the other 2 days.
We were able to pay our teacher friend generously and still saved $1000 in 2 months mostly because of not having to pay the daycare for the weeks that we were on vacation in that time. Even with having to pay the non-refundable re-enrollment fee of $175 to get him back on the waitlist, we still saved all that money and put him back in daycare when we needed to.
Thanks to ChooseFI for helping me get creative and encouraging me to find different ways of doing things outside of the conventional path!
My first 1% better this week was fixing a blown fuse myself. It sounds like a small thing but we have just moved into a house with an old fuse box with no labels. My husband was away so I got onto Dr Google and before you know it I'm twisting some tiny wire around a little fuse. I cackled like a crazy lady when it worked and did a silly dance with the kids to celebrate how ladies can do anything!
The next win was giving up being a scrooge about heated towel rails. It always annoyed me that the kids leave their towels all over the place and are forever getting new ones, but I was trying to be sensible with power. All it took was turning on the heated towel rail and voila, the towels are hung up and dry and toasty and zero nagging is involved. Probably an overall cost saving due to one less washing load a week!
The last win might be controversial as we increased our mortgage by $200k... I had moved in with my now husband and his three children over three years ago, and we since had a daughter together. I was determined to save money, pay off the mortgage, and get to FI, so I had resigned to live in the house he had bought with his ex-wife and make do.
But I really couldn't stand the house, it was ugly, had terrible flow and everyone squashed into the one small lounge that stayed warm. It never felt like 'home'. Becoming a mom and having three step-kids and living in a home I didn't like became a real mental health challenge, which would have impacted our marriage if we hadn't taken action.
Thankfully my husband supported the idea of moving and this month we moved into a home we both adore that has amazing flow and enough space for our blended family to spread out. We have no doubt it has been the best decision we've made together. So anyone out there putting FI ahead of your mental health, please get it the other way around even if it sets you back on your FI journey, you won't regret it!
