Money Musings 💭 come Money Party 🎉 with me
Justin and I have a party each month. 🎉 It’s not your typical party (even though I look forward to it… a lot! 😂). It’s a money party. And it’s one of the most important and powerful financial habits we keep.
To set the stage, we each pour our favorite beverages (🍷 + 🥃), get in our comfiest PJs, and put on some music. We then sit down and get to business.
A money party is a time to show our money some love. They’re so important because we tend to put off the non-urgent things relating to our money. We think we’ll get to it later and our to-do lists keep hanging over our heads.
One of the most important parts of a money party is going through your numbers. That means, going through each account and bank statement and calculating what you’ve spent in various categories for the month (don’t worry – there’s a template and a step-by-step process ✅ for that).
It’s when I remember I still need to cancel a subscription and when I find an erroneous charge on my statement. It also holds us accountable for our spending and saving toward our goals.
Money parties are also a great time to negotiate late fees, adjust our sinking funds and map out our goals.
Money parties are so essential to our financial well-being that I decided it’s about damn time we hosted one!
I’m so excited to share that we’re going to host our first live, in-person Money Party in NYC on January 30th at 6:30 pm. I would LOVE to have you join us. If you’re in the NYC area you can learn more and register here.
Money Move of the Week
Prioritize your goals. Last week we laid out our SMART money goals for 2020 (yay!). One of the most common questions I get is how to prioritize goals. Do I build my rainy day fund or pay down my debt? Do I save for retirement or save for my first home? Where does my vacation come into the mix? Here are some tips on weighing your priorities. Once you’ve ranked your goals in order of importance, you’ll want to decide how many to go after at once. This is a balance. For many of us, it’s hard to pick just one but if we choose too many, it will feel like we’re not making real progress on any. I find prioritizing 1-3 works most often.
You Gotta See This
What I can’t stop talking about at parties: the documentary The Game Changers. I’ve been eating plant-based(ish) since I was seventeen. As an animal lover, it just felt right for me, especially since I never liked or craved meat (I know that’s not the case for most!). As I learned more about the implications of mass farming and the meat industry for the planet, it made it that much more important to me. The weird thing is that I never thought the way I was eating might actually be healthier. The movie shows us why eating a more plant-based diet (doesn’t have to be all or nothing) is not only be better for our planet but also can make us stronger, prevent disease, and even improve our sex lives. After seeing it, even Justin has gone more plant-based. 😂