Money Musings 💭 Put an end to tipping guilt 🙈
Back in August we talked about tipping etiquette and how to navigate gratuity in a world where we’re prompted to tip in a lot of new scenarios.
Many of you shared that you....
Have felt guilted into tipping more than you’d like
Are confused about how much is enough to tip these days
Tip based on your mood or what is in your bank accounts (vs. having a strategy)
I have had many conversations with friends about this too. We’re all feeling this way.
I gathered a lot of great information on how you are handling tipping. Thank you for sharing your thoughts and strategies! You can read about it here.
But that’s just the first part of putting an end to tipping guilt.
While there isn’t a hard and fast set of rules around tipping, we can create our own tipping guidelines that we feel good about.
This can take the guesswork and the guilt out of a situation because we’ve thought through what we want to do in advance.
If you want to do this, fill out the following blanks for yourself. Then follow the guidelines for a couple of weeks and see how they feel.
You can always adjust what’s not working or doesn’t feel good. You might also encounter situations you forgot about. Add those to the list.
I generally tip:
____% at sit down restaurants
____% or $____ for takeout
____% or $____ for delivery
____% or $____ at coffee shops
____% or $____ on shared rides
Scenarios where I might tip more: ________________________
Scenarios where I might tip less: ________________________
Scenarios where I will not tip: ________________________
I’d love to hear how it goes and if this helps! Hit reply and let me know.
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
MAKE ANY HOLIDAY FABULOUSLY FRUGAL.
Fabulously frugal means upping or maintaining the fabulousness of something while decreasing or maintaining the cost. It’s about creating win-win scenarios for our happiness and financial well-being. YES.
As we enter into the holiday season (how is it already October?!) and are dealing with much higher costs, it’s a great way to celebrate what matters without breaking the bank.
Here’s how to do it.
1. First we strategize. Let’s use Halloween as an example. What about Halloween is important to you (if you celebrate at all)? If you don’t celebrate, the cost will be $0. Yay for you!
I love a good family themed costume and walking around the neighborhood and looking at the decorations. Maybe you love hosting a themed party or like to be known as the house with the best candy. If your holiday plans include other people, bring them in on this brainstorm sesh.
2. Next, what can you let go of this holiday to decrease its cost? Take some time to make a list of ideas. Maybe you don’t care about decorations or are happy with the same costume as last year.
I’m a big fan of DIY and borrowing from friends!
3. Then test it out and see how it goes. Celebrate the holiday with these changes and then recap. Was the holiday as special as it typically is (or maybe more)? Did you save as much as you’d like?
Reflect, celebrate how much you saved, and regroup for next year.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
DEFINE KEY INVESTING TERMS.
Investing is important. Once we have our financial foundation, investing is how we build wealth - a.k.a. how we make our money have babies (a phrase I learned and love from Farnoosh via SkimmU). 😂 Compound interest.
There is a bunch of investing jargon BUT if you have a few key terms down you’ll be in good shape.
DEFINE: PORTFOLIO. A fancy way of saying “your investments.” Use it in a sentence - “Excuse me, I have to go check my portfolio.” Exit stage right and login to see what’s going on with your investments.
DEFINE: BROKERAGE ACCOUNT. A type of account that holds your cash and investments and allows you to buy and sell (ie trade) investments like stocks, bonds, and funds. Use it in a sentence - “I’m going to open a brokerage account and start investing.” Then, you can go celebrate that you’ve made a big step toward becoming an investor.
DEFINE: EXPENSE RATIO. A percentage fee that you are charged each year for owning a fund (see next definition). It covers the costs to manage the fund. You won’t have to send payment anywhere because the money will just be withdrawn from your investment account. If the expense ratio is 0.15% and your retirement investments are $50K, you’ll pay $75 per year. Some funds have high expense ratios. Use it in a sentence - “I typically consider an expense ratio above 0.5% to be high and I try to keep my investments well below that.”
DEFINE: FUND. See our funds definition from August!
If you want to learn everything you need to get started with investing, head to chapters 7 and 8 of Financial Adulting for a complete rundown. PLUS you'll learn the exact strategies expert investors are using.