Money Musings: 💭 Sa-Vings is back! 🎶
This past week was my birthday ( I LOVE birthdays!) and it was also the anniversary of the music video parody I made with a bunch of my friends called Sa-Vings.
If you don’t remember or are new here, it’s a parody of Ariana Grande’s song 7-Rings. And we turned each shot into a parody of the original video.
What do these two things have in common?
FUN.
Working on that music video was SO (and I mean SO!) outside of my comfort zone but it also was SO. MUCH. FUN.
As my adulthood progressed I noticed I wasn't being silly or playing much. I thankfully experienced much happiness, contentment and joy, but not fun for the sake of fun.
To be honest - I wasn’t even sure what I would do for fun if I had the choice.
Luckily, E (my oldest) is the silliest person I know (second to my sister) and just being around him I’ve learned a lot about what it means to have fun.
While we can do things just for the sake of having fun, we can also infuse fun into what we are already doing.
I’ve noticed that putting on some music and dancing can make any situation more fun. Trying to make the person I’m with laugh or turning things into a game are also little ways to make my life more fun.
We can also do this with our money and personal finances. YES.
Enter money parties, the money game, and frugal joys. All concepts I love that bring some fun to our finances.
How do you infuse fun into life’s moments? What about your money life? Hit reply and let me know!
MONEY MOVE OF THE WEEK
CULTIVATE A PRACTICE OF GIVING.
Last week we talked about consumer activism (using our money to create more of what we want to see in the world). Another way to do that is through giving.
Giving, a lot like saving (or putting money towards any goal), is something that can get put on the back burner. We wait to do it until there’s money leftover or until we have an overflow of money. Then, we end up waiting and waiting and waiting...
The cool thing is, we don’t have to give a lot to start the practice. Even setting up a small recurring contribution of $5 or $10 to an organization doing work that’s important to us is a great way to flex that muscle and make a difference.
That way, when you earn more (it’s coming!) and have more to give, you are already a pro and in the practice of giving. You can turn it up from there!
Where are you giving or where do you want to give? I’d love to hear about your favorite organizations. Here’s a list of organizations recommended by the experts I interviewed for Financial Adulting.
Don’t forget to check if your employer matches donations. It’s a great (and often overlooked) way to double your contributions without increasing how much you give.
IMPORTANT: It’s important to take care of yourself first. If you are struggling financially or working to build up your emergency savings, wait to start giving.
YOU GOTTA SEE THIS
DEFINE: CRYPTO / NFTS.
DEFINE: CRYPTO. Cryptocurrency (a.k.a. "crypto") is digital currency not tied to any banks or government (traditional money is part of the fiat system). Bitcoin (currently the most widely circulated form of crypto) is created and trades on a decentralized system known as blockchain.
You can invest in different cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ethereum, but you can also invest in diversified crypto ETFs. Farnoosh Torabi shared in our interview for Financial Adulting that she got started investing in the space by investing in an ETF of companies that work in the space more tangentially or that support crypto technology.
Note: Even though Farnoosh chose a more diversified crypto investment rather than choosing one of the currencies, she shared that it’s still risky and only makes up a very small piece of her investing portfolio.
DEFINE: NFT. NFT stands for nonfungible token and is a photo, video, or other digital file stored on a digital ledger that people trade.