Morning! I thought I’d share some of my favorite newsletters with y’all today in case you’re looking for extra boosts of smartness :) These are pretty much the only 4 email lists I’m subscribed to (gotta keep your digital stuff slimmed down to what you love, just like your physical stuff!), and they’re all super helpful and FREE.
But the best part? Someone else does all the hard work and you get to reap the benefit! It’s lazy learning at its finest :)
Here are the emails in order of when I read them each day… With the only exception of #4 that should ALWAYS go first no matter what. (Except for when you’re a psychic like me and already know what they’re going to say! (Don’t cheat and scroll down))
#1. Napoleon Hill’s Thought for the Day (for inspiration)
This is one of the first emails I read, conveniently hitting my inbox a little after 5 a.m. to further set the tone for the day. It’s a nice follow up to getting my “powerful goodness” on every morning a la Benjamin Franklin (today marks work day #59 in a row btw!) and they’re perfectly short for all those with A.D.D..
If the name sounds familiar, it’s because Napoleon Hill is the same guy behind the massively successful book “Think and Grow Rich” – first published in 1937. And currently highlighted on our recent list of the best money books we just put out on Rockstar Finance. So this guy is GOOD, and will help in all areas of your life: money, business, family, and just being a more thoughtful person overall.
Here are some recent themes:
- The man who does his job precisely as he would do it if he owned the business may see the day when he will own that business or a better one.
- A mind ill with negative attitudes is more dangerous than a sick body, for its sickness is always contagious.
- The average person would have quit at the first failure. Thatโs why there have been many average men and only one Edison.
You can sign up here if interested: naphill.org
#2. theSkimm (for current events)
After I’m done with all the positive rah rah-ing in the morning and grab my coffee, I head over to my Skimm email to learn what’s going on in the real world. Which is a relatively new thing for me as I’ve since given up watching the news and most other mainstream media because I always leave them feeling worse than I did when I got there (does that happen to you too?).
The downside to this, of course, is that I never know what’s going on in the world outside of personal finance, and thus come off as being a big fat dummy. And rightfully so ;)
Now with Skimm I’m pretty much up to speed with current events in SECONDS as their emails are like dossiers of everything you need to know in news, politics, pop culture, and more. And they’re quite entertaining to read too as the style is tailored very much to the younger generation (though millions of people both young and old read it – even Oprah!).
I like to think of these as the same briefs the President gets each day, helping me feel rather important ;) But you can check them out for yourself to see if they’re worthy: theskimm.com
#3. The MSB Cheat Sheet (for financial events)
The Makin’ Sense Babe (MSB) Cheat Sheet is similar to the Skimm, only *financial-based* and comes out at the end of every week on Fridays. It’s dubbed the financial newsletter “for non-Wall Street people”, and plows through news, trends, and technology that impacts your money and makes sense of it for you without all that complicated lingo.
And the coolest part – it’s run by my friend, and former $$$ blogger, Kathryn Cicoletti! Who’s not only one of the smartest people I know in the financial industry, but also one of the most hilarious. Forbes once compared her stuff to The Daily Show which sums it up pretty well.ย She even gave up her $600,000/year job to run this project of hers full time which tells you how passionate she is on it!
I highly recommend checking it out: mscheatsheet.com
(Here’s a video of hers to give you a sense of her style)
#4. Rockstar Finance Newsletter (for personal finance)
Oh hey – how’d that get in here? ;) While I’m usually one to shy away from self-promotion, I genuinely think our daily newsletter is really helpful to anyone working on their personal finances.
We literally scan hundreds of $$$ blogs a day, and then showcase our favorite 3 articles we find to be the most helpful or interesting. So not only do you get some pretty kick-ass content delivered to our inbox without having to lift a finger, but you also get introduced to the best of the entire financial blogosphere itself. And shockingly enough there’s a number of blogs better than Budgets Are Sexy! (*gasp*) Only a fifth of my stuff is ever worthy enough to be featured :)
Business Insider also just listed it as one of the top finance sites around (right alongside The Motley Fool, Khan Academy, and even Kiplinger!) so I think we’re on to something good here… We’ve also started building our curated “resources” section too which currently holds our lists of the best money blogs, as well as our new list of the best money books, and more will be added as we continue to curate all angles of the personal finance world…
So yes, it is my 2nd baby, but I really do think you’d get a lot from it! Sign up here if you want to test it out, or just head over to RockstarFinance.com directly to get a taste of the articles we feature.
There you have it! Now you know all my secrets to learning :)
Any of y’all signed up to these guys too? What others do you recommend?
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Signing up for all of them now. The one I would add is TheSimpleDollar.com – they have a really nice weekly newsletter that comes out on Sundays. Their articles are usually a little more in-depth but have some really nice reads if you want to get your think on. Thanks for the suggestions, sir!
Rock on man – let me know what you think of these!
I’ve actually been enjoying the Simple Dollar a lot lately, so I have no doubts their Sunday emails are awesome. thanks for the tip, brotha :)
I hate the news too! I love cutting out stuff in my life that is making me feel worse and the news is one of them. When I’m not primed to expect the worse from people because of the news stories out there, I’m ready to give a bit more leeway to the average Joe who cuts in front of me. He’s probably not that bad of a person even though his driving can be improved!
Hah! Truth.
The other one that needs to be mentioned is, of course, the Budgets are Sexy notification. This is my favorite notification to see in the morning. But now I’m going to have to look into the ones that you’ve discussed as well. Thanks for keeping us informed J.
Well that’s a given ;)
I’m a big fan of the Skimm! I don’t love the news these days but still want to be generally informed. The Skimm’s bite sized pieces are just right.
I love the idea of getting the top news stories skimmed and selected for me. And Rockstar Finance’s equivalent for personal finance blogs has been extremely helpful in pointing me toward great articles, especially when I’m short on time and can’t read as many sites as I want to.
glad you’re finding rock* helpful!
I built it the way I’d want to see it myself if someone else made it :) if only I could enjoy reading it without doing all the work! haha…
Love the Skimm & I watch Kathryn on You Tube…she is hilarious! Of course I inhale Rockstar Finance daily so now I am off to check out Mr. Hill to up my smart game…thanks for the tip!
The Makinโ Sense Babe (MSB) Cheat Sheet is definitely my favorite, but I need to sign up to the others too! I’m all about learning something new and especially what comes to personal finances and entrepreneurship. Hopefully I will get some awesome ideas and inspiration :)
Love the Skimm! It’s like my version of the AM commuters with the Wall Street Journal or Times (I’m SUCH a millennial ;) )
Haha, yeah you are…
I’ve heard that the first page of a newspaper is very important; especially, the top part that faces people. A few years ago, I’m not sure what made me notice, but it was around Christmas and I was on CNN. The top part of the page, when loaded, was full of negative and dismal stories. The rest of the main page was like that, with the exception of a few stories. Tucked away on the left side on the lower part of the page was a picture of Santa with a headline regarding secret Santas.
If you think about it, what would grab people’s attention and sell better: a picture of Santa on the front page with “Secret Santas Deliver Presents…” or a picture of a father holding a deceased child with a heading reading, “Syrian Conflict Tearing Families Apart…”.
That’s the main reason I stopped reading the news. I like to know what’s going on in the world, but I want a more rounded version rather than the Apocalypse Now version.
Exactly… The media is all about views and subscriptions – it just happens to be a business around the news. And apparently that’s the stuff that sells :(
Crap, I can’t believe that I wasn’t signed up for your newsletter. That’s now been fixed!
*averts eyes*
This is amazing! Thanks for sharing. I love that MSB video – just signed up. I subscribe to Briefing which is similar to theSkimm. Confession: Most of the time, even THEN, I still only read the headlines. But between that and skimming Twitter, I get a pretty good dose of news :)
I LOVE the Skimm!! One of my clients told me about it almost a year ago and it’s my favorite daily email that I get. Actually, she told me she wanted to start a Skimm for personal finance and I told her it already existed, it was called Rockstar Finance. ;-)
Oh how much I love you right now…
Looking forward to checking out all of these sites. Signed up for digit too(recommended in a previous blog). :) Loving these little nuggets of knowledge you keep throwing at us. It’s so cool that people are sharing their financial know how without some crazy scheme behind it. Sharing real world experiences to help others in an epic journey to financial glory. Thanks again!
I have a scheme! To make y’all wealthy!! :)
I haven’t looked into MSB before but now I have subscribed and am looking forward to what all Carol offers.
Hey, I like your Rockstar Finance too… :)
Thank you for including themsbcheatsheet.com made my day!
Been meaning to share it forever! You know I’m a big fan :)
Congrats on the Business Insider nod! My inbox is cluttered enough though. I can barely wade through it as it is. So I guess I’ll just have to come by whenever I can fit it in!
Nice, thanks for the suggestions! I wasn’t aware of any of these.
Congrats on making the BI list!
As for daily newsletters, I enjoy Steph Halligan’s Art to Self. Great drawings and a good motivational message each morning!
She’s such a great (and nice!) person too :)
Love this!!! I’ve been spending time paring down emails I get from anyone and anything. I still keep my email subscription to the article-saving app Pocket – it only comes 2-3 times a week and is always filled with great long-form journalism. I’ll have to subscribe to Rockstar Finance – didn’t know that was your realm! Thank you!
Nice! Let me know what you think after a while… though it’s quite opposite from long-form journalism (and it comes every day – hah). Still, it’s fun if you love $$$ :)
I recently read ‘Think and Grow Rich’, so thanks very much for pointing me to the Thought of the Day, have signed up via Twitter.
Cool!