Happy Friday, y’all!
I’m off to a wedding today, but wanted to leave you with a handful of my favorite reads over the month in case they inspire you as much as they did me :)
But first – a quick announcement:
If you haven’t bought your tickets to FinCon yet, time is running out! It’s less than a month away now and I want to hang out with you there!! :)
If seeing me isn’t enough, though, here’s 4 other reasons you should come too (and it’s open to both bloggers AND non-bloggers FYI! More on that below…):
- You get to hang out with hundreds – literally hundreds! – of other great $$$ bloggers! As well as $$$ podcasters, journalists, vloggers, and whatever other forms of social media are “hot” right now… A far cry from FinCon #1 when there were literally just us bloggers :) (Anyone still around from back then?)
- You get to beef up your skills on blogging/podcasting/etc. Yeah it’s a big social fest, but you also get to *learn* from all your peers too. And there’s some great line-ups of speakers and presenters this year such as Rachel Cruz, Chris Hogan, Jean Chatzky, and the one and only Mr. Money Mustache (you can see the schedule at a glance here: finconexpo.com/fincon18 (scroll to bottom))
- You get to interact with big brands and financial institutions. Who all want to get in front of your audiences ;) Just one deal can pay for the whole trip out!
- And lastly, and the main reason I’ve gone every single year – you get
free beerhighly *inspired*. It’s no coincidence that our enthusiasm for our blogs go straight through the roof come fall time, and while I know we can get a bit crazy with the recaps, it’s just because we’re reminded of why we started our blogs in the first place: the community!
So if you’re in need for some renewed motivation, or looking to start a blog for the first time yourself, FinCon’s a great place to be. And you can learn more about the event, as well as tickets, here: finconexpo.com/fincon18/#register (they come in “Basic”, “Pro”, and even “Virtual” if you’d rather watch from afar – but that’s a lot less fun ;)):
And if you’re *not* a blogger/vlogger/podcaster and just want to hang out and talk about money as a “normal” person, there’s a pass you can get for that too! It’s called The “Community” Pass, and it’ll only run you a fraction of the ticket cost. Here’s a little more about it:
“The Community Pass is intended for people outside of the industry (from the general public) with a passionate interest in personal finance and/or investing who primarily want to attend the Keynotes, the Money Conversations track at #FinCon18, FinCon Central (the expo and lounge) and who want to interact with their favorite personal finance influencer, blogger, podcaster, or Youtuber.”
Make sure to flag me down if you make it out!! Would love to meet you in person!
Okay, now onto my favorite articles from the month…
That FinCon announcement took waaaay longer than I intended, haha… sorry! Can you tell I’m excited about it?? :)
Your Whole Life Is Borrowed Time via Raptitude — “The universe is not at all sentimental— aliveness is always going to be an arbitrary status that can be revoked at any time. No recourse, no due process. Equally mysterious is that our lives began at all. As my favorite philosopher, Douglas Harding, tried to remind us before he died: “It’s the very last thing, isn’t it, that we feel grateful for: having happened. You know, you needn’t have happened. You needn’t have happened. But you did happen.””
Everything You Own is Garbage via Camp Fire Finance — “I try to remember this as I buy things and take inventory of my current possessions. I don’t do this to be cheap or frugal, although I do spend less money when evaluating things this way, rather I do this because it helps me keep things in perspective: Stuff doesn’t matter. People matter.”
A Commencement Speech For The Class of 2018 That I Wasn’t Asked To Give via Chris W Werner — “Remember that the people closest to you are either anchors or sails. Some keep you from progressing forward no matter how hard you try and others fill you with life. Some anchors can be lifted, others have to be cut free. ”
In the First World, it’s a Deliberate, Beautiful Drive to Live Minimalist via Love Liberty Shelter — “The family lives in a handbuilt 200 square foot tiny house on wheels, currently located on a farm, and have been living here for 2 years. They own the house and pay for parking it by performing farm chores. Despite many challenges, they like living here because this arrangement saves them approximately $1500 each month in rent and utilities.”
Why Stay-At-Home Moms Should Earn a $115,000 Salary via Forbes — “According to the survey, the typical stay-at-home mom works almost 97 hours a week, spending 13.2 hours as a day-care teacher; 3.9 hours as household CEO; 7.6 hours as a psychologist; 14.1 hours as a chef; 15.4 as a housekeeper; 6.6 hours doing laundry; 9.5 hours as a PC-or-Mac operator; 10.7 hours as a facilities manager; 7.8 hours as a janitor and 7.8 hours driving the family Chevy.”
You don’t need confidence, just contribution. via Derek Sivers — “If I can do something that people find useful, then I should. It doesn’t matter if it’s a masterpiece or not, as long as I enjoy it.”
Jay Austin : Real Human Being via GoFundMe — “‘Life is short and the world is big and we want to make the most of our youth and good health before they’re gone.’ Jay Austin [of “Minimalism” film fame], author of this quote, and his partner, Lauren Geoghegan, were traveling the world by bicycle when, on their 369th day, their lives tragically ended as the result of a terrorist attack in Tajikistan on Sunday, July 29th, 2018.”
Video of the month: Google Talk with Frank Abagnale
(The guy from “Catch Me If You Can”)
While longer than the average videos (an hour), I think you’d really enjoy watching this one in place of a movie one day :) It’s both fascinating, and surprising!, whether you’ve seen/loved the movie or not, and he even drops some personal finance nuggets towards the end! But as a fellow father, I was most struck by his feelings towards his family and kids, and the fact he regrets everything he did that got him famous… Really powerful stuff. (Thx for the tip, Nate!)
Here’s the link to the video: Frank Abagnale: “Catch Me If You Can” | Talks at Google. And then below is a teaser for it to give you more context.
Let me know if you end up watching/listening to it!
“For Google’s Security and Privacy Month, we are honored to present the real Frank Abagnale, Renowned Cybersecurity And Fraud Prevention Expert, Bestselling Author & Subject of Catch Me If You Can.
His transformation from one of the world’s most notorious con men to an international cybersecurity expert trusted by the FBI has been mythologized in film and literature – but the takeaways he shares are the real deal.
Frank’s contributions to the world of security are immeasurable. He has become a hero to hundreds of public and private sector organizations for his indispensable counsel and strategic insight on safeguarding information systems and combating cyber-fraud.
With an eye on the latest techniques developed by high-tech criminals to deceive and defraud, Frank leaves audiences with a deep understanding of today’s evolving security landscape, and more importantly, a vision of how to make the world a safer place.”
That’s all I’ve got for you this month, have an excellent weekend!
And don’t forget to update those net worths! ;)
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Nice selection of brain food. I think I needed to read this one because I was start to feel like it was moi! – “Remember that the people closest to you are either anchors or sails. Some keep you from progressing forward no matter how hard you try and others fill you with life.”
Well, you definitely fill us with life over here ;)
Great selection of interesting articles (and vid) – and hope to meet you at FinCon!
You definitely will! Make sure to snag me when we cross paths!
Great round-up as always J
I especially like anything David puts out, he has a profound way of writing and always forces us to dig deep and reflect on the topic he is writing about.
Have a great weekend
Amen on that, brother.
Always nice to see you here too – thanks for taking the time :)
The Forbes article was an interesting read. I especially liked the break down of hours worked at different jobs. “Psychologist” was a neat insertion there. At 7.6 hrs, doesn’t that seem a bit low? :)
Haha yeah, it all really seems low in reality ;)
I wish I could attend Fincon! Are you taking your family, J $?
I wish you could come too!! Just going solo this time around (too many kids now to drag around, haha…) but a lot of people do bring their families along :) I always joke that we need a babysitting service there so the spouses can come and enjoy being around everyone too!
That video, man. Watched it at work this morning (it’s work related, don’t judge) and I’m going to try to fit it into next week’s newsletter. So much food for thought in there!
Rock on!! It definitely needs to continue being passed around :)
Wow, amazing talk! No passwords? Sweet!
Love his advice!
Thanks!
Glad you liked! :)
Thanks J for posting these. I really enjoyed the commencement speech one – found there were a lot of valid points. Liked the comment about making a prioritization list and knocking it down to only 5 so you can really focus on them and achieve them. I also liked the point about not focusing on yourself but rather on helping others succeed- you are a prime example of this. Thanks for not only providing info but challenging us too!
Awwwww, thank you LeeAnne!!! So glad you’re finding the blog helpful!!! Thanks for the kind words!!
FinCon sounds awesome!
I’ve honestly not heard of it before, so thank you for enlightening me J. I definitely would love to be there, so maybe next year ;)
I hope you do! It’s nice to connect with everyone in the *real* world every now and then to make it all seem more real than just internet pixels ;)
FinCon DOES sound fun. . . and to think, we didn’t even know the term “FIRE,” or much else $ related just a few years ago, and there’s actually a whole like-minded community out there! Can’t wait to eback from what you learn. Thanks also for the post share:)
Oh yeah! 10 years ago when I started there wasn’t any minimalism blogs either, or even FinCons for that matter! Haha… It’s cool to see all the new movements from over the years :) There’s a lot of CRAPPY changes that’s come into the industry too, but we’ll save those for another day and just keep to the positive here ;)