Morning!
I hope you’re in search of some eye candy today as I’m serving it up hot! ;)
Stumbled across a bunch of ridiculously silly, yet somewhat helpful!, videos we created for All-Star Money last year, and thought you might enjoy the change from my novels here lately…
These came about from pouring over 200 articles a day in the space, and then plucking out my favorites and doing a little skit around them. Which looks like they may have only taken about 17 minutes to produce, but oh no! These puppies took around 10 hours total EACH by the time we concepted them, wrote out the script, set up the camera (aka phone), did all that glorious (ly bad) acting, and then finally edited and compiled everything together (shout out to Harry and Zach for taking on that role!).
My respect levels to all vloggers went up immensely after doing this, I’ll tell you what… And as you can imagine, it didn’t last long until we cut these from the schedule, haha… But not before we were left with a dozen or so gems to forever appreciate! Along with an insane amount of learning experience!
Here were some of the more nugget-rich skits we put together, each with its own fun spin to it:
- The 3 Budgets You Need to Create Today
- An Investment Tip That Could Get You Half a Million Dollars
- How to Lead an Intentional Life by “Opting Out”
- Saving Money and Space With the 4 Rs
- The Power of Writing Out Your Obituary
- Channeling Your IKIGAI – or Your “Reason For Being”
As silly as some of these are though, I really am pretty proud of them. Especially for this being my first real foray into making videos! I’m certainly under no illusion of becoming a YouTube star anytime soon, haha, but I’d def. give it another go if anyone ever wants to employ me ;)
But you check them out and let me know what you think…. And if you’re a fan, be sure to follow my YouTube channel so you get alerted of any new stuff I create down the line!
Oh, I’ll also drop some fun Q&As at the end too we did earlier this year. Where people from the community shot over questions for me and I answered them via video (which was a LOT faster and easier to do! I think that took me approximately 30 minutes total, lol…)
Some of these questions are also pretty random (like my go-to choice in nail polish, or if I’d rather go into war with one horse-sized Chihuahua or 100 Chihuahua-sized horses?!), but there were were some good life and money pondering Qs too. As well as a clip where I read off the best hate mail I’ve gotten over the years which I DIE laughing at every time cuz they’re so horrible!
Alright, let’s get to them… Bookmark for some good weekend watching if you don’t have the time now! ☕ I promise it’ll be worth it… (no I don’t).
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A Visual Representation of Financial Disasters [2020]
👉👉 A Visual Representation of Financial Disasters [2020] — The year 2020 had its share of bad news — from record high unemployment levels to stock market chaos to murder hornets to a shut down of the entire world! To visually represent this news, we use snakes. Real or fake? You’ll have to watch to find out!
[Inspired by Wealthy Retirement: A Lesson From the Sinnemahoning Rattlesnake Hunt]
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The 3 Budgets You Need to Create Today
👉👉 The 3 Budgets You Need to Create Today — One budget is a good starting point on your journey to financial independence, but creating three — a lean, moderate and fat — budget is even better. Try creating all of them and see what you learn!
[Inspired by The Penny Hoarder: Good, Bad and in Between: Why You Should Have 3 Versions of Your Budget]
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An Investment Tip That Could Get You Half a Million Dollars
👉👉 An Investment Tip That Could Get You Half a Million Dollars — This blogger theory could save you up to half a million dollars in 25 years. Think you’re up for the challenge?
[Inspired by One Cent at a Time: How to Become Rich by Saving One Hour of Wage Per Day // Money Makers hat and Abundance shirt by Abundance Community.]
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How To Lead an Intentional Life by “Opting Out”
👉👉 How To Lead an Intentional Life by “Opting Out” — Sometimes in life, it’s important to think about what you can opt out of instead of adding to your plate. Inspired by Cait Flanders’ recent book, Adventures in Opting Out, we share the importance of removing things from your life to live more intentionally.
[Inspired by Cait Flanders: Adventures in Opting Out // Shirt by Accidental FIRE: Index And Chill (Amazon affiliate link)]
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A Football Analogy To Help You Manage Rejection
👉👉 A Football Analogy To Help You Manage Rejection — When it comes to managing your daily task load, try this strategy to help you focus on the stuff you have control over, versus getting stuck on the outcome.
[Inspired by A Lawyer and Her Money: The Easy Hack I Use to Make Failure Fun]
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Save Money (and Space) with the 4Rs. Plus: A new FIRE song!
👉👉 Save Money (and Space) with the 4Rs. Plus: A new FIRE song! — When thinking about how to declutter your collection of books (and save more money), these four Rs can help make your decisions easier. Play the new FIRE song we share as well in the background for even more inspiration!
[Inspired by The Lifestyle Files: How To Balance Minimalism And A Love Affair With Books // We Want Guac: The Financial Independence Song is Here]
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A Slightly Morbid Exercise: Write Your Ideal Obituary!
👉👉 A Slightly Morbid Exercise: Write Your Ideal Obituary! — The ultimate goal we should all have on our financial independence journeys is to figure out how you’re living life *now* vs how you want to be living your life in the future. This (slightly morbid) exercise of writing your current obituary compared to a future – more ideal – one should help put things in better perspective for you.
[Inspired by Rich Habits: The Incredible Powers of the Human Mind // Shirt by: MadFientist.com]
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Dividend Investing: A Popular Way to Grow Wealth
👉👉 Dividend Investing: A Popular Way to Grow Wealth — The personal finance community shares so many financial journeys and approaches to saving (and investing). One of the more popular strategies is dividend investing. Discover what it is and how to do it by watching this vid.
[Inspired by Dividend Diplomats: Dividend Income from YOU the Bloggers]
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Find Your IKIGAI by Exploring These Four Quadrants
👉👉 Find Your IKIGAI by Exploring These Four Quadrants — The Japanese saying IKIGAI, which translates to “reason for being” or “reason to wake up in the morning,” can be explored by focusing on four different quadrants of your life:
- What you love
- What you’re good at
- What the world needs
- What you can be paid for
Check out the video, and then try this method to find your own IKIGAI!
[Inspired by Physician on FIRE: Love Your Job? Why You Should Still Pursue Financial Independence]
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This 8-Year-Old Makes 2 Million a Month on YouTube (!)
[Inspired by: GrooveWallet.com (no longer online)]
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Forrest Fenn’s Treasure + The War Ratio
👉👉 Forrest Fenn’s Treasure + The War Ratio — After burying gold and other valuables a decade ago in the Rocky Mountains, someone has found Forrest Fenn’s treasure by deciphering clues hidden in a poem. Check out the video to learn more, as well as a new financial calculation to be aware of (The WAR Ratio) and A Purple Life’s big news.
[Inspired by The Physician Philosopher: Saving Money. How Much is Enough? The 30% Rule // A Purple Life: P.S. I’m Bi]
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And lastly, here are some fun Q&As we did with the community… They’re batched into 3 videos and covers everything from my mohawk budget to creepy hate mail to why I’m called “The Miley Cyrus of Finance” and more. Check ’em out!
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Q&A with J. Money (Batch #1)
👉👉 Q&A with J. Money (Batch #1) — In our Q&A with J$ video series, Jay answers fun, entertaining questions from the community. In this video, find out if Jay actually considers himself the “Miley Cyrus” of personal finance, the best (and creepiest) hate mail he’s received, and what he really thinks about his ten year biz partner.
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Q&A with J. Money (Batch #2)
👉👉 Q&A with J. Money (Batch #2) — In our Q&A with J$ video series, Jay answers fun, entertaining questions from the community. In this video, discover what Jay does on bad hair days (GASP!), what his budget for his iconic mohawk is, his nail color of choice for special occasions, and if he has a favorite currency!
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Q&A with J. Money (Batch #3)
👉👉 Q&A with J. Money (Batch #3) — In our Q&A with J$ video series, Jay answers fun, entertaining questions from the community. In this video, Jay answers questions about going to war with chihuahuas, if he includes cemetery plots in his net worth, and the most overrated place he’s ever visited in the world.
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And there you have it! My video producing debut!
Unless you count my famous music video that went viral 8 years ago – “Cash in A Box” – a cover of “D*ck in a Box”, lol… But I wouldn’t advise you watch that unless you have a strong stomach 😂
XOXO,
PS: If you liked these, “follow” me on YouTube so you can catch future nonsense I create over the years ;)
PPS: Mad love to my bff and biz parner, Nate St. Pierre, for helping me with all these crazy skits, as well as to Zack Taylor and Harry Huncken for their fine editing skills. Highly recommend them if you ever need some video work yourself!
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I just watched the obituary video and that is good advice, even if you don’t do it for the sake of pinning down future goals! I attended a funeral this year of a friend’s wife, who had written her own obit years before at a retreat. I didn’t know her, but it gave me a better idea of who she was and what shaped her life. I know that by the time your obit is posted, you don’t care what’s in it, but it does seem nice to have the accomplishments that are important to you memorialized. Bereaved family may not remember or know the highlights of your life when they have to cobble something in the moment. Great videos!
Agreed!!
And glad you liked the video! That was one of my favorites to make – and not just because I got to stroll through my beloved cemetery while doing it, haha…
Interestingly enough I just came back from a “celebration of life” for a friend who recently passed, and it was so cool hearing all the stories about him that I had no idea about even after being friends for a decade or so…
So those obituaries are great to get started on!! I want to see yours whenever you’re done with it, please! :)
Great body of work you’ve built up over your entire internet career, but really cool you were able to go in this (video) direction for a bit – and to have everything that was even cut eventually. Super entertaining!
Thanks man!
We never really marketed them well at All-Star so they never took off (or they just weren’t good enough – hah!), but I was pretty proud of them for it being my first go at it so I’m glad they allowed me to re-upload them all onto my own Youtube channel and share so they’re archived forever… Would suck losing all that work and sillyness! :)
Though I did learn a ton in the process so I suppose that alone is a win… and now I know I can do them if anyone ever wants to hire me again! :)
How have I never seen Cash in a box before????!? It may have been slightly before I started following this site. I feel like that video is the equivalent of a B-horror movie, it’s the zombeavers of personal finance you tube clips… You know its bad but you can’t avert your eyes.
Pretty much, haha…
One time was enough for me too – I can’t even re-watch it myself it’s so bad!
I remember these videos! I didn’t know that it takes so much time to complete. That’s crazy! Mad respect for putting in the work sir. The football one is my favorite. Nice work.
Thanks!!
Yeah, from the scripting to the camera setting up to the location figuring out and props and lighting and re-shoots every 5 mins when I’d mess up, it adds up fast :) And those 10 hours didn’t even include the *video editing* that I didn’t have to do myself! Lol…. so maybe they took 13-14 hours/piece or so?!
Fun learning experience either way… And of course the more raw Q&A stuff was much easier/faster to put together and perhaps much more to the point ;)