🤑💬👶🏽 Budgets, Words, Daycare, oh my! Tommy George's Email Experiment, Episode 04 4️⃣
Hello, friend!
Happy New Year! How were your holidays?
We had a great break from Christmas to New Years Day, and it's probably best described as being "very chill". Laura and I were sitting in the quiet by 9pm on December 31st. A bit unusual for our house, I think, but it was a welcome rest.
Elizabeth's first day of day care was Monday, and whew! We had posted some silly and dramatic posts on social media, but inside really did have confidence.
No lie though, I had planned to cry. I didn't cry. But I gave myself permission! 😆
Thanks to all of you that reached out with some follow-up, or encouraging things later that day. It went super well, and we really like her "school" and teachers.
How crazy is this... I have a kid that goes to day care? What on earth...?
Words
If you haven't done it yourself, you probably know at least one person who's chosen a "Word for the year".
Ya'll... I might be bad at this. At least that's how I usually feel by January 1st. This year, I didn't spend much of Christmas break being very introspective. I think I tend to blur that out through most of January, actually.
Laura sent me an encouraging article: What One Word Do You Need to Embrace in the Year Ahead?
If you haven't tried picking a "Word for the year" before, or you struggle a bit like I do, definitely check that out. I think some of the best advice is in the list near the end, including these:
- Consider what you’re resisting.
- If the one you land on doesn’t work for you in practice, change it.
- What if you picked more than one? People play with one word but there are no written rules that say you can’t have two or three.
This year I have a personal word (so far!), and Laura and I chose one for our family. I'll let you know more about that and how it's working out later on!
Do you have a Word for the year, or some other annual practice? I want to hear about it! Send a reply!
Speaking of New-Year traditions and resolutions: Budgeting!
Yay! Budgeting isn't new for me, but I know a lot of folks use the burst of "new beginnings" energy to get a handle on their financial life. I love budgeting. Don't get me wrong -- I don't enjoy certain parts of the ongoing discipline, but the benefits far outweigh the annoyances.
A couple years ago I even participated as a kind of "coach" for a 60-day "new year budgeting challenge" and it was so fun to encourage and help folks figure out how to get up and running.
One of my biggest pieces of budgeting advice: Figure out how you think about your money, and then find a system that works well for that.
Personally, I started with a few requirements:
- Categories that matched my thought process.
- At any moment, I could know what was safe to spend. (Via an app, ideally, because I have my phone all the time already).
- Extremely flexible, in case I needed to adjust amounts for a given time period.
The app that worked best for me, and the one I always whole-heartedly recommend is "YNAB" (You Need A Budget). (If you use that link, you and I each get an extra free month. If you want a non-referral link, use this one: https://www.youneedabudget.com/)
I'm actually taking a closer look at some alternatives to YNAB as well, as my needs and ideas have shifted a little bit going into this year.
If you're thinking of getting a fresh start, or just changing the way you deal with your money, I'd love to geek out about budgeting with you some time.
: Also, props to the super-financially-on-their-way-up reader who had their bank account emptied for Christmas -- but had a contingency fund in place! 👋🏽 Hello there! Sounds like your discipline and patience is paying off!
That thing about location tracking
A couple emails ago, I said that I was really glad to see the New York Times content on location tracking. (If you haven't read that yet, please read it soon!)
I'm not done talking about that just yet. But there's some good news. Hopefully you made it to the part with 3 Steps to Protect Your Phone. Check that out to see how to turn off some of the location tracking that you may not need.
So there's some good news!
This is too long already, so I'll save some links for next week!
Have something to share? Hit reply!
Less baby, more tech? More YouTube videos? More baby, less budgeting? Too long? Too short?