Calm Cash

Looking for ways to simplify your day, set boundaries but also boost your productivity?  On this episode Ben talks about 8 strategies to prioritize your Most Important Tasks (MITs), enhance your focus and ultimately get more done.   For the full written transcript, check out https://www.calm.cash/post/simplify --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

This is the fifth and final episode dedicated to the 50/30/20 spending plan (aka budget). Hear why personal savings is now more important than ever because of changes no one bothered to tell you. Topics covered include emergency savings, retirement accounts and HSA’s. Most importantly, Ben discusses the balance between paying down debt and starting to save. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

Debt can be a stressful part of our financial picture, but with some basic understanding and a solid plan, you can drain your debt and its impact on your well-being. In this episode, Ben explores 5 strategies to help you pay down your debt by using your 50/30/20 spending plan. Check it out! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

I fully embrace that there are things or experiences that I want to buy. And I fully allocate my 30% Wants bucket of my spending plan to fund these things I love or passions I want to pursue with my time AND my money. And I firmly believe you should spend money on your wants too. Just a quick refresher that Wants are going to include things like vacations, gifts, entertainment, clothes, eating out, most memberships and subscription services and the money spent towards our hobbies and interests.  Basically the money we allocate and spend on the fun stuff. The items and experiences that bring us happiness. Research has found that engaging in enjoyable activities during down time were associated with lower blood pressure, lower total cortisol levels, slimmer waist circumference, and lower body mass index. Engaging in hobbies also correlated to higher levels of positive psychosocial states and lower levels of depression and negative affect. Hobbies are good for your mind and your body. Hobbies can even promote positive stress. I know that sounds like an oxymoron but it is actually a real thing. It is called Eustress. Eustress is the opposite of chronic stress and is a type of stress that keeps us vital and excited about life. The excitement of a roller-coaster ride, a scary movie, or a fun challenge are all examples of eustress. The anticipation of a first date, the first day at a new job, or other exciting firsts also fall under the umbrella of eustress. Eustress is a type of stress that is actually important for us to have in our lives. Without it, we would become bored or in more serious cases, depressed. We would begin to feel a lack of motivation to accomplish goals and a lack of meaning in life without enough eustress. Not striving for goals, not overcoming challenges, not having a reason to wake up in the morning would be damaging to us, so eustress is considered 'good' stress. It keeps us healthy and happy. And hobbies are great ways to challenge ourselves and create this positive stress in our lives to help us grow and keep going. If you don’t have a hobby, there is a really good New York Times living guide that can help you pick out a hobby and get going. If you just google “how to find a hobby” it will be one of the first articles that pops up. Give it a read and get going! Another benefit of items in the Want spending category in our plan is they can really save you time to re-invest in things like being with family, working on that hobby you just picked out or just having some “me time”.  If I had to go to different stores or shop on many company websites for all of the needs and essentials and a few wants too that come from Amazon, I would lose hours and hours a month shopping. But Amazon isn’t the only time saving service like this. Grocery delivery services like Instacart, meal prep kits like HelloFresh and errand running or handy work apps like Task Rabbit just to name a few free up our schedules and simplify balancing our list of “to-do’s”. These conveniences apparently can also make us happier. There is also power in purchases sometimes. Physical items have the ability to give us the confidence we need to face the world, especially during setbacks or challenging times, but don't let impulse buys distract you from your short and long term financial goals. Being good with money is the ultimate balancing act between needs and wants. Depriving yourself isn't sustainable and rarely leads to success. So have a plan, stick to it and use your money where it makes sense to support your passions, bolster your hobbies, save you time and buy the things you need to be confident and successful in life. Stay safe out there…see you next week. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

50% of your spending plan will go towards your Needs...the basic necessities to keep yourself and your family safe and healthy.  Those basic necessities include things like housing, utilities, reliable transportation, food, healthcare and making our minimum debt payments.  We are going to spend money on these things, but it doesn’t mean we should spend wildly or not find ways to save a buck or two where it makes sense. These small wins can add up quick and be used to fund other parts of our spending plan like our Wants or Savings buckets.

Today we will talk about 20 ways to save on your basic necessities.

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There aren’t too many words that I hate because it is kind of weird to hate a word. But I hate the word budget. For most people they hear that word and just shut down. I know that is the way I feel when I hear it. It just sounds boring and complicated and about the last thing I want to do with any minute of free time I get. Maybe that is why only about 1 out of every 3 Americans actively keep a budget.

I think I have a better term. We all spend money, some of us more than others, and I think it is a good idea to have a plan for that spending. So when people ask me about budgets, I tell them I don’t have one but I do have a spending plan. Plans change. Plans get updated when life throws you curveballs. In my own life, my spending is so much different today than it was in early March. I bet yours is too.

The world is different and so is how we spend our money so it seems like a good time to go back to basics on a simple methodology to help you set your spending plan. It is called 50/30/20.

The 50/30/20 plan divides our take-home pay after taxes (so this is the amount of money on your paycheck) and divides it into 3 categories or buckets of spending. Needs, Wants and Savings. The numbers 50/30/20 represent the percent of our take-home pay that we allocate to each of the categories. So 50% of the money in our spending plan should be allocated to Needs, 30% to Wants and 20% to Savings which also includes extra debt payments on credit cards or student loans. Let’s take a closer look at each category.

Needs are the essential items to keep ourselves and our families safe and healthy and it represents where most of our money will go.  These are our basic necessities. Food on our tables, a roof over our heads, healthcare, utilities like power and water and I also include basic internet here as well because in 2020 this is a need. The Needs bucket also includes access to reliable transportation, required insurance for your car, apartment or home and any minimum debt payments.

Now let’s talk about the Wants bucket where 30% of your take-home pay is the target for your spending plan. These are the nice-to-have’s in our life. This spend isn’t necessary but it brings our life some joy and is usually indicative of our interests and passions. So things that fall into this bucket are meals from restaurants, our gym memberships, splurges on clothing, accessories and technology like a new iPhone and your subscription services just to name a few.

The last bucket of spending, our 20% category, is all about Savings, investments and debt repayments over and above the minimums. This category is where our emergency savings or rainy day fund money would fall in our spending plan as well as contributions to your retirement savings like a 401k or IRA and money you put into stocks or cryptocurrencies either through a brokerage account like E-Trade or Robinhood. You may have a money goal of paying down your student loan or a credit card, which are great goals by the way, and this bucket of your spending plan is where you would allocate those payments against the principle balance to wipe out those debts faster than just paying the minimums.

To set expectations, your spending probably isn’t going to match when you first do this but it gives you a starting point and will help you make financial decisions over time about where to spend a little less and where to allocate a little more.  My recommendation is to give it a shot, take the time and see where you land. I think you will find it helpful.

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Ben discusses where we've been and where we are going with our mental health and money health in 2020. Topics include the latest information on how coronavirus and social change is impacting the economy and our emotions as a country as well as strategies to navigate these trying times. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

On average we spend about a third of our entire lives sleeping and we know that adults need on average about 7 hours of sleep every night to function effectively throughout the day. Now we are all different physiologically and some people will need a little more and some a little less. Also, at different developmental stages of our lives or during different life events our sleep needs will change. For example, kids and teens need 9 or more hours of sleep for proper brain development and life events, like having a baby, will create disruptive sleep patterns for both males and females. Here’s a crazy fun fact about having a newborn. The parents of newborn babies on average lose 6 months of sleep in the first 2 years of their child’s life. 6 months! That is crazy! But instead of getting into those specific life events, we will just talk about the needs of an average adult which means the magic number is going to be 7 hours. Today only 21% of Americans are getting 7 hours of sleep each night. That means 4 out of every 5 people are not rested and recovered to function effectively throughout the day. And there are a number of side-effects and physical and mental health concerns for those of us not getting the rest we need.  And the number 1 cause of this lack of sleep is the sleep disorder called Insomnia. For most people suffering from Insomnia, stress or anxiety is the culprit of the loss of sleep. Right now COVID is occupying our minds and causing this anxiety like we saw in that stat in the intro with 77% of Americans losing sleep because of the pandemic. I know that I’m one of those people and my wife is too. But when there isn’t a pandemic, money, relationships or family problems and work are the common causes of not getting the shut eye we all need. So how do we get better sleep?  Well first and foremost, attacking the underlying cause of any stress or anxiety is important for long term improvement in your sleep. If the anxiety of the coronavirus is keeping you up, check out the “Coping with COVID Stress” episode for some practical ways to manage your feelings. If money problems are stressing you out and you can’t sleep, you have to create a plan to chip away at those parts of your financial live that are causing concern. Calm Cash has strategies to help with asking for a raise, considering a side hustle, building emergency savings and in the coming weeks we will be focusing on budgeting and getting back to basics with where our money is going. So check out some of those past episodes and stay tuned for more strategies to help solidify your money situation and goals. There are some more tactical things you can do to start getting a better night’s sleep too. Here are 5 tips you can do now to get more zzz’s: First – a consistent schedule is everything. Having a set time to go to bed and waking up each day is a proven way to get longer, more consistent sleep. Second – the sleep environment is critical. The temperature of the room, noise level and the amount of light can all play significant factors in how much sleep and how restful that sleep is for you and your body. Third – get rid of the screens at least an hour before bedtime. Any light before bed isn’t good for getting to sleep but the blue light emitted by your phone or iPad is twice as bad as other types of light. This blue light impairs the secretion of melatonin which is the sleep-inducing hormone that helps us rest. Fourth – don’t have stressful conversations right before bed. If money conversations or relationship discussions create stress or anxiety, they should be had earlier in the day. And the fifth and last tip – use strategies to relax and calm down before your set bedtime. You have an hour now before bed right? Use this time to read, practice meditation or yoga. All of these activities have been studied and prove to boost relaxation and help you have a better night’s sleep. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

Times continue to be really tough and stressful and right now we need grit and persistence more than ever.  Today we are going to talk about the characteristic of grit, the combination of passion and perseverance over extended periods of time.  It is a skill that we are born with but researches and psychologists have now proved that we can improve our grit even in the face of rising adversity. We will talk about the 4 characteristics of people with high levels of grit to better understand the behaviors and principles we can all apply to our own lives. Want to find out your own grit score?  Take the assessment using this link: https://angeladuckworth.com/grit-scale/ --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message

Empathy is an essential skill that is in short supply in 2020. Our collective empathy is diminishing and we need it now more than ever. On this week's episode we discuss what IS empathy and ways we can cultivate more of it to better connect and advocate for others. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/calmcash/message