Rituals: How I manage my money
Avoid fads, be a contrarian, and other rituals for how I manage and invest my money
I’m not hiding it any longer.
In fact, for a long time, I tried to deny it because I didn’t want my public persona limited to this one topic.
But it’s part of who I am. And just recently, I decided to re-embrace it.
You see, I’m kind of an expert.
An expert on money.
Content entrepreneur | Agency Founder & CEO | Bestselling author Featured in Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Bankrate, Cheddar TV, HuffPost | Join more than 3,700 people who follow Shindy’s unconventional lifestyle, travel, and career advice:
Particularly how to manage, borrow, and keep money, versus losing it all, based on my background:
A career in financial services (particularly, in lending money to people to build and buy their first, second, or dream homes)
A stint in financial broadcast journalism at CNBC and Bloomberg TV
Content manager for one of the nation’s biggest wealth robo-advisors
As an agency founder & CEO, created research and marketing materials for banks, asset managers, funds, and financial companies like Robinhood, Goldman Sachs, and the largest hedge fund in the world
Author of 2 books (The Credit Cleanup Book, Credit Score Hacks) on personal credit and maintaining a healthy credit score, your greatest financial asset
I also know how to make money, but that’s for another newsletter.😉
When I sold my agency (Scribe), completed my earn-out agreement, and fully exited the company, I didn’t want to read or look at financial content for a looooooong time.
I was totally burned out on the subject and anything related.
I also generally have a hard time consuming books or entertainment that romanticize or glamorize the finance industry (e.g., The Big Short, Billions, Industry) because the Hollywood treatment triggers my stress related to that culture and my clients.
The mainstream interpretation always ends up highly cringe, and feeling very wannabe-ish or outside looking in.
Only recently has “money” begun to interest me again, perhaps because I’ve taken a more active daily role in managing my own money and investments.
After working directly in finance and finance-adjacent industries, helping (thousands) of everyday people and big corporate clients, one does tend to retain a lot of the research, strategies, and education you’ve been exposed to for almost 20 years of professional experience.
This doesn’t mean I haven’t made mistakes, but I’m grateful that I was exposed to a lot of this straight out of college because I finally learned what my parents and schools didn’t (and still don’t) teach about money management.
I learned how to save, invest, and leverage credit when I needed it most.
So, I’m happy to share my money rituals: Mostly how I manage my money for the purpose of helping people think about their finances perhaps from a new or different perspective.
This isn’t meant to be financial advice, and as always do your own research before acting on any major money decisions.
But I’m pretty sure that my knowledge trumps a lot of social media “experts” who may lack a breadth of experience or are hyping up only a single or few wins for what worked for them—but may definitely not for everyone.
My money rituals
I generally adhere to the following weekly, monthly, and quarterly rituals for personal money management:
Weekly
Check my balances
I check my liquid (checking and money market savings) bank balances and all the balances across my investments in stocks, bonds, ETFs, brokerage accounts, and crypto.
If something is time-sensitive or requires more attention (like crypto trading or investing), then this might occur daily.
Monthly
Strategize my spending
I’ve become more mindful of how I spend money, e.g., considering needs vs. wants, and spending deliberately and not blindly, particularly when it comes to accruing points that can be redeemed toward travel.
As you know, travel is another ritual of mine; changing up my environment regularly is a necessity for my creativity.
I assess my loyalty and points cards and consider which ones give me the most “bang for my buck” (say, 1.3x my spending) when it comes to accumulating and redeeming points later toward rental cars, hotels, or flights.
For example, the Chase Sapphire Visa offers 2x and 3x points for certain purchases on eating out, travel, and online grocery shopping.
Knowing this helps you reframe your spending habits and consider how you’re using your cards versus just blindly paying with plastic.
If you’re a business owner then consider yourself very lucky because the points and rewards programs that come with business cards are top notch; opening new cards (sparingly) and using them to spend for your day-to-day or large business expenses can offer immense payoffs.
For example, many of the Chase Ink or AmEx business cards come with minimum spends in the first 30 to 90 days, but also offer up to 100K points that can be redeemed for, say, $1,200 to $1,300 toward travel purchases.
Pay off credit card balances in full
I pay off my balances in full every month. No ifs ands or buts. I feel incredibly fortunate to be able to do so, because I wasn’t always able to in the past, and I created a really deep hole to dig myself out of.
Credit card debt is incredibly detrimental to your long term financial health; if you have it then you may end up paying 100 to 300x more for those cool shoes you bought 1 to 3 years ago, which you probably aren’t wearing any more anyway.
Get real about why you’re holding onto the debt.
If you can afford to pay it off, then do so immediately because it’s putting money back into your pocket every month. If you balk at paying $5 for coffee or think $20 for a book is expensive, then consider that you may be hypothetically throwing away $50 to $100+ in interest fees to the wind. For nothing at all.
If you can’t afford to pay it off, then make that your priority and hack at it until you are done, and then celebrate. There are snowball strategies and avalanche mindsets to help.
In the meantime, take a look at my themes below on checking in with your spending mindset.
Remember that maxing or holding high credit card balances also negatively impacts your credit score.
Pay bills on time
If there’s one thing you can do that will keep your credit score in check, then it’s paying your bills on time.
Don’t be more than 30 days late on loan or credit card payments. Automate everything and block space in your calendar to review your outgoing money before it’s due to overcome any fear about this.
Quarterly
Strategize my investments
I look at my total net worth and investments every quarter to see if anything has changed drastically.
While I would like to say or endorse a software that aggregates or combines all of my investments together, I actually built my own Google Sheet that lays everything out.
Reviewing and updating my numbers is a cathartic quarterly exercise and helps me focus ways I could optimize, diversify, consider, and act on other opportunities.
Also, as I mentioned in this Forbes article, aggregator apps and softwares that log into and present your accounts all in one place may be helpful, but most will also use your data to sell to financial companies so they can promote offers for credit cards, mortgages, and other types of loans.
Remember: if the service is free, then your personal data is paying the price.
Don’t invest more than I can afford to lose
This should be pretty straightforward but sometimes people have problems with how much to spend (gamble?) toward investments.
Earmark a percentage (not all) of your liquid money to invest for short or long term opportunities. That’s it.
How much you decide is up to you, but I’d say that you want to keep a portion of your money liquid for instances when “shit hits the fan” and to cover your ass for 6 to 8 months.
Anything beyond can be held in money market savings or CDs with higher APYs, and anything beyond that can and should be invested.
Always
Finally, here are my “Always” money rituals that I practice as best as I can.
No one is perfect, however I find that these themes generally keep me in check before I spend a little or a lot of money on myself or on investments:
Don’t spend more than required
For example, I realized I have a pretty amazing closet full of pretty much anything I need fashion-wise, so I’m not buying anything new this year.
Abundance, not scarcity mindset
I’m always trying to think bigger picture – on money, opportunities, my network, and businesses.
When it comes to working for yourself or working for companies, I avoid small-minded people and mentalities.
I generally try to help people ask themselves whether what they’re doing is the best or most valuable way to spend their time.
For example, when I worked in lending, my commissions were tied directly to the price of the home and loan size that I was working with.
So, I talked myself right over to the department that dealt with million dollar homes versus the homes that were $150K to $200K. I figured if I was spending roughly the same amount of time doing the same job, then why the hell wouldn’t I make double or triple the money doing it.
Be frugal and resourceful, not cheap
I despise cheapness and pettiness, and people who don’t value their or my time.
My mottos are to buy the best I can afford, and spend on quality that lasts. I am happy to spend more for convenience if the other option requires way too much headache.
Driving around for an hour to find cheap gas? Stupid. Get a Sam’s membership or any other wholesaler membership card if possible, and go to the same place every time for less expensive gas. I save on average almost $.30 less per gallon for my Toyota Tacoma 5-speed.
Or, get a Tesla. Last I heard they were offering a 1% APR on new leases and purchases, and my monthly charging fees are markedly less than gas.
Don’t follow fads and trends
I generally try to keep the focus on myself and my desired lifestyle, versus what others are doing.
I know what fancy and bougie vs. simple things I like to spend on, and this serves as “my why” for my determination and hard work.
But in short, see what happens when you do the opposite of what everyone else is doing or talking about.
Everyone likes to chatter about NVDA or NFLX or bitcoin or, or, or… but if you buy when people are selling and vice versa, you may find yourself on top in the end.
Don’t attempt to be clever
If you find yourself thinking, “I can do this better than anyone else” or “I am a genius because I thought of X,” no, you can’t, and no, you’re not.
Check yourself because someone else already thought about it; just make your move if it seems like the right thing to do after you’ve done your research.
Know when to cut your losses
Seems apropos toward life, eh?
Sunk costs are moot but will fuck with you if you’re not careful or too emotionally tied to a thing.
So, lay out the numbers (which never lie) and make your moves accordingly.
Set boundaries and limits when investing, and buying or selling stocks or crypto. You are 99% ahead of the game if you invest with those in place.
What financial rituals do you follow?
Is there anything that is unclear or that you’d like me to expand on for a subsequent newsletter? Let me know with a reply or comment below.
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Until next time,
Shindy
On Instagram + TikTok
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Rituals is a section where on the first Friday of every month, I’ll cover a regular daily, weekly, or monthly personal habit that has become ritual. It may be a lifestyle, wellness, or work practice that has become a valuable and beneficial part of my life. Enjoy!
These are so important! Thank you for sharing your hard earned knowledge!
FANTABULOUS!!!!!🩷🩷🩷🩷🩷