#101 New Year, Same Passion

Together with

Welcome back, and welcome to 2025 🎊 

I’m sure you’ve all got your resolutions locked and loaded (today’s 2-DO can help with that); one of mine is to be more efficient with time. To not waste a single minute, whether mine or someone else’s.

Can’t think of a better time to start than right now!

Let’s jump right in.

Kicking Off The Year With

FATTENING THE WALLET 💰️ 

• Making Cents of Paying Yourself First

• Hustle Hub: Personal Finance Advice, Building A Website, and a Multi-Million-Dollar Pottery Side-Hustle

BOOSTING YOUR PRODUCTIVITY 🕺 

• A January 2-DO To Start 2025 Off Right

ELEVATING YOUR BRAND 📈 

• Content For Your Commute That Includes Today’s Sponsor, Morning Brew

• Expert Advice On Becoming a Better Communicator

MAKING CENTS 💰️ 

Pay Yourself First & Debt Second

Short and Sweet: It’s one thing to say, “I’m gonna save money this year;” it’s another to actually do it, especially when you see that post-holiday CC statement.

Saving is hard and requires discipline. The best way to stay on track?

PAY YOURSELF FIRST.

In other words: the moment you get your paycheck, put a portion of it into another account. Feel it move. See it saved.

Then manage your debt.

Q&A Time:

How much should I "pay myself first"?

• Whatever you can afford - The point is before you pay off your credit cards, for example, you give yourself as much as you can give. If $50 is all you can afford, move it into another account (like a high-yield savings account) and reward yourself. The goal isn’t the amount — it’s creating the habit so that every time you get paid, you put yourself first.

What if I have a lot of debt?

• Nothing changes. If you have $2K in credit card debt, pay yourself something (even if it’s only a little bit) and put the rest of your check towards that debt. The idea here isn’t to ignore your debt; it’s to make sure you continue to save no matter what.

Where should I put the money I "pay myself"??

• Open up a high-yield savings (I use AMEX) or start an investment account. Choose a place where your money will grow and isn’t easily accessible for impulse spending.

O.T.F. 
O.F.T - One Final Thought

Small moves win. Every dollar counts.

Building this habit will help you become more disciplined with saving money this year. Getting comfortable with paying yourself with the amount you can afford is fulfilling because you know you’re saving your hard-earned money while still paying your debt/bills. You’ll feel better knowing you paid yourself before your bank or lender. After all, why should they get first dibs on your paycheck?

HUSTLE HUB 📈

YOUR SUCCESS:

Get Good Habits- Personal finance is a hustle. To help you kick 2025 off right, here are 9 money moves to make and 5 habits to leave behind.

THEIR SUCCESS:

Get Inspired -This man turned his side hustle into a $6 million-dollar business and is now “living the dream.”

YOUR SUCCESS:

Get Launched 🚀- It’s time to get that website up and running; here’s how you can do it in 30 minutes. 

CONTENT FOR YOUR COMMUTE 🚶🚆 🚗 

• ON FOOT: For more help on building the right habits in 2025, pull up one of these personal finance pods and make that walk to the office productive.

• TRAIN TIME: With today’s edition sponsored by Morning Brew (who we’ve been recommending since our inception), it’s only right that we give them a shout. Even if it’s only two stops on the subway, you’ll be plenty informed by the time you pull into your station.

• FIRST CLASS: As your plane takes off, (sky) dive into one of these “under-the-radar business books for entrepreneurial freedom, courtesy of Forbes:
  
  - The Hacker Mindset by Garrett Gee
  - Human Design Made Simple by Emma Dunwoody
  - Zero Risk Startup by Paulo Andrez

This isn’t traditional business news

Welcome to Morning Brew—the free newsletter designed to keep you in the know on the business news impacting your career, company, and life—in a way you didn’t know you needed.

Note: this isn’t traditional business news. Morning Brew’s approach cuts through the noise and bore of classic business media, opting for short writeups, witty jokes, and above all—presenting the facts.

Save time, actually enjoy business news, and join over 4 million professionals reading daily.

Check it out

EXPERT ADVICE 💭

An Easy Way to Become a Good Conversationalist

Every now and then I like to go back to books I’ve read in the past and re-read the notes I took to reinforce the most crucial lessons.

I did this recently with How to Win Friends & Influence People by Dale Carnegie. If you haven’t read this yet, I highly suggest you add it to your list (and if you have, it doesn’t hurt to revisit 😉). It offers great perspective on communication, persuasion, and establishing relationships you didn’t think possible.

WHO IS DALE CARNEGIE?

• He was an American writer and teacher whose courses taught self-improvement, salesmanship, corporate training, public speaking, and interpersonal skills.

• His book, How to Win Friends & Influence People, has sold over 30,000,000 copies globally.

2-DO FOR YOU 💡 

January 2025

1. Listen With Intent - My favorite gem from our Expert Advice feature, becoming a better, more attentive listener will take your communication skills to new heights.
   
   How To Do It: Taken directly from the book. “If you aspire to be a good conversationalist, be an attentive listener. To be interesting, be interested. Ask questions that others will enjoy answering. Encourage them to talk about themselves and their accomplishments. Remember that the people you are talking to are a hundred times more interested in themselves and their wants and problems than they are with you and your problems.”
   

2. Fool-Proof Your Resolution(s) - Setting goals is easy; sticking with them…not so much.
   
   How To Do It (courtesy of ChatGPT):
   
   - Set SMART Goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound.
   Use apps like Strides or Trello to help with this.
   
   - Create Accountability: Share your goal or join a group, using platforms like
   StickK or Habitica.
   
   - Track Progress: Log habits and celebrate milestones with HabitBull or Way of Life.
   
   - Review Regularly: Adjust goals weekly or monthly. You can use Google Calendar, Notion, and/or any number of other tools.

Before You Go

Happy New Year, everyone! Next week, we’ll be back with January’s 2nd Edition, featuring Cool Communicator, Did You Know, and much, much more!

In the meantime, feel free to participate in our quick poll below:

See you next week!

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