7 ways to add purpose and meaning to your life

by

A lot of people go through long stretches of life feeling like they’re just going through the motions. They’re not unhappy exactly, but something feels like it’s missing. That something is usually purpose.

Purpose isn’t some grand calling that arrives fully formed. It’s built, slowly, through the choices you make about how you spend your time and energy. Here are seven practical ways to add more of it to your life.

1. Align your work with what you actually care about

You spend a huge percentage of your waking life working. If your work feels meaningless, that bleeds into everything else. You don’t have to find your dream job overnight, but it’s worth asking yourself what kind of impact or contribution you want your work to have. That clarity can guide your next move, whether that’s a conversation with your boss, a side project, or a longer-term career change.

Even within a job you don’t love, there are often corners of the work that matter more. Focus your energy there.

Read more

The key to happiness is simpler than you think

by

Ask most people what they want most in life and they’ll say they just want to be happy. Yet a lot of people aren’t, or aren’t as happy as they’d like to be.

There’s one idea that, once you internalize it, changes how you approach every single day. It’s not complicated. But it does require you to take ownership of something most people hand over to circumstance.

Happiness is a choice

Most people believe happiness comes from external conditions: the right job, the right relationship, enough money, the right circumstances. Those things can certainly make life easier or harder. But they’re not the source of happiness. They’re just inputs.

The actual key is this: happiness is something you choose, daily, actively. Not a feeling that arrives when life cooperates, but a stance you take regardless of what’s happening around you.

That sounds annoyingly simple. But stay with it for a second.

When you believe happiness is something that happens to you based on your circumstances, you’re permanently at the mercy of things you can’t control. Your mood depends on traffic, other people’s behavior, whether things go your way. You become reactive. Life feels like something being done to you.

When you decide that your mental state is something you’re in charge of, something shifts. You’re no longer waiting for conditions to improve before you allow yourself to feel good. You start orienting toward what’s working, what’s good, what you’re grateful for, regardless of the surrounding noise.

Read more

The debt snowball explained

by

The debt snowball is one of the most popular and effective methods for paying off debt. The idea is simple: you focus on your smallest debt first, knock it out fast, then roll that momentum into the next one. Here’s how it works and why it actually gets people out of debt.

How the debt snowball works

The method has four steps:

  1. List all your debts from smallest balance to largest, regardless of interest rate.
  2. Make minimum payments on every debt.
  3. Throw every extra dollar you can find at the smallest debt.
  4. Once that debt is gone, take everything you were paying on it and add it to the minimum payment on the next smallest debt.

Repeat until you’re debt-free.

Read more

How to Play Super Bowl Betting Squares

by
Example fun super bowl betting board with squares and names.

Square board betting chart for super bowl party.

Super Bowl Betting Squares is a fun (mostly random) betting game for your Super Bowl party. If you’re hosting friends and family to watch the Super Bowl this year, you’ll want to include this game as part of your fun. Everyone, from kids to grandparents, and even non-football fans can enjoy the game when they participate in a Super Bowl Betting Squares game.

It may take a bit of convincing at first. But the people who toss $5-$20 into this fun Super Bowl betting game will be happy they did. And your hardcore sports betting friends won’t have an advantage. This isn’t an over-under bet. You’re not choosing sides. It’s pure, random fun.

Read more

6 things you can do this year to have more money next year

by

Happy New Year. With a new year comes new resolutions and new opportunities to achieve the things we didn’t last year. Aside from getting in shape, having more money is a common new year resolution for many people. But achieving this goal isn’t always easy, and it requires careful planning and consistent effort. Here are 6 things you can do this year to increase your chances of having more money next year!

Read more

5 key points from the book The Psychology of Money

by

The Psychology of Money: Timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness by Morgan Housel is a book that explores the psychological and emotional factors that drive our relationship with money. The author, Morgan Housel, offers timeless lessons on wealth, greed, and happiness, drawing on a wide range of historical and contemporary examples to illustrate his points. Some key points from the book include:

Read more

How to Use an Envelope System to Budget and Save Money

by

An envelope system is a personal finance management tool that helps you keep track of your income and expenses. It’s basically a budgeting technique where you give each expense category a fixed monthly amount of money, called an “envelope,” from which to spend. Interestingly, I found out that my parents used this system early on in their marriage to manage their money. So, I figured I’d share what the envelope budget is and how you can use it to save money.

Read more

Financial silver lining of coronavirus

by

Photo by Sebastian Molina fotografía on Unsplash

What’s your financial silver lining in the time of the coronavirus? The COVID-19 global pandemic caused the world to quarantine and businesses to shutdown affecting billions of people around the world. People’s lives have been upended, put on pause, and completely thrown into disarray. Now, is the time to take a moment to review your finances, where you’re spending money, and how to protect yourself for the future. When it comes to money and finances, there are three possible scenarios.

  1. You’re earning less money than before
  2. You’re earning more money than before
  3. Your earning the same as before

Read more

The 3 Envelope Budgeting System – Your first budget

by
3 envelope budgeting system

3 envelope budgeting system

The 3 envelope budgeting system is a simple way to spend less money on those troublesome categories where you tend to overspend. By using this simple money trick, you can save more cash and have enough money to pay for the things you really want. If budgeting isn’t your thing, use this simple 3 envelope budgeting system to control your spending and save more.

Other than having a job and earning money, the most critical thing you can do to improve your finances is to have (and stick to) a written budget. A budget is so fundamentally important to life that it should be taught in school. Unfortunately, how to manage money isn’t taught in school enough. So, I want to help people get started on their first budget by showing how to use the 3 envelope budgeting system. Your first budget doesn’t have to be complicated. All it takes is 3 envelopes, a pen, cash, and a little thought.

Read more