Welcome to my first newsletter. Well, officially my 2nd one since you got my welcome message. As a quick reminder, this newsletter will bring you all sorts of tidbits. Not just money and finance ones—albeit there will be plenty of those—but tidbits about my life, what I’m reading and watching, products I love, random thoughts and anything else I think you might find amusing.
So let’s dive in because I have a lot on my mind today.
Since the dawn of my social media usage, I have been transfixed and it’s always been difficult for me to pull away—mainly because I have loved learning and using it to grow my businesses & projects throughout the years. The first time I unplugged for a week was back in ‘08/’09. I remember coming home from that vacation completely rejuvenated and ready to take on anything that came my way.
The vacation vibe stuck with me for many weeks after that trip—that sense of lightness. Finally feeling like there are enough hours in the day. The little things didn’t overwhelm me. I took things easy that summer.
In recent years, my social media usage has steadily increased. I’m busier than ever with 2 toddlers so why on earth am I on social 6 hours a day. IS THAT EVEN POSSIBLE?! Those usage notifications are offensive and obviously lying.
But I must come clean. I am an over-user. I sit at my desk all day and take little “breaks”, and even though I’m usually really there and focused on the girls when I’m with them in the mornings and evenings, I go straight back to that glowing screen at night.
So in an effort to not become a lost soul a la Soul, one of my favorite Disney movies, I’ve made a few tweaks to my usage routine.
1) This first tweak coincides with one my new year’s resolutions to get back into reading. Instead of mindlessly picking up phone at bedtime, I try to stop screen time and start my Hatch Restore by 10pm, which gives me 20 minutes of reading light followed by 10 minutes of wind down waterscape sounds. Then when my Sea Wind noise kicks in, it’s book down and no more last glances at my phone. (Keep reading for two great book recs!)
2) I took a week-long social media sabbatical while I was on vacation last week. I know “sabbatical” is a bit dramatic, but it’s the longest break I’ve had in (cringe) a decade. And even though this time I didn’t have as much time to truly relax since I was in constant drowning-watch of 2 two-year-olds, the effect was the same as that first week back in ’08. I feel as light as a feather! Mentally, not physically, since I ate my weight in pina coladas and, honestly, not enough guac and chips.
3) I pledged to start creating more content. I decided that if I’m going to spend countless hours looking at a screen, then I might as well be the conductor. It needs to be more worth it. Luckily, this tweak aligned with the launch of this new blog/brand that you’re already familiar with. Ever since I moved home from New Orleans and changed up my content, I’ve been a bit frozen in the content arena—fear of being rejected quickly led to a lack of inspiration—but that’s a long story for another day!
So here are my tips for a lighter (less overwhelming) summer:
- Remove your most-used social apps from your home screen, and don’t access socials for at least 7 days. Then report back to me if it had any affect!
- Nighttime or morning routines, usually make me cringe, but keep it simple with an easy-to-stick-to wind-down routine at night and commit to reading at least one chapter of a book a night. No more blue light sneaks after you’re done reading either!
- When you are on social, focus more on creating and sharing rather than consuming. Be a little more vulnerable or maybe it’s as simple as forgoing your idea of a perfect photo or feed and just share something that brings you joy. Create for yourself, for a change.
Book Recs
Back to the reading…I read a whole ass book last week on vacation! Yes, I was super busy on vacation, but long mornings at the beach meant long naps for the girls, and I also pretty much spent 2 hours each night just reading. It was heavenly.
This book had been on my list for a while and it did not disappoint. I highly recommend The Seven Husbands of Evelyn Hugo. I broke down and bought on Amazon since it’s booked up forever at my library. It’s a fun, salacious and easy read…but it also shocked me at the end and I had two satisfying sobs.
I also finished Hello, Summer right before leaving for vacation. It was a surprising delight. In late March I went on a camping trip without a book, so my friend Jess lent it to me. Judging the book solely on its title, I wasn’t that enthusiastic, but I knew I needed something easy to ease me back into reading. It’s not at all what I thought it was going to be, and it has a political twist which really suited me for this stage in my life. It’s def got some twisty-turny moments too!
Last night, I started a non-fiction one named Trust by Pete Buttigieg. I have been a fan of his since he announced his run for presidency in 2019. I’ve only read the intro, and so far…nothing but intrigue and hopefulness! I’ll report back next time with more feedback.
I’ll finish on a finance note and address the elephant in the room:
The market is falling…are you going to lose all of your money?!
To be honest…you could. Let’s go ahead and talk real quick about worst-case scenarios, especially since those are the loudest and stick with us the most. There’s always that one story you heard about a cousin’s parents or your friend who “lost it all” in a crash.
Besides getting bamboozled by fraudsters like Bernie Madoff which defy any market rules, the biggest mistakes in investing are made during panic.
If you panic and sell all of your investments at the bottom of the market, you will have locked in that loss and yes…lose a lot of your money. In order for you to lose ALL of your money, you will have had to invest all of your money in companies that go out of business *and* sell at their bottom. Unlikely, but possible.
Here’s a more likely reality: don’t panic and maintain your long-term time horizon.
But let’s address panic part, because easier said than done to not panic, amiright?
Historically speaking, let’s talk about how long recessions and bear markets typically last. Recessions have been relatively small blips in economic history. How small?
- Over the last 70 years, the U.S. has been in an official recession less than 15% of all months.
- Moreover, the net longer term economic impact of most recessions has been relatively small.
Here’s a fancy graph to prove it & so you can see a visual story of it:
TLDR: Recessions are painful, but expansions have been powerful.
So remain calm, stay the course of your long-term goals and time horizon, and if you aren’t sure if you have that figured out, maybe we need a chat?
And guess what the good news is?! Stocks are on sale! If you have some cash earmarked for investing, it’s a good time to get in. But do so with the knowledge that:
1) it could get worse before it gets better, but also
2) it’s almost impossible to time the market so it’s usually best just to jump into the double-dutch jump rope before you miss another opportunity.
Just make sure you only invest money that you won’t need for the next 2-3 years or so!
And you (but let’s be honesty, more likely your parents) may follow these facts with “BuT tHiS TiMe It’S dIFfErEnT!” And to that I’ll leave you with this quote, which come to think about it, I’m going to text my dad right now:
“In times like these, it helps to recall that there have always been times like these”.
– Paul Harvey
Next time, I will update you on how I’m enjoying The Staircase on HBO. As an avid true crime fan, I’ve obviously watched the documentary (and even all the owl theory content {eye roll}), and I’m a huge fan of Tony Collette and Colin Firth…but I’m only 1.25 episodes in so stay tuned!
Be sure to follow me on Instagram, where I spend most of my time online, and where I’ll be posting Cancun vacation pics & more wealth building tips. Check out my fun little blooper Reel here and a roundup of all the things I bought for myself and for the girls for a beach vacation in my Cancun highlight.
And if you haven’t yet go grab my free 5-Step Roadmap Towards Building a Solid Wealth Foundation…and if you have grabbed it but haven’t read it, WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR?! Give it a read and let me know what you think or if you have any questions about it.
Have a great weekend and happy Juneteenth,
Danielle
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