April is known as National Financial Literacy Month.
That’s cool. It’s never a bad idea to pay a little extra attention to your finances.
Of course, Think and Talk Money readers don’t wait until April to be reminded of all the things we should be doing with our money.
With more than 50 posts already at our disposal, Think and Talk Money readers pay attention to our money year round.
We know how important money is to reaching our ultimate goals in life. That’s why we like to think and talk money just a little bit every week.
Think and Talk Money readers know that personal finance starts with getting our money mindset in the right place. That’s why we create our personal version of Tiara Goals for Financial Freedom.
With the right mindset, we can stay on budget and consistently generate fuel for our investments.
When other people get worked up over the stock market, we talk to our people and stay calm.
We know that time is on our side.
Plus, investing is actually the easy part.
We control what we a control. That’s why we invest early and often to get the maximum benefit of compound interest.
So, Think and Talk Money readers don’t need a national personal finance month.
And, we’re happy that personal finance gets a little extra attention each year in April.
These credit card fees are getting out of hand.
Is it just me, or are you also noticing more and more businesses charging fees to use credit cards?
I wrote about my disdain for credit card fees recently.
In just the past couple of weeks, I’ve chosen to pay with cash instead of credit card on multiple occasions:
- At the butcher shop, which charges a 3% fee, and is kind of smug about it.
- At the local ice cream shop, which charges a 4% fee and misleadingly labels it a 4% discount for customers paying in cash.
- For the garage door repair guy, who creatively indicates the fee in terms of cash instead of a percentage. In this instance, $11 instead of 3% of the total bill.
- At the tree nursery, which also charges a 3% fee for credit cards. This one hurt the most. Trees are expensive! I really would have liked those points.
By paying cash, I avoided hundreds of dollars in fees. Don’t get me wrong, I love credit cards points as much as anyone. But, I just can’t stomach paying these fees to earn the points.
I even ran the numbers recently and determined that the points don’t make up for the added penalty of using a card.
I know many business owners disagree, but in my opinion, these fees are bad for business.
Fees act as a deterrent for me to spend money. I imagine they are a deterrent for others, as well. If I do shop at one of these establishments, I end up being more selective and spending less money than I otherwise would have.
- At the butcher shop, I didn’t buy the side items to go with my skirt steaks.
- At the ice cream shop, I bought ice cream for my kids but not for myself. Luckily (or unluckily?), my son gave me his leftover, melty Superman ice cream with rainbow sprinkles.
- I had no choice with the garage door guy- the garage was broken and needed fixing. You win, garage door guy!
- At the tree nursery, I bought half as many trees and plants as I intended.
The way I see it, both the customer and the business lose out because of these fees.
For example, at the nursery, I didn’t get all the plants I wanted. That made me kind of sad.
At the same time, the nursery lost out on more than $1,000 in plant sales. I don’t know how that made the business feel. Obviously, it’s not that sad since it continues to charge the fee.
Taking a broader viewpoint, maybe these credit card fees are actually good for us consumers.
In our consumer-driven society, we all spend too much money when we go out to eat or go shopping. Studies have consistently proven that we spend less money when forced to use cash.
In that sense, a deterrent to spending, which is exactly what these fees are, is probably a good thing for us consumers.
I can’t imagine it’s good for business, though.
What do you think?
It’s OK that tracking your net worth is less fun during a market dip.
I track my net worth once per month using a simple spreadsheet. Today was the first day I updated the spreadsheet since “Liberation Day” and markets dipped.
Like so many others, my net worth took a hit this past month.
That’s not fun.
But, I’m not losing my mind over it.
I’m not saying it feels good. I would much rather see my net worth steadily improving.
I’m just saying I’m not freaking out about it. Time is on my side.
I expect dips like this will occur multiple times throughout my investing timeline.
One thing I’ve found is that it helps to talk about money when things aren’t going well. You realize that you’re not alone. Your friends and family are probably having the same feelings that you’re having.
You don’t have to share how much money you have or how much you lost. You can still benefit emotionally by acknowledging to your loved ones that you’re thinking about the markets a little bit more these days.
People are going bananas for The Bananas.
A reader sent in a great story about a couple who went $1.8 million into debt to start The Savannah Bananas.
If you haven’t heard of The Bananas, they might just be the best story in sports right now.
Despite countless opportunities to cash in by taking on investors, the owners still own 100% of the team. They continue to do things their way, even if that means foregoing massive profits.
I love stories like this. These owners bet on themselves and found success. Instead of cashing in at the first chance, they’re staying true to themselves.
At the end of the day, they’re making money and seem to enjoy what they’re doing.
Is there anything better than that?
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