Money wins matter, no matter the size. We covered that in the inaugural celebratory post. In an effort to prove my point, I thought I’d share what I’m currently delighting over.
$8.55 is headed straight to our mortgage principal. In a recent post, I commented on how I was giving up on Poshmark. Because I am nothing if not a hypocrite, I proceeded to post a duffel bag that sold in under 12 hours.
But this is like money-win limbo.
$8.55 isn’t nearly as low as I can go. What I’m really pumped about is the fact that HP’s great-aunt put postage on his birthday card but then decided to put it in a bigger envelope. So a certain frugal momma peeeeeeeled off the uncanceled stamps ever so carefully and used them to mail in two rebates. A dollar! It’s like finding a whole dollar!
See? I wasn’t kidding when I said money wins of all sizes are delightful. Now for those of you looking for something a little more sizeable, here’s Jody, Aitza, and Little Miss Fire.
Jody from My Inbox
(Editor’s Note: SQUEALS OF DELIGHT! AN EMAIL!)
What is your money win?
My money win is actually not MY money win. I helped a friend’s 23-year-old son get set up with a Roth IRA, helped him pick better 401k funds, and taught him some stuff about investing and money. He’d asked me to help put in some gardenscape at his dad’s house a couple months ago, and he brought up something money-related. It was the opening I had, frankly, been looking for. I talked about investing, spending on your goals and interests as opposed to keeping up with the Joneses, and emergency funds. Not a barrage, but enough to get him interested, apparently. He kept asking questions when I shut up, so I kept answering them. It worked, and he asked me for help the other night! I showed him some numbers on a compounding interest calculator starting with zero in the bank and minimal monthly investing, then I showed him the same calculator with my current numbers plugged in. He was sold and logged onto Vanguard within 5 minutes.
Why are you pumped?
He’s such an awesome young man, but he likes to spend money (He gets it from his dad). He was truly interested. We went over expense ratio, bonds and stocks and index funds, risk and diversification. It was so refreshing to be able to share this with someone interested in learning more! I don’t have kids of my own, so it was really nice to be able to do this.
What can people learn from it?
He is a smart young man with unique interests, but no one had ever talked to him about this stuff. I was able to talk to him using his interests as examples, promoted some good money and investing apps (He’s the smartphone generation), and I think it helped that it was not coming from dad but from someone else. It didn’t feel like a lecture. If you’re having problems reaching your child on any topic, maybe turn it over to someone else. By the same token, if you see someone having that problem, offer to help. I did clear all this with his dad before we talked. Actually, I’d helped his dad with this, too!
Aitza from Petitely Packaged
What is your money win?
I found a county-funded scholarship for people between the ages of 18-26 to participate in a 16-week coding boot camp.
Why are you pumped?
I’ve always been interested in tech but wasn’t sure how to break into the field.
What can people learn from it?
If you want a project or educational endeavor to be funded, check locally for funds. Sometimes little pockets of money are in the budget but hidden.
Little Miss Fire from the LMF Blog
What is your money win?
I paid off £250 of my mortgage, even though my mortgage is like 100 times my poor little £250.
Why are you pumped?
I’m proud as usually I’m all about lump sums but now I’m trying hopefully little and often.
What can people learn from it?
Hopefully, others can learn that it’s the little steps we take that get us closer to where we want to be.
Final Thoughts on Money Wins
See? I set the bar low with my stamp story and then let these fierce money females do the heavy lifting. But seriously, I’m still excited about my free stamps. That’s like being mailed an extra dollar!
If you’re celebrating a money win, drop the details in my inbox at shepicksuppennies (at) gmail (dot) com with all three questions answered. I’d love to feature you in an upcoming round up!
This is a wonderful idea and one that could spawn excitement across the community. I love the sharing idea. My money win is in not eating lunch. I’ve taken to intermittent fasting and on days I don’t eat out I put $10 into my M1 Finance account. It feels like a real win.
I’m really interested to see where this idea goes.
You know I’m going to bug you for more details, so I can get you in a future post, right?
I love this! Hope to have some money wins of my own soon! I will keep you posted!
All wonderful examples n thank u for collecting them all
Thanks so much, Coco!
Love celebrating wins! And in the spirit of making the most out of a bad situation I’m also a fan of learning from our Money mistakes so that we can quit repeating them.
I hope I can keep collecting more and more of these to keep the celebration going!
I’m very excited about your money wins for you, haha, especially the free stamps! There really is something exciting about reusing postage.
Jody’s story especially stood out to me. I’m really interested in investing, etc, but I’m one of those people who would need someone to walk them through it. (I try to read about it, but my eyes end up glazing over, and then I worry that I wouldn’t understand it correctly anyway since finance has never been my forte.) I’m trying to get my feet back under me after moving to a new apartment + being diagnosed with type 1 diabetes (literally within 2 weeks of the move) did a serious number on my wallet, but once I do I think I’d like to start looking into sorting out investments, etc.
I’m glad I’m not the only one, Deanna! And I think we all need a person like Jody in our lives!
I love the idea of those little extra payments toward the mortgage! I know I find that surprisingly effective for savings (alas my bank is not set up to make this easy to apply towards mortgage loans).