Getting ready to travel with your kids this year? See how you can have less stress and more fun with your next family vacation!
How to Low Key Travel with Kids
Travel with kids is an interesting experience.
If you’re a parent I think you understand that dichotomy of those magical moments where you feel like you’re connecting with your kids, seeing something incredible for the first time together, or they’ve discovered something and it gives you a fresh perspective on something you may have looked over.
And then there’s the car fights, cranky and exhausted airport, and schedule overload.
I want to share five ways you can have more fun and less stress on your next family vacation!
How Fill Your Family Trip with Fun
Let’s start of with planning out your trip because it’s so easy to go over budget and overschedule when you’re trying to keep everyone happy.
I recently had the pleasure of chatting with Everyday Bucket List author Karen Cordaway about how families can have more meaningful and fun experiences. In her book, she has a ton of ideas and systems that you can use and one of my favorties is step seven about how to FILL Your time with fun.
Karen offers a way to plan your trips so you’re still having and enjoying unique experiences and keeping to your financial goals.
Free
What’s better than free?
Obviously going for some free options definitely helps with the vacation budget, but something else to consider is the example we set with our kids. I think it’s wonderful to show them that you don’t always have to spend money to do something fun.
Besides the usual parks and beach options, you may be surprised to see that are some wonderful ways to hang out together. Check out to see if local museums have free days or tours.
Depending on where you are, walking tour of historical areas or exploring architecture can be fun. While I was in a conference for work in Chicago, my husband Rob did a self guided tour with our firstborn checking out the location inspirations for the Dark Knight movies.
Interesting
You’ve seen those lists online, 10 things to do when you’re at___, 72 hours in___, and so on.
While those lists can sometimes include tourist traps or crazy-expensive options, there are usually a gem or two in there that may grab your attention.
This is more of personal preference, which I think makes it a more meaningful trip. You could for example do a half day tour of consignment shops or local zoo.
Here’s where you really need to talk to a local or friends who have been there. What special festivals or features do they have in town?
Recently we went to Burnsville, NC in the fall to enjoy the changing of the leaves. There’s something amazing about being in the mountains where you can see waves of autumn colors.
It’s a really popular thing and yes, it was busy. We had originally planned to be at Mt Mitchel on Saturday, but it was full even before lunch. (We went the next day.)
Another feature of the town is it has a Dark Sky Observatory. Not having the light pollution of a big city meant you can get incredible views of the stars.
Heads up, tickets go fast, which found out the hard way. Thankfully we had an AirBnb near there and brought our telescope. An amazing evening for us and the kids.
Low-Cost
Everyone is different, but one of my favorite things to do when scouting is see if there are any local spots that have cheap deals on certain days.
This includes food. We’ve found that that happy hour of 4-6pm can be a sweet spot for deals. We grab a bite with the kids and head out for a little more exploring.
Don’t Overload Your Schedule
As for planning, my final tip would be avoid over-scheduling your itinerary, and let everyone choose an activity.
If you’re doing a long weekend or day trip, pare it down.
Double Up with Your Family Trip
Finally, another way to enjoy our family trips more is by sharing a space with friends.
Sharing costs, you can reduce your costs significantly.
Depending on their age, kids can hangout and entertain themselves for a bit for those times you want to relax.
Now something you want to talk about with the other family is what activities you want to do together and which ones you’ll split up.
Having a clear idea of what to expect makes it easier for you to schedule.
Your Family Travel Plans
As you can see, there are some fantastic ways you can spend time together as a family on your vacation. I hope these help you have a memorable and meaningful time as family.
I'd love to hear from you! What trips are planning this year?
Do you feel you’re too busy to keep up with your health goals for this year? Check out this easy and effective way you can adopt healthy habits even if you're a busy parent!
Why We Parents Need to Prioritize Our Health
Being a work from home parent who homeschools, I have a full plate and you probably also do as well.
Guess what? That’s not a bad thing to have a schedule full of projects that you enjoy and people that are important to you.
The problem comes up when you start putting crucial things like your health on the back burner.
That's what I did these last few years; a big part of it was just dealing with this pandemic.
However, it looks like things are turning a new page and we're entering into a new phase. I want to change things up and give my attention back into getting into shape and adopting a healthier routine.
Besides the obvious medical and physical benefits of losing extra weight, there’s also this motivation of more time and energy to hang with my family and do more stuff.
I can't do that fully if I'm not taking care of my health.
This year I want to make space in my schedule to take care of those essentials. Here are three key goals I want to work towards:
Get to a healthy weight. (physical)
Find a sport/activity that I enjoy. (mental)
Schedule time to catch up with loved ones. (emotional)
If you want to see how that works, I'll break it down or you can watch my video.
Healthy Habits to Add to Your Routine
First off, you can absolutely do a deep dive and get into the weeds with your health and if that's your focus, go for it.
However for many parents, the idea of finding the most optimized routine tends to lead us to analysis paralysis. With too much to do and the toxic productivity culture's push to do more, it can either burn us out or not even want to try.
To counteract that, I decide was only going to focus on key habits.
Here are the two criteria for these habits:
there’s objective evidence of their effectiveness
it’s sustainable and realistic for a busy parent to do
When analyzing the data and reading expert opinions, I identified three key areas where we should focus our efforts.
In those areas, there are a few key habits that can improve physical, mental, and emotional health.
Create a consistent wind-down routine before you sleep.
Design room to be more sleep-friendly.
Limit how much processed food you eat.
Be mindful when you eat.
Stay hydrated, but be mindful of calories when you drink.
Focus on foods primarily from plants.
Staying active with a physical activity that you enjoy and will keep up with.
Incorporate strength training as part of your exercise routine
You may have already picked up on this, but can you guess what those critical three areas are?
I know, I know….
But that’s why I didn’t say pay attention to because pretty much everyone knows we need to exercise consistently plus sleep and sleep well, but how many actually follow through?
Really it's making better choices and breaking things down into three key steps.
The first is making smart goals with my health.
Then taking those goals and breaking them down into key habits.
And then building up a system that makes it easier for me as a busy parent to move towards those goals.
Let's see how this would work for my goals.
Create SMART Goals
I’ve talked about this quite a few times, but I’m big fan of SMART goals.
One reason is that it’s an easy way to breakdown whatever goal you have into an action plan you can then use.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Based
I’m scheduling an annual physical to confirm what a healthy weight is for me, but as a ballpark I’m planning on losing 30 lbs of fat.
Because I’m looking for something sustainable and not interested in a crash diet, the timeline I set is mid-December, around our next anniversary. That means I’m looking at around 2 1/2 lbs month, certainly achievable.
Keystone Habits for Healthy Living
For eating, one huge keystone habit is meal planning.
If you want to get fit and build up your exercise routine, two keystone habits to consider are do it first thing in your day and move.
Pick one of those and follow through on it for at least a month.
Finally if you want to hone in on sleeping well, the keystone habit to give your attention to is creating a wind down routine. Find something that you enjoy that isn’t screen based to help you slow down and relax. It could be reading some fiction, journaling, or if you two have the same sleep schedule a conversation where you catch up.
Building Systems to Get Fit
The last key ingredient is creating systems.
Don’t worry, these aren’t crazy productivity hacks. Think of systems as an easy on-ramp to developing better habits.
Instead of trying to change everything at once, I’ll only be focusing on one habits from each category each month.
Why? Because I want something that is sustainable. I want to develop a habit not just cross something on my list.
If you follow a lot of productivity books, like James clear atomic habits and other experts, You've seen this trend as well where you're not going for these big swings necessarily, but each day you're moving in increments.
That's what I'm doing with my healthy habits. I'm breaking them down into something that I can accomplish monthly and track.
Your Health Goals
I hope this give you a way to turn your health goals and create a game plan that fits your schedule.
I would love to cheer you on for your health goals. So please let me know in the comments! What are you working towards?
If you want to join in, make sure you're subscribed. I will be posting more tips and interviews with others about how they've hit their health goals!
How do you translate your wish list into an actual to do list? Learn how you can create an everyday bucket list and an incredible year!
Why Your Family Needs an Everyday Bucket List
One of my hopes for you and other families listening is show you how pursuing your financial goals doesn’t mean you have to put your life on hold.
There is a certain amount of intensity you need in that initial phase to knock out things like high interest debt. That doesn’t mean you completely sacrifice fun in your schedule.
There are ways you can enjoy trips, achieve some personal goals, and just have fun while you’re working towards those financial goals.
It takes some creativity, but it’s not overly complicated.
Everyday Bucket List author Karen Cordaway is on the show to show us how. As a busy working parent, she spent years struggling to find free time for herself.
Karen figured out how to reclaim her schedule and infuse more exciting bucket list experiences into her family’s everyday life.
In this episode, we’ll get into:
how you can create your everyday bucket list
creative ways to travel more without breaking your budget
strategies to help you
Let’s get started!
Resources to Create and Knock Out Your Everyday Bucket List
If you’d like to chat more your money system, please join us in our private and free Facebook group – Thriving Families.
We’re families looking to support and help one another out.
Hope to see you there!
Thank You to Our Sponsor Coastal!
Support for this podcast comes from Coastal Credit Union! Come check out Coastal today if you’re living in the Raleigh Durham area and looking to bank better.
As a credit union, Coastal serves its members first and foremost including an annual loyalty bonus.
We've been members for years and love their service and competitive rates on checking and savings accounts!
Creating Your Family's Everyday Bucket List with Karen Cordaway
Elle Martinez: I love your book, the Everyday Bucket List. I feel like after the two and a half years, there's a lot of families that are just ready to enjoy the life again, whether it's travel, whether it's just hanging out with each other, but they're stuck. Right?
We've either or been stuck at home. We don't have any idea of what we wanna do. How do you come up with these ideas or we have a budget that we wanna keep?
I love how it helps you not just save bucket lists for like these big milestones or events, but put it into your everyday life.
What made you come up with this idea in particular? I mean, an everyday bucket list sounds awesome, but what was the genesis of that?
Karen Cordaway: Well, there's a few layers to it. The simple answer is I used to notice that my friends in New York or other big cities, they often wouldn't see those iconic things even though they live there for multiple years.
People in New York, you know, hadn't seen the Statue of Liberty. They didn't go to Ellis Island.
People in California not seeing Venice Beach or just other things that if anybody else went there, they'd try to soak all of this in. That struck me as, wow, they have that right there and they're not accessing it.
Another big life event is that I lost my mom and she was 60 and I just Oh, wow. Felt like, yeah, 60 to someone who's 30 might sound old, but when you think of people who live into their eighties and nineties, she really was young.
I go into depth in my book, the Everyday Bucket List book, but the short way to say it is life can be very short and we don't how long we have, so why not try to have fun and do the things we wanna do in everyday life or regularly?
Affordable Bucket List Ideas for Travel
Elle Martinez: I think, not that you wanna have a big life event motivate you, but the pandemic, when we were stuck at home, at least for a portion of time, made us reevaluate what was important.
We were trying to figure out. How can we make the most of this time that we are together? And we started for us traveling more.
But I love this idea of don't wait for those opportunities. Don't wait for, oh, when I'm, you know, this age or when I've paid off this debt, or I've accomplished this thing, I'm going to do this.
How can you even now have some extra fun, some extra joy, especially with families and still keep it affordable?
Karen Cordaway: Well, for myself, I live in New England. I'm lucky that the states are small so I can visit a bunch of states doing road trips. But if you're in a big state, I mean, sometimes you can go to another county or if you like road trips you could potentially drive to another state depending on how much time you have.
If you're willing to do that, I feel you can control your food. There's a lot of things you can stop, you can get out, you can go to the bathroom, things like that.
If you wanna fly domestically there are all different types of sites where you can try to find cheap deals. So here you're paying with time, with research and potentially, layovers might not be as fun.
I know when I would fly with my kids, I actually like the layover cuz it broke up the flight and we got to get off, go to the bathroom and not feel like you're squished in a little box. So much easier.
But you know, that's part of the sacrifice. If you can plan and research and maybe jot down when you can go away. There is a site you live in Raleigh.
I wanted to give you something that fit, if people are from your area, and I just found a simple, hop from Raleigh to Orlando, Florida. If you look on avelo.com and they will show there were flights that were starting at like $29.
Elle Martinez: Oh, nice.
How to Save on International Trips
Karen Cordaway: Yeah, so sometimes it's a one way, sometimes it's round trip or you have to play with the dates a little. I mean, you could leave on a Thursday and come back on a Monday. That's another way to keep it affordable if you keep it a little shorter. Right? We're not paying as much for accommodations and food and all of that.
If you wanna do like a nice little quick trip, that could be an option. You can look in your area and there's a site called secret flying.com.
What I like about this is it aggregates the different sites like Priceline and Sky Scanner. I like the way that you can search on this site because if you can be really flexible and leave out of a different airport, you can really land some deals on domestic flights and international.
I know you've been wanting to go to Spain and you're trying to see how you can make that work. There are flights. I know for me in my area outta New York, you can spend like 200 to 300 round trip, you know?
Flying out of Miami seems to save, so if you can fly out of a different airport that it's not so inconvenient and you could find a cheap flight, you're still saving a lot of money. Because when I look at the regular prices, you know, when it's like 600 per person, 800, 900, you know, two, $300 isn't gonna be a lot.
Maybe you tack on, like I say, another flight that could be affordable. That's, yeah, that's what you're gonna save. And it all comes back to your budget. What is your idea?
There's a woman called the traveling child on TikTok. Sometimes she just brings one child. She went to Paris with her daughter. They had this beautiful picnic lunch, near the Eiffel Tower.
And you have to think outside the box a little too. And I always tell people too, just go with your significant other, bring one kid. Or sometimes maybe you have to, you can't sit together on the plane or maybe, you take one kid, he takes another if you have to break it up or if somebody can't get off work.
It just depends on what your travel goals are and how flexible you are with certain situations. It's not like you always have to do that, but it can open things up so that you can really save a lot of money.
Elle Martinez: Yeah, that's, that sounds like a good idea. I totally enjoy what you're saying about, finding opportunities to be creative.
Taking Memorable and Meaningful Family Trips
For some families you have a big age gap so maybe doing a trip with your oldest might be easier for you and you have that one-on-one time, or going off season and taking some time off can get you a good deal, but you're still having those memorable experiences.
I love that because I don't think you should, I don't think it's an either or, right? Like you could still have a good time, find creative ways off season to kind of travel, but you know, still make it enjoyable. Still have it be memorable and meaningful.
Yeah. I love these tips. So you're one of those people I know that love to find deals and to explore new places. During the pandemic, were there any adventures, whether it was local or a little further off, that you really enjoyed and you're happy that you did?
Karen Cordaway: Absolutely. I absolutely loved Boston. It's one of my favorite cities. I have a whole Boston bucket list and I never stayed in the North End and my husband and I were checking like when we could go and we actually left on a Sunday. We just stayed one night. But I wanted to try a fancy hotel. It was like one of these unique places.
There was a deal because it was a Sunday and there weren't any like special events at the Garden in Boston where like the Celtics play and there's also like big concerts there. Mm-hmm. . So we hit it at a time where nothing was going on. Like I said, it was a Sunday to Monday, I believe it was indigenous People's Day.
We had that Monday off and it was just so much fun. Like I said, I'm close to Boston, so it's a little different.
The experience alone of the hotel and then there was like a celebrity chef restaurant right next door. There were so many things to do.
Something simple like that if you are just starting and venturing out, just practice staying at hotels that aren't that far away from you and you could have that total like spa experience or access to a pool that maybe people aren't there on that day.
I've done that during the winter. Sometimes I would just stay at hotels that were in a nice town in my own state and we're feeling like we have this warm vacation. We're in a pool, we're in our swimsuits and everybody else is like, you know, off on a snow day just doing whatever at home.
We got out the day before of the snowstorm and was like, Yeah, I wanna be chilling in luxury here. . .
Elle Martinez: Yeah. I did appreciate what I was reading your book, how there's certain things that if you go to a city or if you go to a place, you must see, but you're not stuck in just the tourist traps.
I saw that you had how to fill in your time for the free and the interesting and the low cost and the local things. I thought that was a fantastic way to approach it.
Then I also loved when you were going through the system with a bucket list. You talk about understand what you value. So I know for us, mentioned travel with this, but your bucket list book can be helpful for any kind of goal that a family has, right?
Karen Cordaway: Absolutely. I'm trying to learn another language. Mm-hmm and I'm also trying to figure out TikTok, which is really for everybody. It's not just young people dancing, even though that's super popular.
I've been looking at simple YouTube videos to learn the basics of the greetings and everything like that. But then I follow people who speak Italian. You can hit the C translation button and the words will be translated for you, so you hear the conversations in context. So instead of just repeating what somebody says on YouTube, whether you're saying, excuse me, or I'm sorry.
You can see how those are used differently in a language like Italian, it's very similar to Spanish. Like if you bump into somebody, you don't say, I'm sorry, you say, excuse me. And I just notice little things like that, that they will say, and I'm like, okay, I get how to use this now, or I see multiple examples of how this is used or how it's said with like a little emotion or a little punch to it.
So that's a great way. I think of it as a bucket list idea. I wanna learn Spanish and Italian, so. Mm-hmm. , like I said, going on TikTok, YouTube, that's easy, right? You could do that every day if you wanted and when you're planning your trip to go to one of these places, you already have like a foundation in the language.
Elle Martinez: Yeah, absolutely. So are you planning a trip soon to Italy?
Karen Cordaway: You know what, I'm really hoping to go for a 25th wedding anniversary. Nice. I'm currently researching If there's any way I could go sooner and I see a deal, I'm gonna, you know, go for it. I already I'm setting aside money for that.
So yes, I, I absolutely wanna do that. That's my goal. And I do feel motivated in kind of taking these little steps of trying to learn the language, trying to research and find areas that maybe I never heard of.
Like you're saying, I don't always wanna do the touristy things. I went there for my honeymoon, so that's why I wanna go back.
Elle Martinez: Oh, okay. Gotcha, gotcha. Yeah, but I think great. Because like you said, it would be nice for the milestone 25th. That would be incredible. But if you find a deal before, like, why wait.
I think it's important also to mention for those listening that yes, and Karen is too, like I, I do talk about, you know, paying off unnecessary debts, making sure you have your emergency fund, but just as important, I do think in your budget should be things where you spend their planned spending. Things that matter to you, experiences that bring you joy because it is a balance.
It's a balance of taking care of the now, planning for the future, but then enjoying what you have in front of you.
Support the Podcast!
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and found it helpful, here are some ways to support it.
Spread the word! If you enjoyed this episode and think it can help a buddy get on the path to dumping debt and become financially free, please share.
Join our coffee group ☕: Get access to exclusive behind the scenes videos, chats, and more!
Leave a review. Honest feedback and reviews make a big difference and gets the word out about the podcast. Leave your review on Apple or Stitcher.
Grab a copy of Jumpstart Your Marriage and Your Money. My book is designed for a busy couple to set up their finances in four weeks. Get tips and tools that have worked for other couples on their journey of building their marriage and wealth together!
Has the last few years been a much for you and it’s taken a toll on your health? See how you can enjoy a rich life by getting healthy and fit!
The Challenge: Fit at 40ish
These past three years have been quite the ride. The pandemic has definitely affected me.
Nothing dramatic, but when you put it together I can see how things have shifted. Good and bad.
I have family and friends who are vulnerable to COVID because of health issues they already had, so I’ve been more cautious and that’s translated to me worrying a bit more.
On the plus side, I knew that social isolation wouldn’t be good for me or my family we started meeting up with others outdoors. I believe that was real helpful with keeping in touch with our friends and getting that fresh air.
Same thing with eating. On the plus side we cooked and ate more at home, but looking at the meals we picked, comfort foods topped the list.
Again, nothing crazy, but you stack these together for a few years and it starts. I see it on the scale, with my energy levels, and more.
So I’m turning that around this year and I’m prioritizing my health. Because I think it’s a core component to that rich life we talked about last week.
I want to enjoy hanging with our kids, become more active, and maybe find a new activity or hobby.
Besides the obvious physical benefits of getting fit, there’s also a mental and an emotional boost when you’re taking care of yourself that spills over to other areas of your life.
Which is why I’m thrilled to have Rich Jones on the podcast. He’s the award-winning creator founder of Find More Balance and the Mental Wealth Show where he discusses holistic health for high achievers.
A few years ago, Rich had his own transformation. By focusing on his mental and physical, Rich had some incredible personal and professional wins.
In this episode we’ll get into:
Rich’s amazing journey of sobriety to becoming a national track champion
healthy habits you can adopt to have meaningful improvements to your health
how to take and make your health goals into reality
We have so much to cover, so let’s get started!
Resources to Get Healthy
If you’re ready to jump into the year and knock out some of your health and wealth goals, here are a few of my favorite resources and includes what we covered in the podcast.
If you live in the Triangle area of North Carolina and you’d like someone to work with you on your goals, you really want to check out Coastal’s Wealth Management team.
After my discussion with Rich, I was inspired. I hope you are too. It’s amazing how prioritizing his health snowballed into so many other opportunities.
But here’s the big challenge we face: actually following through. How do you do it?
To jumpstart things, I’ll share how I’m breaking down my goals into habits and then into system. You can hopefully work through your goals and setup yours.
Create SMART Goals for Your Health
something I took away from my chat with Rich is think beyond the numbers when it comes to health. I need to look at my health holistically.
So for this year here are three key goals I want to work towards:
Get to a healthy weight. (physical)
Find a sport/activity that I enjoy. (mental)
Schedule time to catch up with loved ones. (emotional)
I’ve talked about this quite a few times, but I’m big fan of SMART goals. One reason is it’s an easy way to breakdown whatever goal you have into an action plan you can then use.
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time-Based
Let's see how that break down for one my goals.
I’m scheduling an annual physical to confirm what a healthy weight is for me, but as a ballpark I’m planning on losing 30 lbs of fat.
Because I’m looking for something sustainable and not interested in a crash diet, the timeline I set is mid-December, around our next anniversary. That means I’m looking at around 2 1/2 lbs month, certainly achievable.
This goal is relevant to me because I want to improve my quality of life by enjoying more activities with my family and friends.
Polishing up, my SMART goal would look like this:
I want to lose 30lbs by December 15, 2023.
Keystone Habits for Healthy Living
Now that you have a goal you're working towards, let's look at which habits can help us achieve it.
For my goal, I need to focus on two area: exercising more and eating better.
For eating, one huge keystone habit is meal planning.
Building Systems to Get Fit
The last key ingredient is creating systems.
Don’t worry, these aren’t crazy productivity hacks. Think of systems as an easy on-ramp to developing better habits.
Instead of trying to change everything at once, I’ll only be focusing on one habits from each category each month. Why?
Because I want something that is sustainable. I want to develop a habit not just cross something on my list.
I truly hope this episode inspires you to prioritize your health.
Support the Podcast!
Thank you so much for listening to the podcast! If you enjoyed this episode and found it helpful, here are some ways to support it.
Spread the word! If you enjoyed this episode and think it can help a buddy get on the path to dumping debt and become financially free, please share.
Join our coffee group ☕: Get access to exclusive behind the scenes videos, chats, and more!
Leave a review. Honest feedback and reviews make a big difference and gets the word out about the podcast. Leave your review on Apple or Stitcher.
Grab a copy of Jumpstart Your Marriage and Your Money. My book is designed for a busy couple to set up their finances in four weeks. Get tips and tools that have worked for other couples on their journey of building their marriage and wealth together!
Ready to rest and fresh your family and financial goals? This year we’re exploring how to have a rich life!
The Challenge: Make 2023 A Rich Life
Okay, that’s a pretty bold statement – have a rich life.
Let first back track on how I came up with this theme for the season and then we can talk about what a rich life looks like.
Even before we wrapped up this last season in November, something had been nagging me about the podcast.
Besides Simplify and Enjoy, I also write and run Couple Money which is focused on helping married couples get on the same page with their finances. I’ve really loved it.
As we were paying off debts, stashing and growing our financial cushion, and eventually becoming a CoastFI family, it’s been fantastic to hear from you and other families on the milestones you’re reaching.
Between the two, I’ve been writing and or podcasting about personal finance for over 12 years and it’s been incredible.
However as important as getting your finances squared away, it’s just one piece of the puzzle. So I took time off throughout last year including one in October where I just disconnected from the work. I allowed myself to explore and read other topics besides finances to see if I could add something to this podcast that would help you and other families have not just an amazing year with your finances, but really allow you to enjoy things.
The first think that clicked for me was a quote from Cal Newport. It served as a jumping-off point for me as I looked at 2023 and what I wanted to do.
Do less. Do better. Know why.
Instantly, I knew I wanted to dig into this. Initially, I thought about how it would in with podcast.
Do less. Families are stressed out because they’re doing so much. There’s always this list of a million things you need to do to get your money straight. Or here’s how you work, be a full-time parent, and have a side hustle.
It’s too much noise and nonsense.
I want to keep things simple and flexible so you can build and design your life as needed.
Do better. With time and energy freed up because we’re no doing a ton of things, how can we use that to create something special? Let’s put energy into building up our relationships, levelling up on skills with work, and taking on a projects and hobbies that are meaningful to us.
Know why. Productivity culture almost elevates being busy like it’s a virtue, but the real challenge is having and knowing your purpose for what you’re doing. This definition can then be used so you can gauge when you have enough.
Considering this quote, taking notes from some my initial conversations, and thinking about how my experience writing about personal finance for over a dozen years, I saw the pieces together and I knew what I wanted to discuss this season – living a rich life.
In this episode, we’ll dig into:
defining what living a rich life means
creating your goals along with a game plan to achieve them
making a challenge list so you can follow through and hit your goals for the year and beyond
Are you ready? Let’s get started!
Resources
If you’re ready to jump into the year and knock out some goals, here are a few of my favorite resources and includes what we covered in the podcast.
If you’d like to chat more your money system, please join us in our private and free Facebook group – Thriving Families.
We’re families looking to support and help one another out.
Hope to see you there!
Thank You to Our Sponsor Coastal!
Support for this podcast comes from Coastal Credit Union! Come check out Coastal today if you’re living in the Raleigh Durham area and looking to bank better.
As a credit union, Coastal serves its members first and foremost including an annual loyalty bonus.
We've been members for years and love their service and competitive rates on checking and savings accounts!
Defining Rich Life: More Than Money
Rich life is such a loaded phrase, especially in the personal finance space.
Too many times the conversations veers and stays centered chasing a number. You have to pay off this debt in a year! You need this huge amount to retire! And the goal posts keep moving.
It’s exhausting and discouraging.
There's a reason why we set financial goals, it's not simply about hitting them; it's about what happens when we do and more so what we do along the way. —Jason Vitug
So instead of spending this season simply focused on how to hit your financial goals faster we’re going to examine the big picture and that means looking at things from different angles.
With that in mind, this season we’re going to look at creating these goals, breaking them down into more manageable pieces whether that’s using SMART goals, habits or systems, and then finally keeping things interesting with personal and monthly challenges.
So let’s start with your goals.
Defining Your Goals
What would you like to accomplish it this year? (And no don’t just say pay off debt or something you’re supposed to do!)
Take time with this and brainstorm some ideas as a family and for yourself. What trips do you want to take? What hobbies or sports do you want to take up? Add those financial goals, but don’t let them dominate your list.
To keep things – you guessed it- simple, let’s divide things up into three buckets:
money
home
life
I think they are specific enough to cover the essentials while keeping it flexible so you can tailor it to you and your family.
Money covers your more straight forward, typical money goals like paying off credit card debt, investing for retirement, and building your financial cushion.
Home can be where you track home projects and also includes family centered goals.
Life is a bit broader but for me this where I’d keep my health and career goals, plus any hobbies I enjoy.
Making Your Goals SMART
As a quick review, SMART is an acronym on how you can effectively frame your goals.
A smart goal is specific, measurable, attainable, results, focus, and time base.
What do I mean by that?
Specific: You don’t want to save more. You want to set up your emergency fund or your travel fund.
Measurable: You want to have $5,000 in your savings account or you need three months of essential expenses.
Attainable: This is not a moon shot, but it’s something you can actually accomplished (provided you put the work in)
Results: What’s the result of you hitting your goal? What personal or family win will you have?
Time-Based: When do you want to accomplish this? This is handy because you can then work backward and set up how much you need to save or pay off each month.
The point of it is that you have a mini-game plan already set up for how you’re going to actually achieve that goal.
Another benefit to laying out SMART goals is that you get a sense of whether or not you're working on too many things. Very quickly, you’ll notice the numbers aren’t working out.
You can then decide to either push back a deadline for a goal or two.
Breaking Down Goals Into Habits and Systems
With your SMART goals down, it’s now time to start looking for ways to break these goals down into doable chunks. For some goals, that means defining key habits and/or systems you need to have in place to knock these out.
Again, I have a few episodes about building better habits, but some key things to consider:
look for keystone habits
consider ways to remove the friction
automate if possible
The idea is that you’re not just relying on motivation alone – which can come and go. You’re trying to develop a sustainable and relatively easy habit that will move you towards your goals.
Creating and Taking on Monthly Challenges
I think it’s crucial that we talk about this, but just as important is following through on them and one method I found successful is gamifying them into monthly challenges. I start the month off with clear idea of what I want to accomplish.
Having some wins can also motivate you through to keep going on. Personalize it on things you enjoy!
When we were at the beginning of our financial journey, we tried to do things like $20 date nights or finding the best free and low cost festivals and events around town.
Next month, we try something different. It kept things fresh.
You can also do this with your goals and depending on what they are, build up on them. Let’s say you’re trying to get fit in 2023.
Instead of changing every single thing with how you eat, sleep and exercise, you focus in on one of those key areas in a month, like sleeping better or only work on one small habit change in each of these like simply tracking your meals, workouts, and sleep using a fitness tracker or a spreadsheet.
These challenges are meant to be a fun way to build momentum.
I hope that this four part approach to creating and tackling your goals makes it easier for you to have some big wins this year.
Introducing My 2023 Challenge
Personally, I thought it would be fun to share some challenges I’m planning on tackling during this year with you.
Just like I mentioned before, after I brainstormed and chatted with rob, I had a whole list of ideas.
Narrowing it down based on my schedule and prioritizing them, I broke down the goals into those three buckets:
finances
home
life
You can see the entire list on Simplify and Enjoy, but here’s a few examples of what I’ve included.
On the financial side, we’re trying to plan an international trip and decide if real estate investing is something that would work for us
I have a ton of house projects that I’d like to do, including creating a family library space. I’d love for us to have a quiet and cozy space where we can read or work on solo projects.
On a personal note, I’m thrilled about getting fit and putting together my reading plan for the year.
With that in mind, this year on the podcast I’m sharing my progress. I’m interviewing people who have done some amazing things in those areas, resources that make it easier for busy families to hit their goals faster, and how I’m doing with them – the good and the bad.
And I’d love to hear from you! Please let me know how you’re doing with your goals.
There are several ways to join in. We have our free newsletter, our Facebook group Thriving Families, and of course you can tag me on social media. Let’s cheer each other on!
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As a homeschooling parent, I often have to read ahead with lessons to ensure I'm prepared to discuss the materials with our daughters.
My personal finance work also requires me to review books or articles when interviewing someone.
On the data analysis side, I'm reading about design and code to build my projects.
I enjoy reading- whether it's on my Kindle, from the library, or from my personal collection.
One of the reasons I enjoy reading is that it connects me to amazing stories, ideas, and lessons that I can carry with me throughout my life.
It also is incredibly useful way for me to learn and prepare for whatever goals I’m trying to tackle. It’s a habit, hobby, and joy of mine.
Why Reading Faster Isn’t Enough
There are plenty of videos and articles available online and in print about how to read faster. From a practical perspective, yes, learning to read at a certain speed can enable you to get through pages more quickly, but is that the ultimate goal?
Has the productivity culture made us focus on the quantity over quality?
It's great if you can read a book a week. With work and family commitments, I've managed to achieve this. However, I'm not only aiming to read more; I'm striving to read better.
For me that means absorbing what I’m reading.
If it’s fiction, appreciating the story. When I’m reading history or the classics for homeschooling, I want to walk away with things I can use an apply in my life besides a lesson plan.
4 Ways to Read Deeply and Remember More
If you’re in the same boat – wanting to become a better reader and get more out of what you read, here are four simple, yet really effective ways you can read deeply and remember more.
You can watch the video below or read the article – it's your choice!
I’m also going to thrown in some bonus tips if you don’t consider yourself a natural reader.
Just a heads up, while I’m going through as a list, you’ll quickly see that’s really a web, every piece is connected.
#1: Different Books Require Different Approaches
Not all books are equal and not all are the same. Think of it like food, some meals you can grab and enjoy, and others you to plan ahead, invite your friends, and have an evening of conversation.
Likewise depending on what you’re reading, how you go into will be different.
Here let me show you an example:
With history, you’re probably focused on finding out:
Who were the key people involved? What were the catalysts for the events? How are they connected?
With poetry, hopefully, you’re getting swept away in it, and so your attention could be on:
Appreciating and lingering on the words themselves and finding beautiful snippets you want to save for later.
If you’re reviewing a productive book, your mind will likely hone in on:
Pulling a few actionable takeaways you can incorporate this year to knock out a goal.
If you’re going over a math or science text, because that’s my life now, I’m looking at the principles demonstrated and I’m practicing them myself.
You get the idea.
You’ll get so much more, by varying your approach.
This tip also includes an additional suggestion: read widely, not just within a narrow niche.
I’ve been guilty of this. With work and now homeschooling the girls, I slipped into this rut of simply reading for articles or a lesson.
On the one hand, I became very adept at reading quickly and it helped me sharpen my note-taking skills for those books and articles. However, it also took some of the enjoyment out of it, and I began to select books based on their usefulness.
As part of my reading plan for this year, I'm exploring various genres, such as poetry, graphic novels, and audiobooks.
One of the benefits is that it’s jolted me out of my rut and I’m working through how to capture this in my notes.
Speaking of notes…..
#2: Read, Then Take Notes
Annotating or jotting down notes as you read is an effective way to absorb the material. It's a great way to create a simple legend for yourself, too – if you come across quotes you like, ideas you want to explore further or things you want to try, you can easily mark them for further reference.
Once you have finished, you should have a better understanding of the overall message and be in a better position to identify the major takeaways, lessons, and ideas. It's likely that you'll also notice recurring themes, ideas, and phrases, which can be distilled into some key notes.
By breaking it down into what you want to remember and what you want to use to inspire you, you can better incorporate the material into your own work.
#3: Use a Commonplace Book
Now where do you put these notes? Several options, but something I believe everyone should have as a foundation is a commonplace book.
A commonplace book is where you capture snippets, thoughts, quotes, or ideas from what you read.
This is not a journal where you’re dissecting a piece or baring your deep thoughts. It’s simply a way for you to snatch some timeless wisdom to reflect on later.
One way I like to use it is to see if there is a theme or idea that I’m unconsciously thinking about or want to explore more.
Try limiting yourself to how many takeaways/quotes you grab from your books. This helps you to grapple with what’s really the most profound/useful/interesting/beautiful.
#4: Revisit What You Read
Finally, my last tip for reading more deeply is read the book again.
It doesn’t have to be right away, but if you’ve read something good, go back to it.
Most people save it on their playlist and listen to it again and again.
You’re also nudging yourself a bit with accountability by looking at it again.
Bonus Tip: Read What You Love
By the way, if you don’t consider yourself a natural reader (whatever that is!), but you do want to develop the habit of reading, here’s a tip from Janis and Alex that I think hit the nail on the head.
Read what you love until you love to read.
Whether you’re starting out with becoming a regular reader, or you’ve been doing it for years, please keep in mind that this is supposed to enrich your life, not feel like a burden.
Resources to Read Better
Here are some extra videos and articles I enjoyed reading and watching to prepare.
