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Mapped Out Money Newsletter

by Nick True

Weekly tips and stories to help you manage your money so you can do more of what matters.

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Featured Post

We're Hiring - Customer Support and Budget Expert

Hello to our favorite crew of budgeters!Long time no newsletter. But we've got lots of exciting things going on behind the scenes, and we plan to get back to regular content soon(-ish 🙃... just keeping it real). As part of those exciting BTS things - Mapped Out Money is HIRING! 🎉We're looking for someone to be our resident Customer Support and Budget Expert. You'll work with our students and 1:1 clients via email to help answer their questions and keep them moving forward on their money...

about 1 month ago • 1 min read
sunrise under sky

Let me tell you a story about a guy who, in a surprising way, is probably a lot like you. We'll call this guy Dave. Just to be clear, Dave isn't real. 🙃 Dave has struggled with money his whole life. He's always felt like he never had enough. When he does manage to get a bit of money, it seems to go right out the door again. No matter how hard he saves or works, he struggles to get ahead. Because of this, he's racked up a bit of CC debt, a car loan or two, and he can't seem to make it through...

4 months ago • 4 min read

If you've been keeping up with our podcast, you know we've had a running theme over the last few episodes. The theme that underpins episodes 83 - 86 is simple: A clear and compelling vision is the key to managing money well and creating a budget that doesn't feel restrictive. I've had the honor of personally coaching over 2,000 people on how to improve their finances. Over and over again, I see one core problem continually trip people up... no clarity or vision for their future. I can already...

8 months ago • 2 min read

We're optimizers. One of our hobbies is brainstorming ways to be efficient and squeeze all the enjoyment out of our space at home, our time working vs playing, and of course, our budget. (🤓 You didn't know how cool we are, did you?) But sometimes it's a little tricky to figure out how to optimize our spending, especially when we have seemingly competing priorities. So Nick came up with a framework to help us decide what to buy and when to buy it! I think it's especially helpful when we're in...

10 months ago • 1 min read

In a coaching call yesterday, I asked the group to create a "money manifesto" - a list of things they believe about money. I wrote my own money manifesto a few years ago, hoping it would generate content ideas and also serve as hiring guidelines for Mapped Out Money team members. But I never thought to ask my clients to do this, until yesterday. Most of us have all kinds of subconscious beliefs about money - from our childhood, our friends, our coworkers, and of course, the media we consume....

10 months ago • 1 min read

Seventh grade was a hard year for me. Shocking, I know. 🙃 But true. There was this one group of guys I really wanted to hang out with. But every time I tried to get their attention, they just completely ignored me. Better than getting a wedgie, but still disappointing. One day I noticed they were all wearing the same type of shoes. And my 7th-grade-brain had an epiphany: If I could just get a pair of those shoes, I'd be IN! No way they'd be able to ignore me. And so, the begging began. And...

12 months ago • 2 min read
burned 100 US dollar banknotes

You're spending at least 20% of your monthly income on things that don't matter to you. Kind of presumptive for me to say, right? But after analyzing mine and Hanna's budget (too many times to count) and coaching hundreds of clients, I can tell you this was true for us and the vast majority of people I work with. And you're probably not that different. It reminds me of a study many people know from Mike Michalowicz's book, Clockwork. The basic gist is that without guiding landmarks, people...

about 1 year ago • 1 min read

Hey there, long time, no talk. It's been nearly two months since we sent a newsletter and almost six months since we released a podcast or YouTube video. We've been knee-deep in building renovations (Yup, still.), figuring out life in Knoxville, supporting our coaching clients, and planning for 2023. And for a multitude of reasons, the transition has been harder and taken longer than we expected. Thus, the long silence. Throughout this season, I've found myself being envious of others....

over 1 year ago • 2 min read

Last week I came across an article from Paul Graham that I read many years ago. In it, he argues that all cities (especially large ones) subtly encourage certain ambitions. Think of it as "social currency" or status. You can find out what your city whispers by asking the question, "What makes you high or low status in this city?" Here's an example from Twitter: This seems like a broad-scale application of the quote, "You're the average of the 5 people you spend the most time with." Here's my...

over 1 year ago • 1 min read

Nick and I celebrated 8 years of marriage yesterday. Naturally, we have to share 8 financial lessons we’ve learned so far 🙃: 1. Cast a vision together Marriage is a team sport, which means we both need to be excited about the vision for our future. This started really small for us - envisioning life with a dog. 🐶Once we worked together using our budget to achieve that, we cast a vision for leaving our traditional jobs and traveling full-time in an Airstream. And God has continued to grow our...

almost 2 years ago • 5 min read
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