Hello, it's Chelsea from The Financial Diet.
And I want to talk to you really quickly about our amazing,
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Hey, guys.
It's Chelsea from The Financial Diet,
and this week's video is sponsored by Acorns.
And I am here in my holiday, red-lip best,
with my cozy sweater, snow gently falling outside,
seasonal candles lit, to remind you,
before we get into all this good stuff,
to hit that Subscribe button, if you haven't
already, to join and become a member if you want to
up your game, because we have so many amazing things
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It's a secret society, it's kind of a thing, it's very cool,
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and go to thefinancialdiet.com/studio
to see all of our amazing upcoming events and classes.
TFD loves you, I love you, it's time to love us back.
And today, we're talking about one
of my favorite subjects, which is those little tasks that you
know you need to be doing, that you've had on your calendar
to-do list forever, and just keep bumping it back
and back and back.
And then, when you finally do that thing,
you're like, holy shit, not only did that really
improve my life in a meaningful way,
but it also took literally 10 minutes.
And I think there is nowhere in life
that this is more true than with your finances.
When I first got good with money,
the first thing that I learned was that so much of the battle
was simply overcoming your own laziness.
Half of the battle, maybe even like 75% to 80% of the battle,
is just getting over your own feeling of I don't want to,
and actually doing the thing.
But the good news about a lot of financial stuff,
is that you can automate them, so once they're set up,
you never have to do anything again.
You just have to check in every now
and then to make sure that it's working.
The even better news is that life
is full of these little tasks that you've probably
been putting off, but which would
take you max 10 minutes to accomplish,
and would change your life.
So let's jump right into them, with nine of these mini tasks
that change everything.
Number one is start a career mastermind group.
When it comes to career, it sounds like a cliche at this
point-- but cliches often become cliches because they're true--
it's much more about who you know than what you know.
Creating networks of people who are similarly minded,
who are in a similar industry or space, who are not necessarily
limited by who might happen to be in your company, or even
your immediate area, is one of the best ways
to advance not only your personal development
within your career, but your overall career development
itself.
Everything, from the process of skill developing,
to negotiating, to just bouncing ideas off
of other people in your career mastermind,
can give you an added edge when it
comes to nearly every element of your career navigation.
And this can be especially important
when it comes to actually changing jobs.
In fact, one LinkedIn study found
that 70% of people in 2016 were hired at companies where
they already knew someone.
And, as TFD's very own creative Director Holly Trantham put it,
"I have a group of friends who regularly meet
to discuss their major career and money goals,
and steps they're taking to reach them.
They leave each meeting with an assignment
to complete by the next one, such as setting
an important meeting, or prepping for a performance
review.
One of them has made a big career change that took her
across the country since they started,
and another used help from the group
to get a promotion and a major raise."
So take the initiative and take 10 minutes
to find a small group of people with whom you'd
like to start a mastermind.
It can be a mix of people that you
know from your personal life, from your professional life,
or even people that you know a little bit online, but mostly
just admire from afar.
And from there, your group can meet
on Zoom, when it's epidemiologically safe again,
in person, or even just on a group text or Whatsapp.
And here are just a few basic rules
for starting your own career mastermind, based on an article
by journalist/friend of TFD, Kristen Wong, called
"Why Your Career Needs a Mastermind Group."
Number one, keep it small, no more than six people.
You want to make sure you know, or get to know,
each other as people first, which
is difficult in a larger group.
Number two, set your rules up front.
Determine who is taking minutes, who
is scheduling, how often you're meeting,
what to do if someone has to cancel, et cetera.
Number three, select people you trust.
Even if they're not your best friends,
you'll want to feel safe being honest and vulnerable sharing
your career struggles and goals with the group.
The right career mastermind group is small, but mighty.
Number two is to start investing, even if you
are a super cautious person.
As the saying goes, the best way to start
investing was yesterday, the second best day is today.
And if you're a super cautious person,
you may have always been inclined
to keep your money in places like a high-yield savings
account, rather than investments.
But especially for longer term goals,
like retirement, keeping your money in an investment account
can represent thousands upon thousands in additional value,
simply by letting time work its magic
through compound interest.
In fact, if you put $1,000 into a high-yield savings
account that earns 1% interest, in 20 years,
you would have just about $1,220.
But the same $1,000 invested and earning
7% average interest, compounded monthly,
would grow to be over $4,030 within 20 years,
and that is with no other investment contributions.
So even if you don't have a ton of extra cash lying around,
you can get started and get over that hump
into investing with an app like Acorns.
Acorns automatically invests spare change
from your everyday purchases, such as holiday gifts, gas,
groceries, and more.
The process is essentially effortless on your part,
but you also don't have to worry about getting the most out
of your investments.
Acorns diversified portfolios are designed by experts
to help you maximize growth potential,
and weather market ups and downs, zero expertise
or experience required.
So don't wait, click the link in our description,
or visit Acorns.com/TFD to get a $5 bonus investment when you
sign up for Acorns and take control of your future.
Get started in just five minutes, and unlock investing,
saving, retirement, checking, earning, and more.
Number three is start a daily meditation practice.
So, yes, it sounds a little bit, woo-woo, crystal, Marianne
Wilson energy, but mindfulness meditation
has been proven to have actual demonstrable, and pretty
impactful, health benefits.
There are a handful of key areas, including depression,
chronic pain, and anxiety, in which
well-designed, well-run studies have shown benefits
for patients engaging in a mindfulness meditation program,
with effects similar to other existing treatments.
Other studies have shown meditation
to be helpful in curbing things like the desire to smoke,
or to lower blood pressure.
And what's perhaps most appealing,
is that mindfulness experts have long since debunked
the long standing misconception that in order to be effective,
meditation has to be something you do a ton.
In fact, just 5 to 10 minutes daily
of these meditative practices can
start to show some of those aforementioned health benefits.
We'll link you to a resource that shows you
how to get involved with beginner meditation,
even for those of us who might have
a little bit of trouble staying still or calming our mind.
And if you want to go even deeper on the practice,
please join myself, as well as YouTuber
and therapist Kati Morton, mindfulness
expert and NYU professor, Melissa Carter,
and a special enneagram expert, for our Mindfulness
and Money Retreat on January 3.
We'll be learning all about these topics and tons, tons
more, and actually going step-by-step, in real time,
through some of these practices so you can employ them at home.
Number four is to volunteer with, or just get involved in,
your community.
Now, obviously, on an ethical level,
we all pretty much acknowledge that doing something
to help those around us is generally the good thing
to be doing.
But on a more selfish level, being involved
with charitable organizations, volunteering, donating time,
getting involved with your community, et cetera,
have been highly demonstrated to improve
our overall feelings of happiness, satisfaction,
closeness, et cetera.
I personally am involved in one neighborhood action committee
for my own neighborhood.
Obviously, right now, all of our actions
are taking place via Zoom meetings and email,
but it still feels really powerful not just
to be involved with what's happening
on the streets of Morningside Heights--
I don't know where that song came from-- but also
to feel like I have a more intimate understanding
of the place around me.
Rather than just passing by a construction site
and being like, what's going on there?
I guess I'll find out in nine months or so.
I now know, oh, that's that public school
that they demolished and are now building a shopping complex.
I'm very upset about that, this is bad for my community,
let's get involved.
But often, the thing that stops us
from getting involved with our communities,
is just a feeling of not knowing where to start.
So one of the easiest places I recommend,
is to go to your town or city's website,
and look specifically for a calendar of community events.
It's almost inevitable that some of these events
will be community organizations who are involved in advocacy,
zoning, beautification, charitable organizations
within the community, or any number of sub-interest groups
you might have.
Basically, even for those of us like
myself who've never seen Parks and Rec,
it's important to be aware that your local government is
probably a treasure trove of various activities, freebies,
community organizations, and various things
to get involved with, whenever you
decide to take the 10 minutes to look it up and join.
Number five is doing a daily retinol routine.
Now listen, before the skincare hive comes for me--
the very scariest fandom after the K-Pop fandom--
I would say that retinols are not going to be for everyone.
So we can amend the title of this
to be embrace a skin care routine that
is based on your needs, but can actually get shit done.
But I'm going to speak now personally to my journey
on the retinol train, and you guys
can substitute in whatever would be
your modification for your skin care routine
that is more adapted to your needs.
For years, I avoided retinol because, as someone
who tends toward a very dry, flaky skin that
is very easily irritated, I assumed that there was just
no such thing as a retinol routine that would be adapted
to my needs, that they would all needlessly
dry me out and make me even more sensitive to the sun, which
I already am.
But I thought, hey, it's 2020, it's the winter,
no one's ever seeing me again, so why not go ahead and just go
YOLO with my skin.
So, as of about three weeks ago, I
started an everyday retinol routine
that I am quite religious about.
I cleanse, and then, afterwards, I slather my face and neck
in a retinol cream that I found that was particularly
adapted to people with drier, more sensitive skin.
I am using the Amarte Wonder Cream-- and actually,
going back to K-Pop, this is actually a Korean beauty brand,
so fun--
just so many good things coming out of South Korea, let's
put it that way.
And after that, I follow it up with my normal moisturizer,
which is the Tatcha Dewy Skin Cream, and I just frickin'--
I just slather that shit on, baby-- within reason,
it's expensive.
But I will say, that after only three weeks--
and I just am now coming out of the purge time of the retinol
routine--
I really do feel very differently about my skin
every morning when I look in the mirror.
I'm wearing makeup now because I'm filming,
but even without it, I feel way more confident,
which has been a boon in a time when
skin care, between wearing a mask all the time,
barely getting outside, being in dry, hot-ass apartments
all the time, the sun setting at 3:00 PM, is a welcome change.
And to take it more broadly, we often think
of things about our bodies, such as the way our skin might be,
as a complete given, it's just what we're born with,
and there's really nothing we can do.
But taking the time to actually research what
would be the treatments that work for you,
and committing yourself to attempting at least one month
of following a routine that is adapted to your issues,
gives you at least the idea of whether or not this sort
of thing is treatable.
For me and my skin issues, it feels
like retinol has so far been a bit of a magic bullet,
and I'm excited to see where it continues to go.
But whatever your issues might be,
coming up with just that 10 minute routine you can commit
to every day can change immensely how you feel
about that part of your body.
Number six is to get a posture correcting tool
that you wear every day.
I would like to shout out that as I said that point, Holly,
who's filming me, went whoop!
But, to be fair, when I am not filming these videos
and have to sit like I'm a corpse being posed
for an elaborate funeral service,
I usually do have very bad posture, too,
and it is bad for your bod.
And, yes, of course, having good confident posture
is important for self-esteem, but it's also
very important for more elements of your health
than you probably realize.
Here are just a few negative effects of bad posture--
misaligning your musculoskeletal system,
wearing away at your spine, making
it more fragile and prone to injury,
causing neck, shoulder, and back pain,
decreasing your flexibility, affecting how well your joints
move, affecting your balance and increasing
your risk of falling, making it harder to digest your food,
and making it harder to breathe.
So staying active and practicing various exercises that
specifically help with posture and alignment,
like Pilates, are really great places to start.
But if you, like many of us, work at a desk every day,
where you tend to be like late-stage Beethoven
at the piano, you might want to invest in a posture tool.
These often cost around $10 to $20,
and don't need to be worn for that
long throughout the day to have massive effects.
Here's an example of one.
Number seven is get a proper blood test.
Now I know what you're saying, guys.
Chelsea, it's 2020, we've been poked and prodded and Q-tipped
within an inch of our lives, we're
not trying to see the doctor more often than we have to.
But you should.
Preventative health care is, unfortunately, for many
still, a bit of a luxury, although it
is arguably the most crucial element of our health care
process.
In a University of Chicago study, 40% of Americans
have skipped a recommended medical test or procedure,
often due to cost.
And this is all the more upsetting,
because those routine procedures can often flag issues that you
may not be aware of, but could be affecting so many elements
of your day-to-day life.
For example, some of these routine tests
could tell you that you are massively
deficient in something, which could be having tons
of ripple effects on everything from your digestion
to your mood.
You may also be constantly eating something
without realizing you're slightly allergic to it.
Or, I guess you could be like those lactose-intolerant people
who truly do not give a damn, they just pop a 'taid
and go about their day.
But blood tests in particular can be incredibly useful,
in this regard.
Blood tests help doctors check for certain diseases
and conditions.
They also help check the function of your organs,
and show how well any treatments are working.
Specifically, blood tests can help doctors evaluate
how well organs such as kidneys, liver, thyroid, and heart
are working, diagnose diseases and conditions such as cancer,
HIV/AIDS, diabetes, anemia, and coronary heart disease,
find out whether you have risk factors for heart disease,
check whether the medicines you're taking are working,
or assess how well your blood is clotting.
You should be getting a routine blood test at least once
a year, and this should be covered through your insurance,
although costs can widely, and they often
do not tell you up front.
So take these 10 minutes to call your physician,
schedule an appointment, and find out all
of the cost details up front.
Number eight is to put a restricting app
to limit the time you spend on things like social media,
or even just looking at your screens.
Across the globe, internet users spend an average of 2 hours
and 24 minutes a day on social media.
For me, there are days when that's probably 23.5.
And it is well known at this point that
increased social media use can have
super negative effects for things like anxiety and stress.
And according to a study from the University of Glasgow,
social media use can negatively impact sleep patterns,
particularly in young people.
Teenagers who are very high social media users,
five hours or more per day, were around 70%
more likely than average users, one to three hours,
to fall asleep late on school nights, and after midnight
on other days.
So take a few minutes to download apps like OFFTIME
or Your Slice, which block certain apps
for a period of time.
Another option is to take the time
to just disable push notifications from basically
everything.
You can even go one step further and manually
log yourself out after every single session
of these various apps and not save your passwords so you
have to log back in manually.
Maybe some combination of all, or even just one,
of these strategies, implemented regularly,
can seriously change the way you interact with your tech,
and your own brain.
Lastly, number nine is to sign up
with any kind of pet adoption service, if only for alerts.
Now listen, my husband, for the first five or so years we were
together, was always like, I cannot emotionally connect with
a small dog, they are not real animals.
And, low and behold, we are now 10 years into our relationship,
we have a nine pound, angel, cotton ball,
beautiful, magnificent, queen named Mona,
and that man loves her more than any one
being has ever loved another being,
in the history of this planet.
He loves that dog, and that dog has transformed the man's life.
And not for nothing, but I'm alone most of the time
now while he's back in France, and if I did not
have my tiny, nine pound angel to cuddle me 24 hours a day,
and just be so frickin' jazzed that I
am around all the time for reasons
she can't understand right now, I don't know what I'd be doing.
I'd be losing my mind.
But even if you can't take the leap to actually adopting
an animal, just getting more and more of them
in your world orbit, and, possibly,
finding other ways to interact with them,
help them, et cetera, is a great way to go.
Owning a pet has been demonstrated
to improve overall happiness, and physical fitness,
as for many pet owners, especially dog owners
like myself, it requires you to get your ass
out of the house regularly, even on days when you don't want to.
If you do finally want to get started looking at pet options,
just take a few minutes to sign up
for alerts from your local adoption network,
or rescue service.
Most have a regular newsletter that you can sign up for.
And remember, adopt don't shop.
Over seven million companion animals
enter shelters each year, and millions of them
are needlessly euthanized.
Listen.
It's time to shame you, puppy mill,
breeder-dog-having so and so's, that
are for some reason subscribing to this channel,
you're not welcome.
Well, maybe-- OK, fine.
Listen, what is done is done, you made a mistake.
But now, going forward, you adopt.
And plus, from the financial angle,
adopting is way more affordable than buying
a dog from a breeder.
Anyway, guys, so many things you can
do to improve your life, your health, your posture,
your screen time, your animal companion having level,
and all of these things can be done
in a simple 10 minutes or less.
And if one of the things you want to be doing
is getting started on investing in a way that
is totally painless and accessible,
check out Acorns at the link in our description to learn more.
And, as always, guys, thank you for watching,
and do not forget to hit the Subscribe and Join button,
and to come back every Monday, Tuesday, and Thursday
for new and awesome videos.
Ciao.