Happy October, friends! Though the pandemic has canceled several of our fall favorites, we’re still feeling the cozy vibes over here. Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins, apple cider scones, new soup recipes, hiking through colorful leaves, crisp afternoons playing outside with neighborhood friends, and this weekend – a bit of decorating inside and out! My tiny sidekick is pumped :)
On my calendar this month: — Decorating for fall, including making ghosts with June per her request — The fifth (fifth!) anniversary gathering of Articles Club — Our family fall trip to the mountains
What I’m loving right now: — John and I recently watched the first two seasons of Cobra Kai, and I have complicated feelings about it. The first 8 episodes of season 1 were THOROUGHLY enjoyable and refreshing – surprisingly, the characters kept making the right decisions. Things took a turn from there, though, and for some reason I took it very personally, ha! In honor of Johnny and Mr. LaRusso, we’ve been listening to this playlist and it is deliciously 80’s – great for cleaning or bopping around the house. — My parents-in-law gave me this Gathre tablecloth in the Stars print recently, and I am in love. Made from leather, they are not inexpensive, but the ease of clean-up after meals is amazing with little kids. Maybe a good thing to put on a Christmas list or to scout on Black Friday! — This set of 20 linen hair bows is a steal of a deal. We’ve been having fun adding them to the ends of June’s braids!
As a reminder, you can find allll the things I’ve loved over the last few years neatly organized right here!
What I read in September: — Adopted for Life | I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this book wasn’t it. I enjoyed the Biblical depth he offered for the underpinnings of adoption, but I think I was hoping for something more practical. — 12 Ways Your Phone is Changing You | I have read many books on our digital lives at this point, and so far this one is middle of the pack. Similar to Adopted for Life, he’s less focused on the practical and more on the big picture… and I guess I like the nitty gritty :) The “change” that has stuck with me the most, though, has really stuck with me: “we ignore our flesh and blood.” I think about it every time I’m tempted to pick up my phone while driving.
Revisiting my September goals: Film Sheptember, Volume 2 Read a marriage book in honor of our anniversary (didn’t get to this, but I think I’m going to choose How to Fall in Love with Anyone on the recommendation of reader Sarah!) Complete our upstairs bathroom renovation (“complete” was a little ambitious, but we definitely made progress! Walls painted, mirror down, new bathmats and shower curtain installed!) Complete four more Advent ornaments(tree, candy cane, heart, and present!) Ride 50 miles on our stationary bike or out in the wild (48!! So close!) Add plants to the master bathroom Begin family “by-laws” in a Google Doc Adjust the styling of EFM’s H1 headers so I can use them! (sent an email to my web folks, so this is underway!) Send a care package to a former babysitter who’s a college freshman
October goals: — Design our family Christmas newsletter and order Christmas cards — Edit Sheptember, Volume 2 — Complete four more Advent ornaments — Ride 50 miles — Wallpaper the upstairs bathroom — Switch out lighting in the upstairs bathroom — Finalize family mission statement — Finish garage reboot, including hanging our bikes
Also fun to note: 2021 PowerSheets launch this month! Even in a really unusual year, I’m so grateful for the progress I’ve made on the goals I share here each month – things that really matter to me – and my PowerSheets are a big part of that. If you’re ready for a fresh start next year, I hope you’ll take a peek at the collection on October 14th!
Today is a fun day — my first episode as a podcast guest (outside of work) debuts on my dear friend Nancy Ray’s podcast! Though I will likely always feel I’m better able to communicate in writing versus speaking, I was honored to be asked to come on as a guest and hope I did okay! We sure had fun either way :)
Recording live from the floor of my closet!
The episode is focused on camping, but don’t worry if you’re not particularly interested in camping – we touch on lots of other topics like friendship, slow parenting, how Nancy and I first met, the joint trip we hope to take for our 15th camping anniversary, and book and product recommendations. We also, of course, cover many nitty gritty adventuring tips. I hope you give it a listen! I’ll be hearing it alongside y’all for the first time later today – eek!
I mention in the episode that I am a super fan of the podcast, and I didn’t just say that to be nice – I really have listened to all 81 (and counting) episodes of Work & Play with Nancy Ray! I love it for a few reasons:
— Most of the episodes are bite-size – 15-20 minutes. Since I have a limited amount of time to listen in my week, I appreciate that she packs a punch in less time than it takes me to drive to the office. — Nancy gets specific and practical in her episodes, walking you through, for example, exactly what she writes in her journals, what she does in her morning routine, or the rhythm of her work week. As an Enneagram 5 who craves information and real-life examples, I find this so valuable and instructive! I’m not always going to follow what she does exactly, but it provides food for thought and a different perspective. It reminds me of what I was taught in my poetry classes: that the most personal is the most universal, because we can often more easily see ourselves in the little details than we can in the broad strokes. — As a host, Nancy is professional but not overly polished. Having had many conversations with her as a friend, I can truly say that listening to an episode is like… having a conversation with a friend :) — To know Nancy is to love her and admire her. I have learned so much from her about faith, family, friendship, work, marriage, and more in our decade plus of friendship, and I love that listening to her podcast each week helps me learn in a new way! — Every Tuesday, it’s kind of like spinning the roulette wheel of topics – I never know what’s going to pop up! But selfishly, Nancy’s definition of work and play encompasses everything I’m most interested in, so I’m never disappointed. If you love Em for Marvelous, you’ll probably love the variety of W&P, too :)
Today, in honor of my episode, I thought I’d share a few of my past favorites!
Find every episode of the podcast here and feel free to subscribe with your favorite podcast app!
I’d love to hear: if you’re already a fan of Work & Play, which episodes have been your favorite?
P.S. For more on camping, start here. For more with Nancy, check out our How We Do It series, starting here!And hey, if you’re new, welcome!! You can find out more about me and Em for Marvelous right here.
Upon watching this video for the first time, my brother-in-law said, “it looks like there’s nothing wrong in the world.” This video was filmed in June 2020 when, to be clear, there were many things wrong in the world (as there always are). But isn’t it a gift to give our little ones a world that is safe and good and kind and lovely? To imprint on them the things we hope they’ll seek out for themselves, and create for other people, for the rest of their lives? I think so. Consider this volume of our annual video a compilation of everything good in our world. I hope you enjoy a peek at our life together!
In honor of our anniversary, I have a relationship-themed Marvelous Money post for you today! (Boy, between this and my post earlier this week, I’m sure leaning hard to the unromantic side of married life for anniversary 8, ha!) Today, I thought I’d tell you a bit about our bi-monthly net worth meetings: what they are, why we have them, why we love them, and why they’re incredibly helpful for our financial progress.
What is a net worth meeting?
A net worth meeting is our chance to review our family’s finances in the big picture. We celebrate progress, check in on our financial goals, discuss challenges and opportunities, and do a bit of nitty-gritty budget upkeep. And, as you might have guessed from the name, we calculate our family’s net worth.
We hold our official net worth meetings every other month, usually in the second weekend of the month unless we’re traveling or otherwise occupied. In this season of our lives, they’re held in the afternoon while the kids are resting, or in the evening.
Tell me more about what you do in this meeting.
Well, first John calls the meeting to order, then we take attendance… j/k j/k. “Net worth” sounds very official, but our meeting is not! Generally, we like to get the small stuff out of the way first by entering any outstanding transactions into our budget doc. (We each have responsibility for entering certain cards and accounts into the doc, which we do about every two weeks, but this is an opportunity to catch up as needed and ask each other any categorizing questions.)
Once the budget is fully up to date, we’ll flip to the “Net Worth” tab of our doc. (For more about the custom Google Doc we use to track our budget, read this post! It’s a bit out of date, but the premise is still the same.) Here’s what it looks like:
Note: these numbers are completely made up, so please do not read anything into them :)
On the left, we’ve listed every single place we have money or an asset. This includes our checking and savings accounts, our IRAs and 401ks, our investment accounts, our kids’ 529 accounts, and our home equity. Yours might include other categories. For us, right now, this is a total of 20 places (I’ve simplified above).
One by one, we log into each of those accounts and enter the current amount as of that date (to be exact, one of us logs in and reads out the totals, the other is the typist). For the home equity line, we simply subtract the remaining principle of our mortgage from the amount we paid for our house to keep things simple. In cell B4, a formula totals everything together – our assets.
In the middle, you can see a column for our liabilities. Currently, this is just our mortgage, but previously we had entries for car loans and student loans. We do the same thing here – log into the account and enter the current number.
All the way to the right, a formula in F4 calculates our net worth – our total assets (B4) minus our total liabilities (E4). We also like to track our more liquid net worth, which for us is our net worth minus our retirement accounts, our HSA, and our home equity. That’s in cell F5.
Next – and this is the highlight of the meeting! – we click over to the tab next door. This tab is called Net Worth Over Time, and for us, it dates back to July 2012 – two months before our wedding, when we began having these meetings! This is what it looks like:
Obviously I have deleted the numbers, though that is our actual chart over the last 8 or so years. This screenshot only shows a fraction of the months we’ve tracked – rows 2-5 scroll and scroll to the right to go all the way back to 2012!
To update this tab, we enter the new numbers for assets, liabilities, net worth, and liquid net worth and then adjust the graph. Generally, it goes up – which is exciting! It’s nice that you’ll see the line go up whether you’re focused on paying down debt or building up savings.
That’s usually the meat of the meeting, but if there’s a challenge or opportunity we want to talk through, this is often a great time to do so. We are comfortable talking about money and it comes up regularly in conversation, so we usually don’t wait for one of these meetings to, say, talk about an upcoming trip or change in our investment strategy, but if you’re newer in the process, using this set aside time for that might be helpful.
Finally, because I know the budget is as up-to-date as it will ever be, I’ll go through it category-by-category to make sure we’re on track for each one, and adjust as necessary (of course, always making sure our total in the ISE is in the black!). Again, for more on how we budget, go here.
Why should I have one of these meetings?
First and foremost, we consider these meetings an opportunity for celebration. They’re a way to recognize the good decisions we’ve made and the willpower we’ve exercised, to cheer ourselves on to do more of those things. Saving money is often not “exciting,” especially over a long timeframe, and so we find it helpful to build in excitement where we can, to keep us motivated for the long haul.
A comment my friend Kelly made years ago on an MM post brought home why this is important. She commented that she often feels like the money she puts into her 401k “isn’t real,” since it’s taken right out of her paycheck and she basically never sees it again. While in some ways this is good (you don’t need or want to be checking in on longterm investments constantly!), you’re also missing out on a chance for motivation if the money you’re saving never becomes real to you. If you see the amount adding up over time, and watch compounding work its magic, you even might be motivated to save MORE!
Second, working toward a goal together is great for a relationship. It gets you on the same team! Whether it’s a money goal or a fitness goal or a trip you’re working toward, feeling unified in the things you want bonds you together. These meetings help with that.
The final and really important reason to have a meeting like this is so that both partners have visibility into the family’s finances. In a very practical sense, they help make sure both partners know what accounts exist, where they are held, how to log into them, and approximately how much money exists and where. No matter how duties are split, everyone should know the basics.
One final point to address: I hope this has been clear throughout this post, but these meetings are not about us counting up our money for the sake of having money. Having money is not evil, but it’s also not the point. For us, the point is freedom – freedom to live and give how we wish, to the best of our ability and for the glory of God. We also believe our money has been entrusted to us, and we want to be wise managers of it. A wise manager checks in and makes adjustments to get the most out of what they have, and these meetings are one way to do that.
Friends, I would love to hear: do you currently have a financial check-in? (And YES, you can totally have one of these if you’re single!) Any questions about our meetings, or requests for a future MM post?
