Happy Wednesday!
As we all put on our stretchy pants and loosen our belts for Thanksgiving in the US tomorrow, I wanted to take a moment to say thank you.
You're one of 765+ readers of this weekly email, and I appreciate your readership and your replies, stories, questions, and other feedback.
As I've shared before, I'd probably still write this weekly email even if I had zero readers as writing helps me clarify my own thinking around financial planning. And life.
But it's nice to have you here, and I want you to know that I'm grateful.
Hope you, your family, and friends have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday before you succumb to a turkey-induced food coma.
Links & things
Speaking of food, in last week's email I shared the crock-pot soup recipe I'd mentioned previously. And I thought I'd mention that after making it dozens of times, Elizabeth and I have adjusted the recipe a bit... For instance, we now skip the cream cheese. We just use taco seasoning instead of Mrs. Dash and/or Ranch seasoning. And we've started adding a can of "fiesta corn" as well. We've found this works for us, but you might want to stick with the original. Either way, if you give it a go, let me know how it turns out.
I'd like to include another contribution from Alicyn McLeod this week. Here, she shares some year-end tax planning tips for retirees to consider:
I found this story interesting. Maybe you will too. It's about Payless Shoes pulling an elaborate PR stunt and the fact that several social media "influencers" paid hundreds of dollars for the same shoes you could get for $20 (or less) in a Payless store. A good lesson about the potential power of pricing and marketing and how it can sway our decisions:
Finally, wouldn't it be great if there was an official announcement of when recessions were going to begin and end? That would make so many of our financial decisions, especially around investing, a lot easier. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way:
Thank you, as always, for reading.
And if you have any questions or an idea for a future newsletter, blog post, or YouTube video, I'd love your input.
Just hit reply - I read (and appreciate) every email you send.
Until next Wednesday,
Russ