This newsletter community hails from all over the globe, so I know that this might not resonate with everyone here but it's been a tough week in a number of ways for those of us in the US. Extreme cold temperatures have created both moments of joy and moments of stress and danger for much of the country. Fires in LA are impacting millions, and we've already moved on from devastating terrorist attacks on New Year's Day. A new president was inaugurated and quickly moved forward on many particularly cruel policy priorities. I'm here with Friday Five to give you some regular tips like we always do and hopefully a bit of hope and inspiration.
First, the inspiration. I appreciated my former colleague Garrett's words this week that helps me put the political landscape of America this week into perspective: "They want you to believe that one of the narrowest popular vote victories in American histories is a mandate. They want you to believe that the vast majority of Americans— across all demographic groups— woke up on the morning of November 6th with an unquenchable desire to yell slurs, terrorize trans people and toss parents and children in separate ICE trucks. Let the moneychangers have the temple. Let them fill it with novelty bitcoin." I encourage us all to remember that these policy ideas are generally very unpopular with Americans and can be stopped with strategic action.
Where to put savings. I had two conversations with folks close to me this week about the best place to keep their savings. If you have more than a few hundred dollars to put aside in savings and have it in a regular savings or checking account, you're missing out on a lot of potential free money in interest (and your money is probably not even keeping up with inflation). For example, my day-to-day bank (USAA) is good for checking accounts but pays an interest rate of just 0.01% on savings accounts. Awful. So get yourself a "high-yield savings account". The one we use is Wealthfront, and they do 4.5% interest on savings accounts if you sign up with someone's friend link (here's mine) and 4% without a friend link. That's literally 450 times more interest. Definitely worth a few minutes of your time to move your savings if you've got it.
6 spots remain. Joyfully Managed Worklife has 6 spots left before we're full! We start Tuesday. If you want to feel more calm, productive, and organized at work and less stressed, I hope you'll join us. Payment plans are available. I'm keeping an eye on my email this weekend to answer any last-minute Qs folks have, so feel free to hit reply if you've been considering it.
3 parenting tips. If you're a parent, here's a few things for you this week: 1) if your kids need Valentine's Day cards for their class, it's time to buy those. 2) I love weekly family meetings for helping families get organized and I shared all my tips about how to do that in Tanya's podcast this week. 3) Matching socks is maddening, so avoid that whole process by giving your kid a single-color sock so no matches need even to be made. My son prefers black socks and my daughter prefers white socks and we've donated every other sock they previously had. We keep a basket of socks for each kid not in their bedrooms but near the front door where their shoes live.
Stay focused. Don't get distracted by everything happening in the world right now. It's too much. The way to make an impact is to pick 1 or 2 issues you care about and find a group to work with on that issue. Brittany said this better than me this week. If you're not sure what your work is, start with something from Courtney's list. Refuse to get distracted from your important work. The more you focus on chaos, the less helpful you are.
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