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Hello All of You Great People and Welcome to the April 2021 newsletter. Wherever you are on your financial journey I’m glad you are here with me- Steven Donovan aka Even Steven Money!

What’s been going on this month

As April heats up so does my propensity to head towards water. This month was highlighted by a fishing trip down by Key Largo. I’m certainly not much of a fisherman but I do enjoy the sun and getting outside. The whole family was able to hang out and catch some fish. Plus on that same day I saw a bald eagle, stingray, sea turtle and dolphins.

We also headed over to Bill Baggs Cape Florida state park which included the use of our new rapid shelter tent purchase. I’m beginning to realize that while Miami, FL is sunny and warm most days it can be pretty nice in the shade at the beach.

​Financial coaching has been keeping me busy as well with new clients and a couple quarterly check-ins. I love helping my clients reach their financial goals. Sometimes it’s paying off debt, saving money, or increasing their credit score or net worth but it’s all exciting to be part of their financial journey.

✍Writing On the Blog✍

All was quiet during the month of April. Working more with clients during the month makes for less time to focus on writing.

🗓What’s coming next month🗓

I expect May to be the same. I have a really busy schedule in May as I’ll probably talk more about that later. We shall see….

🧛What I Sucked at This Month🧛

Getting potential coaching clients to realize just how much I can really help them.

What's New

🆓Coaching Client Guidance

Follow the basics because simple is best.

When it comes down to personal finance and being successful over time with your money it comes down to three (3) simple steps.

1. Simple
2. Repeatable
3. Makes sense to you

I often talk about these steps with my coaching clients in anything we work on and put together. I’ll use one of my favorite personal finance strategies, tracking expenses.

Simple. Tracking expenses should be incredibly simple. Some credit financial institutions(credit unions, banks, credit card companies, fintech) have online technology to track your expenses to include where your money was spent, the day, the category of the purchase (restaurants, gasoline, etc.) and even put it in a pretty graph for the visual learners out there.

There are also online personal finance websites and apps like Mint, SoFi, and Personal Capital that track your expenses for all of your accounts in one place.

Some people prefer to write down their expenses with pen and paper which is more manual but still a highly effective yet simple way to track your expenses.

Repeatable. Tracking your expenses even with technology requires some manual adjustments like updating the category for example. The important part is that you pay attention to what you are spending by updating your transactions to reflect where and on what you are spending your money. My recommendation is 5 minutes per day 2x per week. 10 minutes per week is absolutely repeatable.

Makes sense to you. This piece is key. When you are tracking your expenses the steps involved have to make sense to you. If you don’t think jumping on a personal finance app for 10 minutes a week is beneficial then you are unlikely to keep tracking your expenses.

Also while I suggest 2 days per week for 5 minutes, some individuals would rather check for 2 minutes on a daily basis because it fits their schedules better and makes more sense to them.

So whatever you are doing with your personal finances ask yourself the 3 questions. Is it simple? Repeatable? Does it make sense to you? If so then you are on the right track.

📈Stock Market📈

April’s stock market went up for the month. As life returns to some sense of normalcy the economy is beginning to open up and consumers like you and me are starting to get out and live life again.

The stock market certainly seems to be excited about the fact the world has started to get back to pre-pandemic levels of life.

It should be interesting to watch as some of the winners of the stay at home orders like Zoom, Netflix, Peloton, etc. will do as the shift goes less towards in person work, staying inside to stream shows, and going to your local gym.

There’s certainly an argument that many of those things won’t actually change and instead there has been a shift to remote work, cutting the cord and streaming more, and the status symbol and privacy of a Peloton workout.

I would bet there is an answer somewhere in between, but for many industries like digital payments, streaming, online ad spending, etc. the pace seems to continue beyond just a pandemic surge.

It’s always fun to watch even if 90% of the time I am simply hitting the repeat button on my automatic index fund investments.

Personal Side of Life & What I’ve Been Listening, Reading, & Watching

🎧Here’s what I listened to:

• ​​Robinhood Snacks Daily-If you like learning about individual stocks, market trends, and enjoy the business side of it all. It’s absolutely for you. I listen to it every morning and skim read the email. Some things never change.
• ​The All In Podcast-I’m still listening to these guys. While I was initially pulled in because of Chamath Palihapitiya I have been intrigued by the difference in opinions from the “besties” and how they share their mostly factual based evidence to back it up.

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​​📙Book listening this month:

• ​No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention​
• ​Everybody Lies: Big Data, New Data, and What the Internet Can Tell Us About Who We Really Are ​
• ​Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone (in progress)
• ​The Daily Stoic (in progress)

I’ve recently been reading, researching, and exploring more and more about “big data''. Everybody Lies is a pretty fascinating way to look at different parts of society and see what is really going on behind the scenes. The book tackles some of the unmentionable topics like politics, racism, sex, and money to some extent.

📺What I’m watching this month:

Succession

Since we subscribe to HBO Max we have been watching more and more shows and movies there rather than Netflix for example. So when I heard a recent mention of the satirical drama Succession I knew it would be worth a watch.

It’s a very well written and acted show in my humble opinion. The series centers on the Roy family, the dysfunctional owners of Waystar RoyCo, a global media and hospitality empire, who are fighting for control of the company amid uncertainty about the health of the family's patriarch.

The show ends up going in many different directions but my wife and I really enjoyed the show and definitely watched with great intrigue and are excited for the possibility of a season 3 in the near future.

Sports

It should also be said I am still following sports some of which is watching and some which is transactional. Here are a couple highlights:

• Syracuse Orangemen Basketball lost multiple players to the new transfer rule and also brought in just as many. The most exciting is Jim Boeheim’s (head coach for 40+ years) son Jimmy who will pair with his brother Buddy Boeheim next year.
• Philadelphia Eagles participated in the annual NFL draft and selected former Heisman Trophy winner Devonta Smith. While I didn’t necessarily watch the draft I did keep close tabs on who the Eagles and Green Bay Packers were adding to the team. Also Aaron Rodgers please stay in Green Bay:)
• The Milwaukee Bucks are finishing up the regular season and I can’t wait to start watching some playoff games when it all really matters the most. That didn’t stop me from watching my favorite squad during some nationally televised games.
• Chicago Cubs season so far has been a roller coaster and much of what I expected with just as many wins and losses while playing .500 baseball. I’ll keep checking box scores and the occasional highlights as it will be a long season ahead.

🥕Looking Ahead🥕

May has many things ahead including the Berkshire Hathaway annual conference, Mother’s day, birthdays, and even some travel. May is usually a fun filled month so I look forward to everything that it brings.

We are also expected to close on a real estate investment during the month which should add some diversity to our overall investment portfolio. I’ll share more details either via the blog or newsletter next month.

I’ve also signed a contract to do some risk consulting over the next couple of months which is exciting as it fits in with my mantra/what I live by which is to always be learning and exploring (ABLE).

I’m sure it will be strange to work for 40 hours a week and collect a consistent paycheck again but it should be fun and challenging.

During this time I’ll only be working with my current clients so I don’t push myself to a level I can’t keep up with. Money is nice to have, but it’s more important to me that I’m happy and enjoying the things I do.

🏋Health and Fitness🏋​

After March and doing a workout in which I overdid it and hurt/strained my hip I was able to slowly get back to the gym and working out during the month of April.

I absolutely took things slow as I have been working 3x per week(local gym and garage) and have made a point to choose the scaled weights of many of the workouts at the gym.

I’m still trying to lose 5-10 pounds during April and May just to lean out a little more. As it turns out losing a few pounds has been an uphill battle so I’m regrouping and getting back to the basics.

Murph

Lastly I’ve also started preparing for the Murph workout at the end of May which includes:

1 mile run, 100 pullups, 200 pushups, 300 air squats, and 1 mile run finish all with a 20 lb. vest

I’ve completed the workout the last 2 years by doing it partition style and without a vest, but this year I’m working towards completing the workout as stated (100 pullups completed, then 200 pushups, etc.).

So I’ve been doing a daily pullup and pushup progression to prepare along with a little extra running. Should be fun! As my reward if I complete the Murph as stated in the allotted time I’m going to buy myself a weight vest as a reward. Then next year I can complete with a vest!!

As a friendly reminder spend more time, energy, and money on what you truly love and value! For me that's my beautiful wife and close family members, travel, and health & fitness. I hope you are doing the same.

Until next month my friends!

Insert Financial Professional Photo;)

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