Hello All of You Great People and Welcome to the March 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

March greeted me with more of a sense of normalcy compared to last year’s beginning of the pandemic.

My wife, in-laws, and myself celebrated my wife’s birthday with a trip to the Naples, FL area that included a boat, nature walks, lots of food, and we even stayed an extra day just to capture a sunset before we left.

That was certainly the highlight of the month as vacations unusually are. The remaining part of the month was filled with my normal routine that I enjoy.

I think the most exciting thing around the house has been the garden. The arugula gave us everything it had, broccoli is generating harvest after harvest, and my future cantaloupe has flowers so I imagine little cantaloupe can't be far off.

Also we have avocados. Excuse me WE HAVE AVOCADOS!!! Yeah I’ve never been so excited to see little avocado’s coming off the tree. They are currently really really small like the size of a dime don't let the picture fool you. We also have a few mango’s that are currently baby mango’s that are not far behind.

I'm pretty sure I'm a farmer now.

✍Writing On the Blog✍

I was inspired to write this month. Those who are in the part of their journey that includes paying off debt should definitely take a look at which debt they should pay off first for some guidance and motivation.

​Which debt should I pay off first?​

Those a little further along in their financial journey will enjoy reading about index fund investing along with investing in individual stocks. While it’s not for everyone it’s worth a ready for those who like to invest in the stock market.

​Invest in Index Funds and Gamble a Little​

This article has been extremely popular so far as I talk about my strategy of index fund investing with a sprinkle of taking some small bets on individual stocks.

🗓What’s coming next month🗓

All is quiet in the Even Steven Money house of writing, but I’m sure I’ll be back soon.

🧛What I Sucked at This Month🧛

I feel like I had a really good month. Maybe I missed the mark on something but I’m feeling good overall.

What's New

🆓Coaching Client Guidance

The first quarter has come to a close. We are ¼ through 2021, which leads me to think time really does fly sometimes.

Since time is flying by make sure to check in on your progress through the first three months of the year. I know many of you have set up goals for the whole year to pay off a certain amount of debt, save for something fun or an emergency fund to help you sleep better at night.

Take some time out this weekend and check in on where your money is going. I am a huge believer in tracking your expenses. This is when you take your head out of the sand and look at how much you are spending on the Big 3 (Housing, Transportation, and Food). Plus all the areas that you are working on spending less on things that aren’t important to you or spending more on the things that are.

Creating goals is a simple step. Creating an action plan to reach those goals is a little harder. Executing the plan now that is the hardest part of all.

• Have you reached your goals? If you are on track, great, have a small celebration.
• Behind on the goal? That’s when you start asking yourself what worked well and what needs improvement to reach this goal. Then create an action plan that you can follow even if it means adjusting your goals. A little course correction towards your goals is much better than abandoning them all together.

📈Stock Market📈

Last month I talked about “The Gamble”. I’m always a little apprehensive to share some of my non-traditional investing strategies or better yet learning experiences. My fear is that someone reads about these non-traditional investing opportunities and thinks that’s what they should do as well.

First off, always do your own due diligence and consult a financial professional. I'm just a guy on the internet, consider this for entertainment purposes only.

But also all of these investments that I am learning about and sometimes investing in are only after I have done all of the tried and true methods of personal finance and investing. I repeat this often because it’s so true. Here’s what I do and suggest to do with your personal finances:

• Track your expenses
• Create a spending plan aka budget that puts more of your money towards what you value and less money towards what you don’t really need (STOP getting Amazon delivered 3x a week)
• Pay off debt especially high interest rate items like credit cards
• Invest in the stock market through your retirement accounts
• Save money for a rainy day and for the fun stuff like a bike for your kids or a vacation for your family

If you do all of that you should be smiling from ear to ear every single day because you are ahead of the game.

SPAC-ulation

Last month I talked about learning more about:

• SPACs
• Turnkey real estate
• Hard money lending

All three are actually in some stage of investing. I’m sure to talk more about this in the near future but I wanted to talk about what I learned so far. Quick definition of SPAC, a money management team that looks to combine with a private company so they can be publicly traded on the stock market. Essentially a faster way to IPO a company

• Not all SPACs go up….even though they were

So I invested when valuations were higher in individuals I believe in or have great track records like the Chamath Palihapitiya and Bill Ackerman’s of the world. I’m fine with winning or losing with these guys.

Now I could make an argument that the SPACs they represent should have been trading closer to the Net Asset Value (NAV) instead of 20% or higher because of their track records alone. That’s probably true as the market has adjusted this back closer to NAV. Fair enough.

The learning moment for me was when I chased a SPAC based solely on rumor which caused the stock to go higher and higher almost for no other reason than this rumor. Don’t chase a rumor of a merger. If you believe in the management company led by Chamath or Ackerman fine. But to speculate and gamble on a rumor is silly. Lesson learned.

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. I was even able to have them wish my wife a Happy Birthday!
• ​The All In Podcast-Truthfully I only came across this podcast because of Chamath Palihapitiya who I mentioned earlier. in his Twitter feed can be described as CEO @SocialCapital, Chairman @VirginGalactic, Owner @Warriors, Bestie @theallinpod. I have been following Chamath recently because of my spiked interest in SPACs. I’ve listened to a couple more and despite the frat like, silicon valley billionaire talk, they actually are really intelligent guys that speak on some thought provoking issues.
• ​Real Estate & Financial Independence Podcast-I listened to my friend Coach Chad Carson as he talked with investor and real estate agent Erion Shehaj about how to adjust your financial independence plans as the market changes. It was really interesting to listen to a couple of really smart individuals talk about real estate, investing, and adapting to the world we live in. Worth a listen if you are interested in those topics..

​​📙Book listening this month:

• ​No Rules Rules: Netflix and the Culture of Reinvention​
• ​Ready Player Two
• ​Wild at Heart​
• ​The Daily Stoic (in progress)

If you work for a company read the Netflix book it is absolutely fascinating the simple yet effective strategy Reed Hastings uses at Netflix. As someone who worked in corporate America I found myself just being blown away with what Netflix does as a company and a workplace.

I also finished reading Wild at Heart. I was actually part of a “book club” of sorts every Monday with a small group of men that talked about each chapter. Not only did I enjoy the environment and comradery, learning from others through life stories and their opinions, but also the message I took away from it. Always be learning and exploring (ABLE is my new acronym to live by).

📺What I’m watching this month:

• Documentaries & Sports

The month of March was filled with many college basketball events. My beloved Syracuse Orangemen with the father son duo of head coach Jim Boeheim and star player Buddy Boeheim made a run into the Sweet 16 that had me staying up late at night to watch.

My wife loves documentaries or anything that starts with this is based on true events. So I have found myself more and more watching interesting documentaries throughout the month. I’m not someone who can watch any documentary so the challenge has been for my wife to find something interesting we both can enjoy.

🥕Looking Ahead🥕

April will be filled with financial coaching appointments, regular life appointments, and more opportunities to focus on my philosophy in life to always be learning and exploring.

I look forward to more gardening/farming as I watch the avocados multiply and grow leaps and bounds every morning. In the "always be learning" I’m doing some online learning and training that I while not easy has been really enjoyable so far.

🏋Health and Fitness🏋​

I wanted to follow up on the first 12 weeks of my health and fitness goals as shown again below.

Looking at my health and fitness goals through the first 12 weeks they include the following:

Lose 8 lbs and drop 2% body fat

Get stronger in my squats and set personal records

Increase my aerobic capacity and set personal records for rowing

Complete 1 strict handstand push up (HSPU) by the end of the 12 weeks

I’m extremely proud to say that I accomplished 2 out of the 4 goals as I was able to set personal records in my squat and increase my aerobic capacity in rowing. All of that including the fact that I strained/injured myself and took the last 2 weeks off from really doing anything besides walking.

Now I learned a couple of lessons on the 2 items I didn’t accomplish:

• I made the goal, but didn’t really have an action plan to accomplish the weight loss or HSPU
• I didn’t specifically practice my HSPU so if you don’t put time, energy, and effort into something you want to accomplish it’s not just going to happen on it’s own
• I did a poor job of tracking my intake. Working out is great and I’ll add how I did that day on an app through the gym. However tracking what I eat, drink, and weigh was not done. If you don’t measure you won’t know if you are succeeding.

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;)