0:00

Hello,

0:05

YNABers. My name is Jesse Meekam with

0:07

another episode of the YNAB podcast, and

0:09

I'm here each week to obsess out

0:11

loud about spending purposefully, saving aspirationally, and

0:13

even giving joyfully. It all

0:15

comes down to just four simple habits a while

0:18

back, like October, a

0:20

while back. And some

0:22

of you that listen to all the podcasts and you go real weird

0:24

on me, I don't know what year

0:26

it is for you. I hope it's going well, though.

0:29

I hope the future is bright because I haven't seen

0:31

it yet and there you are. So when

0:33

I talk to you future people, I don't know what to

0:35

say, but for those of you that are current and not

0:37

doing the strange binge thing, here we go.

0:40

I talked about rating

0:42

transactions for joy, and

0:45

I thought it would be fun to

0:47

maybe walk through some

0:49

of the transactions that

0:51

spark joy

0:54

in people. And there's a reason for this. So let's

0:57

just dive in and see

0:59

what's going on. John said

1:02

gifts straight up. Gifts

1:06

brought joy. Okay, that totally checks out. Okay.

1:10

Registration for my oldest

1:13

at a reconciliation class at church,

1:16

some eSpending on Steam. Yes,

1:18

that's video game platform from those for those of

1:21

you that aren't in the know. Clearance

1:24

Halloween decorations. Love

1:26

it. There's some more. There you go. So,

1:28

so far we've got gifts and then a few more

1:30

things for other people. That's interesting. Krista

1:33

says most of them are threes. But

1:35

she said the one from the last 10 would have

1:37

to be the order for seeds for

1:40

my vegetable garden. Crystal and

1:42

I are cut from the same rough or we

1:44

are grown in the same soil, so to speak.

1:48

Okay. Strega Nona forever

1:50

stamps brought Alice in joy. That

1:53

book is so good. I love that book so

1:55

much. All right. Let me see if I

1:57

can find some more. Oh, I love the Strega Nona one. Okay,

2:00

$83 from my, I don't

2:02

understand this acronym, WHAM

2:06

bucket, WHAM bucket,

2:08

called Takeaways, Treats, and Coffee Runs. Okay, here

2:11

it is. Took my best friend out for

2:13

dinner on her birthday. It's

2:15

a great little place called the Hot Chicken

2:17

Project. Ah, the

2:19

fruits, ah, something for someone else. Interesting. All

2:23

right, paying off the

2:25

mortgage early, bringing someone joy. Laura

2:28

says it was nice to note that of

2:30

the last 10 transactions, there were many threes.

2:33

I didn't review this with everyone. Threes are joy. But

2:36

I asked for the interesting ones. So Laura

2:38

said, my most interesting three was

2:40

an almost $4,000 down payment on a new car. My

2:44

old car was 13 years old, inherited from

2:46

my parents. My son's favorite activity is skiing.

2:48

An old car couldn't get us up the mountain well. You

2:51

don't mess around with that. You know what I'm saying? Like, you go up the

2:53

mountain, you wanna make sure you can get up and you can get

2:55

down. So she said, our new car will

2:57

get us up the mountain. But I like

2:59

that one a lot. All right, let's

3:02

see. Someone mentioned that

3:04

one that didn't bring them joy was chicken feed.

3:06

And that one always brings me joy, but they mentioned

3:08

that they were out of the feed that they

3:10

actually wanted. So I get it. Okay,

3:13

purchasing beef to

3:16

make Maria tacos for Sunday dinner with friends.

3:19

Ah, love it. Okay, I

3:22

think that's probably enough. So

3:24

far, we haven't seen any, like I

3:27

haven't seen two Berea beef ones. All right, now, okay,

3:29

I'm gonna do another one, a water meter deposit. Now

3:32

why? We're in the process of

3:34

buying a house for my parents. And

3:36

thanks to why we have paid off our mortgage and we're

3:38

in a position to do this for my parents. So

3:41

you see what happened there? $70 for

3:43

a water meter deposit. That doesn't sound very

3:45

interesting until you find out why. And then

3:47

it's super interesting. Super

3:49

interesting. And again, it's

3:51

for someone else. So

3:53

maybe there's something to the new podcast

3:56

intro about giving joyfully.

3:58

And when I ask, you to rate

4:00

transactions and tell me the

4:03

ones that brought you joy, they almost

4:05

without fail. They were

4:07

for someone else. They were almost

4:10

without fail. At least the interesting ones. And it's fair.

4:12

I did have you filter. I said, give me the

4:14

interesting ones, not the boring ones. But

4:17

the most interesting joy filled transactions,

4:21

all involved in my quick little sampling here,

4:24

all involved you spending your money

4:26

or a little bit of yourself

4:29

on someone else. So I feel like that's a little bit

4:31

of food for thought. Food

4:33

for thought indeed. We're

4:36

wired for it. I think

4:38

we're wired for it. And I mentioned in a

4:40

prior episode about kind of exerting a lot of

4:42

power over money. And money

4:45

is you. So I don't like the

4:47

idea of like money is external. And so you're exerting

4:49

power over it. So you're giving it the middle finger.

4:51

Like I mentioned. But

4:53

I will say if you are in

4:56

that state of mind where money is kind of a

4:58

necessary evil, then it is pretty fun

5:00

to be able to say, I don't need you. And I'm

5:02

going to do the beef for the burrito tacos with friends.

5:05

And it's going to be great. But

5:07

I think a next level

5:10

version of this would be you recognize

5:12

that money is you and

5:14

that the purchasing of the beef

5:17

for the burrito tacos is you. And

5:21

the $2 bill for the tooth is you. The

5:24

water meter deposit for the parents, for

5:26

the house, because of the flood in

5:28

Louisiana. That's you.

5:31

And suddenly there's joy all over the place. Just

5:34

kind of lying on the ground ready to be picked up. Anyway,

5:39

I think that's something certainly for me to think about. Until

5:42

next time. Remember, it's

5:45

just these four may be joyful. you