enRICHed: volume 173
call me santa claus the way i’ve always got a bag on me
Sunday March 15, 2026
Volume 173
Hey besties!
It feels like everyone these days is starting their own business, but what does it truly take to start a successful one? Especially in an oversaturated market like beauty? From supplier negotiations to pricing products to inventory getting stolen, I cover all of the stages of being a business owner on this week’s episode of Networth & Chill! Join me as I sit down with Julissa Prado, founder and CEO of Rizos Curls, for a conversation about what it actually takes to build a beauty brand. Julissa has experienced all of the highs and lows of entrepreneurship and she sheds light on the lessons she’s learned from them. If you’ve ever wondered if you have what it takes to start your own business, tune in to this week’s episode!
New episodes of the podcast drop every single Wednesday so be sure to subscribe to my YouTube channel HERE or follow Networth and Chill wherever you get your podcasts!
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As a reminder:
HYCU, pronounced haiku: how the news impacts you and your wallet, aka How You Can Use
The Prosperitea: think discount codes, non-boring finance articles, sales, and personal links from the week. The fun stuff 😉
We love your comments, but please remember to keep it positive! And don’t take investing advice from anyone who isn’t your registered financial advisor!
Now that you’re up to speed, let’s get you enRICHed.
Finally, Some Good Housing News 🏡🎉
This week, the Senate passed the largest bipartisan housing bill we’ve seen in decades, which hopes to make housing more affordable and available with deregulation, creating new incentives for low-income housing, and banning institutional investors from buying single-family homes (there are a few exceptions, which we’ll talk about).
To address the shortage of homes, lawmakers greenlit a very specific deregulation: manufactured homes (the kind of house that’s made in a factory and then lugged over to a lot) no longer have to have a steel frame, which is the thing that actually makes them transportable. This change is happening because most of the time, people aren’t actually hitching their house to their car and moving around with it, so removing this will make it cheaper and faster to make more IKEA-style homes and get people moved in.
The next thing this bill addressed was convincing banks to make more low-income housing through the low-income housing tax credit. Historically, banks have used this program to invest in affordable housing construction, but are limited by the Public Welfare Investment (PWI) cap. Historically, they could only invest 15% of their risk adjusted capital in these types of projects — but now, the cap is 20%, which will ideally allow banks to invest more in housing while getting a tax discount on it.
The big Trumpian promise that was cemented here was banning massive corporations like BlackRock from buying out single-family homes and flipping them into giant rental developments. There’s kind of mixed research on how real of a problem this actually is, but anyhow, it’s official that they’re no longer allowed to buy out a one-family bungalow and turn it into a giant cookie-cutter apartment complex. What are the exceptions? Investors can still buy homes that need serious renovations in order to bring them up to code, like fixer-uppers. They’re also still allowed to own new homes made for renting (a.k.a. “build-to-rent”). But they now have to sell those homes after seven years, with the renter getting first dibs to purchase.
HYCU; There are some details that still need to be negotiated in this bill, but all of this is meant to address the two-fold problem that the housing market is currently facing: first, the average home sold in the US is priced at about $400,000, which is too expensive for the average family budget; and second, there’s just not enough houses to go around. In an ideal world, though, this will help bring down housing prices, create an inventory of low-cost homes for first-time homebuyers, and also give regular buyers more of a fighting chance in the housing market, so this is overall really good news. If you want to learn more straight from the source I had the pleasure of interviewing Senator Elizabeth Warren a few weeks ago on this and a number of other financial topics!
How the Iran War is Impacting Your $$$ 💰✈️
Last week, we talked about the Iran War’s impact on oil and gas prices, but now, we’re starting to see wider impacts take shape — specifically, the price of flight tickets and fertilizer has been shooting up as the fighting continues.
Let’s talk about travel first. Since the Strait of Hormuz, controlled by Iran, is the linchpin for the world’s access to oil, the war has basically blocked it off for the first time in history, and it’s wreaking havoc across the globe. It’s so bad that countries are dipping into our global reserve supply of oil, which is for really, really bad emergencies only. In the first week of the war, the price for a gallon of jet fuel soared close to $4; it’s so wild that United Airlines CEO Scott Kirby even said that airfare price hikes from higher fuel costs would “probably start quick,” meaning that companies are definitely planning on passing off that extra cost onto us.
The other area we’re seeing issues is agriculture. Farmers all over the world depend on fossil fuel-based fertilizers, which also come out of the Strait of Hormuz. Right now, their supply is stuck, and the ripple effects are starting. Restaurants in India are scaling back operations and warning of closures amid fuel shortages from the maritime blockade, and cooking gas prices are spiking in Sri Lanka. Here, in the US, already-pessimistic farmers are worried about how their products will be affected — meaning, yes, everything from rice to bread to soy milk might get more expensive later in the year if this shortage will impact the crop yield.
HYCU; This is the biggest oil supply disruption in history, which means that the longer this drags on, it’s likely that we’ll continue to see even more impacts on our wallets. We’re talking about a global hunger crisis in the worst of cases, and for people who have more money in their accounts, rising costs for food, gas, flights, and more. If you’re planning on having a hot girl summer vacation, Thanksgiving travel, or a Christmas trip home, book your tickets NOW. Regardless if it’s international or domestic, I would get it all out of the way, because fare increases are only going to go up as oil supply gets tighter. I would also buy a full-fare economy ticket instead of a restricted one, or tap into your airline miles where you can — that way, if the price does go back down, you can cancel it and get a refund or credits back when you go to rebook.
Yeah, We’re Still In Shutdown Mode 😔⏰
Not to rub salt in the wound, but we have some more unfortunate news for travelers: this week, the Senate failed to pass a funding bill to reopen the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), which means we are still in partial shutdown.
This shutdown has been going on for almost a month now, which means TSA agents are going to miss their first full pay check this week — which, remember, is not the first time this year that they’ve been asked to work without pay. That means even more workers have been calling in sick, and security checkpoint wait times have only gotten longer.
When is this going to end? It’s pretty unclear. As a refresher, the center of this debate is the funding for Customs Border Protection and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), who have been arresting and killing citizens across the country in an aggressive anti-immigration sweep. As of right now, Republicans and Democrats can’t come to a conclusion on how much they should give to the organization, so we still have gridlock.
HYCU; If you’ve got a trip coming up within the next week, this is your reminder to give yourself some extra time for a long wait at TSA. No one wants this shutdown to drag on for much longer, so if your travel isn’t for a few months, you should be fine, but if you are planning to go to the airport within the next month, I would monitor this story to get the most accurate information on your potential wait time. They did reopen the Global Entry program to try and address this problem, which may help one specific group of travelers - Americans returning to the US. As always, even if the situation is annoying, be kind to the TSA agents, who on average earn $50,000 per year, and are right now being asked to take zero dollars home.
@samanthabrij on IG asks, “How to increase your income faster and invest more to replace it?”
Everyone wants to work less and have more time to invest in other areas of their life, but how do you even do that? Through increasing how much money is coming in the door (making more) and how much money is working on your behalf (investing)! Here’s how you can actually work to have your investments start to replace some of your income.
Accelerating your income growth is where you want to start since more money coming in means more fuel for your investment engine. The smartest moves aren’t just working more hours — it’s about creating multiple income streams and leveraging existing skills. Side hustles are huge right now, with about 27% of Americans earning from them in 2025. Think skill-based options like tutoring, consulting, or freelancing in areas you already know well. The key is finding something that can eventually scale without trading more of your time. Additionally, it’s certainly worth asking for a raise at work every year. I aim for 10-15%, assuming you’ll get closer to 6-8% if you’ve done a good job, and have the data points to back it up.
Now as for the investment piece, the easiest way to start investing is via a roboadvisor! You take a quick quiz about your money goals and then they’ll build a portfolio that makes sense for you! Fees are typically around 0.25% which is about ¼ to ⅕ of what you’d pay a human advisor.
What you want to have happen is eventually your investment returns start generating enough passive income to cover your living expenses. At a 4% withdrawal rate (a common retirement planning benchmark), you’d need about 25 times your annual expenses to replace your income entirely. So if someone spends $50,000 annually, they’d need roughly $1.25 million invested. For $75,000 in expenses, that turns into about $1.875 million.
The magic happens early — so start sooner rather than later! Even modest amounts invested consistently while building additional income streams can lead to serious wealth accumulation over time. The combination of growing your earning power AND systematically investing those extra dollars is how people actually build wealth that eventually works harder than they do.
Want to be featured in our Question Bank section?
Rich Tip of the Week: How to actually handle your debt!
The Oscars happened this weekend. All rise for the Sinners standom.
Kelly Clarkson revealed that American Idol never gave her the prize money. Someone owes our queen $1 million.
Illinois is weighing a bill that would give new and expectant mothers $1,500 plus $500 a month for six months after delivery. Moms, what would you buy with the money?
SEE YOU IN THE COMMENTS BESTIES
Hi. Can you please talk about financial options for those who are permanently disabled and can’t work. Also differentiate between is you are getting SSDI benefits (based on past employment) and SSA benefits (these have stricter rules when you’re trying to build savings). For example you can’t open a ROTH IRA. If you’re unemployed there’s no IRA at all. There are ABLE accounts. You can open HYSA but there are limits to how much you can save before they take away your health insurance. Thanks so much. People with disabilities and chronic illnesses really need financial advocacy.