enRICHed: volume 189

happy fourth of july besties

Jul 05, 2026

Sunday June 29, 2026

Volume 189

Hey besties!

Is it just me, or does leaving the house somehow cost $200 now? Groceries are more expensive, rent keeps climbing, and even grabbing a coffee feels like a financial decision these days. If you’ve been wondering whether you’re imagining it... I promise you’re not.

This week on Networth & Chill, we’re breaking down why everything feels so expensive right now and, more importantly, what you can actually do about it. I’m explaining the real reasons prices keep rising, from inflation and tariffs to the housing shortage, and sharing my favorite ways to cut everyday costs without completely changing your lifestyle. We also get into rent negotiation tips, cashback apps, grocery hacks, the cheapest day to buy gas, and even how to successfully appeal a denied health insurance claim.

If you’ve looked at your credit card statement lately and thought, “How did I spend THAT much?”... this episode is for you.

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!

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.

It’s Getting Hot In Here 🥵💨

Summer is really here, so there’s only one thing we can really talk about: it’s hot. Way too hot. Dangerously hot, even. Forget the hot dogs. We’re basically grilling ourselves right now. So if you’re looking for ways to cool down without spiking your electric bill, I’ve got you covered.
Set the temperature higher than you’re used to! Mayor Zohran Mamdani caught a lot of heat recently (bad-um-ch!) for telling New Yorkers to set their thermostats to 78 degrees, but this number wasn’t pulled out of thin air! According to National Grid and ADT Security Systems, the 76-78 degree range tends to be the most cost-efficient, while helping to keep demand manageable on the energy grind. Cornell Cooperative Extension agrees on this logic — usually, you can save 3-5% for every degree you raise the temperature. Of course, this will depend on personal preference, but if you’re okay with a balmy 76 degrees and a bowl of ice cream, this will be cheaper than blasting the A/C at 65 degrees.
Inspecting your A/C unit and cleaning your filter could also save you beaucoup-bucks. Clogged filters and dirty coils can affect the air conditioner’s ability to absorb heat, so doing your due diligence can lower your energy consumption by more than 15%. Using the A/C during off-peak hours (translation: not the hottest points of the day) also means your costs will end up being lower.
Don’t sleep on the little tricks your grandparents taught you! Using fans (ceiling fans, oscillating fans, and box fans) in addition to A/C, closing your blinds during the day to keep out the heat, and cooking with small pans instead of bigger ones can usually keep your home up to 20 degrees cooler without putting a huge dent in your electric bill. Don’t forget to check your appliances, too: your fridge is literally losing money if it’s lower than 37-40°F for fresh food or 0-5°F in your freezer.
HYCU; Even after the heatwave passes, this summer is going to be a scorcher, so there’s a high probability that there will be grid issues, especially as there’s increasing demand for electricity. It also means that electric companies are going to be turning up the prices. Make sure you’re staying cool in any way you can: keep your fridge stocked with ice, drink tons of water, be careful with strenuous activity, and if you can, do your laundry and get your groceries in the early morning or after sunset, so you can avoid the worst of the heat and also the most expensive energy hours of the day. Staying healthy means you stay wealthy. And when in doubt, eat some ice cream — might I recommend some mint choco chip? (Don’t argue with me about my favorite flavor. I said what I said.)

It Pays To Be President

And they say public service isn’t profitable. A new financial disclosure revealed that President Donald Trump made $2.2 billion dollars during his first year in office — yes, that’s billion with a b.
Just like any rich person, most of Trump’s money isn’t coming from his day job. More than half of it, $1.4 billion, is from his family’s “crypto business,” which was partially sold last year to an investment firm based out of the United Arab Emirates. It also includes earnings from his real estate assets, businesses, and licensing agreements (that’s everything from his $59.99 Bible to his all-gold phone).
This is pretty unprecedented for any president, because public servants are usually supposed to keep their finances pretty simple in order to, well, serve the public. President Jimmy Carter put his peanut farm into a blind trust before he took office in 1977 (meaning, he gave up control of it) in order to avoid conflict of interest, and President Harry Truman left the White House without any income other than his Army pension of $113 per month. Even President George W. Bush put his investments in a blind trust before running for president, and later said he had no idea how the 2008 recession impacted his net worth.
The key point is that historically, presidents have basically given up control of their assets (but not ownership) via blind trusts. But Trump’s assets are in revocable trusts, which is different and very important. If you read my book Well Endowed, you’ll know it means that he still has operational control over them. That’s what is winding people up about this situation — Trump has been really, really vocally supportive of the crypto industry, and now we’re seeing that he actively made $1.4 billion via his crypto business. He also secretly bought a bunch of stock just before announcing his tariff reversal and the stock market bounced back. His defense is that this is all money he made before he became president, but we know that’s not true either: he made $622 million in 2024, which is $1.5 billion less than his new income.
HYCU; So if we’re not allowed to breach our company noncompete contracts, how is the president allowed to? He actually said it himself in an interview with the New York Times. When they asked him about conflicts of interest, he said: “I found out that nobody cared.” That’s truly it. The bad news is, the more uninformed you are about the system’s loopholes, the more rich people are allowed to get away with basically financial murder. The good news is that anyone can use the legal code to their benefit. Regular people, like you and me can also use tax-advantaged accounts, brokerage accounts, trusts, and create a financial strategy where your money is working for you even while you sleep.

The Most Egg-streme Case

It turns out, we weren’t imagining it: the egg craze last year was a major, major scam. Three egg producer companies have been caught in a major scandal that proved they were fixing egg prices and raising all of our grocery bills, and their justice has finally been served (and it’s not sunny-side up).
If you remember, there was a strain of avian flu that producers were saying was taking out their hens left and right, making eggs harder to come by. It was true, but it turns out that producers Cal-Maine Foods, Versova Holdings and Hickman’s Egg Ranch were then working together to submit bids that were designed to push up prices. Executive texts and emails showed how they coordinated an effort to manipulate the market and push benchmark prices up.
So the punishment is to give us what they took from us: eggs. The three egg producer companies will have to pay a $3.3 million fine and donate a whopping 53 million eggs to states around the country. If accepted by the court, the eggs will be going to food banks and community organizations. New York said it’ll get almost 5 million eggs for distribution, and Vermont is reported to get nearly 1 million of those protein shells. This will be huge for low-income families, who will be able to save some money on their weekly grocery shopping with these apology eggs.
The egg craze became a huge political battleground at the start of 2025, with so many people pointing to the price of eggs as an example of rising cost of living and unsustainable inflation. Senator Elizabeth Warren even wrote a letter to Trump about egg prices, demanding to know what he was going to do about it, especially since he even referenced egg prices as a reason he won the election, saying: “When you buy apples, when you buy bacon, when you buy eggs, they would double and triple the price over a short period of time, and I won an election based on that.”
HYCU; It might not seem like a big deal anymore to us — egg prices are finally cooling off, with the average price for a dozen large Grade A chicken eggs going for about $2.19 as of May. But it makes you wonder what other kinds of illegal price fixing is happening in our daily costs, and how many DOJ investigations it’s going to take to find out that we were being gaslit into shelling out more money. My tips for saving on groceries? Shop weekly deals and use coupons at your local grocery store or use a service like Misfit Markets, Too Good to Go, or Flash Food for fresh, discounted food, and don’t forget to take advantage of platforms like Ibotta to get cash back on your groceries.

Mon asks, “I’m new to investing with $100k saved. I don’t need the money for at least 5 years. What should my portfolio look like?”

Here’s the deal bestie, building a solid first portfolio with $100k is actually one of the best positions you can be in as a new investor! Let me walk you through how to think about it…

First, I’d get a good sense of your true investment timeline. 5 years may feel like a decent amount of time, but in the investing world, 5 years is actually quite a short term. If there’s a portion of that $100k that you’d feel comfortable having locked up for longer, that might be good to know, vs. dollars you can count on needing in the next few years.

Then, consider account structure before you pick a single investment. The container matters as much as what’s inside it. If you haven’t maxed out tax-advantaged accounts like a 401(k) or Roth IRA, a chunk of that $100k could go toward those first, since the tax benefits compound over time just like your returns do. Whatever’s left can go into a regular taxable brokerage account.

For the actual investments, index funds are your best friend as a beginner. Rather than trying to pick individual stocks, an S&P 500 index fund gives you exposure to 500 of the largest U.S. companies in one purchase. If the broad economy grows over your 5+ year window, you grow with it. The beauty is low fees, built-in diversification, and no need to monitor it obsessively. There are plenty of index tracking ETFs (exchange-traded funds) to choose from and they trade like stocks throughout the day, giving you a bit more flexibility.

On asset allocation, a common rule of thumb is to take your age, round to the nearest 5, subtract 10, and that’s roughly the percentage you’d hold in bonds, with the rest in stocks. With a 5+ year horizon, you can afford to lean heavily into equities because you have time to ride out any dips. Bonds add stability but dampen growth, so the younger you are, the less you typically need.

Diversification beyond just U.S. stocks is worth considering too. Many investors add some international exposure (developed markets like Europe and Japan, or even emerging markets) to avoid being entirely dependent on one economy. A simple three-fund portfolio, U.S. total market, international, and bonds, is a classic beginner setup that financial educators have championed for decades.

One last thing on strategy: rather than dumping all $100k in at once, some people prefer Dollar-Cost Averaging, investing a set amount at regular intervals over several months. It removes the anxiety of “what if I invest right before a dip?” and smooths out your entry point. Typically, DCA is psychologically easier for new investors.

Wishing you the best of luck on your investing journey!!

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Rich Tip of the Week: How to protect yourself financially as a SAHM!
It’s official: Taylor Swift is getting married to Travis Kelce at Madison Square Garden on America’s 250th Independence Day. This is your reminder that standing around outside for hours in New York City during a heatwave is a very bad idea.
TSA is on its hands and knees begging World Cup travelers to please stop packing so much ranch in their carry-ons.
There are 13% more billionaires in this world amid the AI boom, which is certainly food for thought given the first newsletter blurb re: HOT IN HERRE

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