enRICHed: volume 89

alexa play price tag by jessie j

Jul 28, 2024

Volume 89

Hey besties!

I wanted to start this week’s newsletter off with an important message that I read in a very fancy academic journal and definitely didn’t see on TikTok, hehe: in our lifetimes, we will build a lot of relationships—whether they’re romantic, friendship-based, or something in between, it’s important to surround yourself with folks that are not only fun, but also help you to level up yourself. What I mean by this is, do the people in your life help bring out the best in you? Do they help you dream brighter, aim for higher, and reach for lofty goals? Well, thanks to @grace_lemire on TikTok, we now have an easy question to ask ourselves to determine if we’ve got the right people by our side. If someone told you that you were “just like” someone in your life—would you be flattered or insulted? This, my friends, is the key to helping you begin to understand who is really good to their core and who might be rotten from the inside out. You want to surround yourself with people who make you proud to be with them and to be associated with them. I want the best for my besties so we need to make sure you are constantly surrounding yourself with the best. I would know—in my earlier years, I was picking Prince Alarming and the evil stepsisters instead of true, good friends!

TL;DR be careful who you surround yourself with! Choose wisely! Love ya besties, have a great week!

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.

Some Delta Miles For Your Troubles? 🛩

Delta has issued an apology to passengers after the CrowdStrike outage last Friday, offering bonus miles and reimbursements for the 10,913 affected flights.
The airline says it plans to issue 10,000 bonus miles and has offered to reimburse “reasonable expenses” for all the travelers who have been impacted—including any hotels, meals, or transportation expenses while in transit resulting from this flight disruption.
At least 2,537 flights were canceled and 8,376 were delayed in the U.S. last Friday as a result of the CrowdStrike outage.
HYCU; I’m not saying I told you so, but… I LITERALLY TOLD YOU SO. Businesses don’t want to burn all of their customers so they’re going to try and do right by you (so you’ll keep giving them money in the future). For all the besties who have been stranded in Airbnbs, in their parents’ home, or otherwise impacted by the outage, this will hopefully soften the blow a bit. You can take advantage of this announcement by submitting a claim to Delta for a reasonable expenses reimbursement. All expenses that have been made during the outage are eligible—Delta will not reimburse prepaid expenses like vacation experiences, lost wages, concerts, or other tickets.

Oui Oui, Paris Olympics! 🥖🎾🏋️‍♂️🏓

The 2024 Summer Olympic Games have officially kicked off in Paris this weekend, and there is so much to look forward to. France is really pulling out all the stops to try and make this a games to remember, and it’s causing quite a stir in the country.
On Friday, the Parade of Nations featured 10,500 Olympians sailing down the Seine River on nearly 100 boats, marking the first time the parade has ever been hosted outside a stadium. More than 320,000 spectators were expected to attend along the route—at the same time, the high-speed train lines in the country were “targeted by malicious acts” as apparently “deliberate attempts” to stop travel.
If there’s one thing Parisians will do, it’s get messy with it. The Olympics have historically caused an explosion of tourism to the country, but also citizen frustration towards the government for only taking care of the city’s infrastructure for the Games.
HYCU; Travelers and residents in Europe will have their entire lives affected by the Olympics, I fear. Rail network Eurostar has already shut down a quarter of their services after the train attacks, and workers of a five-star hotel have gone on strike in protest of the chaos of the Olympics. On the upside, Paris will be catering to tourists at the moment, with hotel prices and air fares offering limited-time deals—so if you do want to brave the crowds of the biggest sporting event in the world, please try and see the Louvre as well.

Southwest Said, Sit Down 🐒

In other airplane news, customers will no longer be able to choose any open seat when they board Southwest planes, a staple of the airline’s brand since its founding over 50 years ago.
Southwest announced that it would be moving to an assigned seating model. CEO Bob Jordan said on CNBC: “Eighty percent of customers that fly Southwest today want an assigned seat…when a customer defects from Southwest to another competitor, it's the No. 1 reason.”
The airline experienced a sharp drop in second-quarter profits this year and is currently under pressure from investors, which argue that Southwest is underperforming.
HYCU; If you’re a Southwest stan, this might be good or bad news for you, depending on where you stand on the open seating debacle! But it will affect how you plan your travels—if you’re flying Southwest in the future, you will have to start picking your seat ahead of time or looking out for a seat assignment on your ticket.

Chipotle Attempts To Beat Shrinkflation Allegations 🌯💸

Chipotle’s CEO Brian Niccol announced that the company will be trying to make “generous portions” more consistent across its more than 3,500 restaurants after customers got on social media to complain about shrinking portion sizes.
Rising prices in food means many chain restaurants, including Chipotle, have been hit with shrinkflation accusations—Wells Fargo even did an analysis of it in June, weighing the same 75 Chipotle orders from different locations and finding a massive difference in portions.
Niccol said the company is reemphasizing training and coaching around the making of bowls and burritos in order to try and address the problem.
HYCU; Well, well, well, if this isn’t another case proving that speaking your mind (and bullying corporations) works. Hopefully this means that in the future, your Chipotle order should be more consistent in size. Don’t film your Chipotle worker making your bowl either, y’all—that’s doing too much. I cannot believe there is so much beef about the Chipotle shrinkflation that the CEO had to weigh in on it, but I suppose beef is their specialty.

Commonly asked question: Leah asks, “Hello! I'm a recent BFF:) Congratulations on your recent wedding! Can you talk about what to do with the 401k when you leave a company and does it matter if you are in different age brackets? I’ve recently left the company. I do plan to find another job. I’m being offered options like a discounted professional management fee (that comes with the previous company) for $500 a year if I stay in the 401(k), or leave it on autopilot with a retirement projection date so there are no fees or roll it all over into an IRA. I’m 52 years young.”

Hi Leah! We have an archive of all of the old newsletters on the site! Since the Question Bank is a more recent newsletter edition, the more questions I answer, the better we can organize the topics! If you have specific questions on certain topics, using YouTube Shorts is the best way to go! They have a great search function so you’ll be able to easily find and look through any of my previous videos on a topic.

As far as your retirement question, do not, I repeat, do not pay those fees or let your 401k money just sit there! You can roll over your old 401k from your previous job for free into an IRA using Capitalize! They get paid on the back end by the IRA providers so, this service is 100% free for consumers to use. Rolling your 401(k) money over into an IRA is definitely the best decision here, this way, your retirement account will be attached to you and not your job. A 401(k) can be great, especially if your company can offer some kind of match, but once you leave the company, they stop paying those management fees, and those accounts can get a bit pricey. Rolling over your money into an IRA will give you the freedom to be able continue preparing for your retirement while paying fewer fees, while you look for your next opportunity. Good luck!

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Rich Tip of the Week: Here’s how you can invest and save as a stay-at-home parent!
I’ve been avidly watching every episode of Love Island USA this year, and last weekend’s finale was just perfect. It’s even hooking people in my life who swore they’d never watch reality television.
Speaking of shows that I’m obsessed with, the next season’s star of Bridgerton has been announced, and it’s Benedict Bridgerton, the tortured moody artist. I’m so sat.
This years’ Olympians are sharing their favorite warm-up songs and it’s such perfection.

SEE YOU IN THE COMMENTS BESTIES