enRICHed: volume 95

alexa play september by earth wind and fire

Sep 08, 2024

Volume 95

Hey besties!

While my wedding day has come and gone, the celebrations are far from over. Later this year, my husband and I are finally heading off on our official honeymoon to THAILAND! I couldn’t be more excited. We’ve both dreamed of visiting Southeast Asia for years, and what better excuse than our honeymoon to take that extended trip? This trip holds such a special place for us because we’ve never really had the time off available to make the flights all the way to Southeast Asia worth it, but now we do! Our honeymoon is the perfect excuse.

And on that note, we wanted to go big, so my friends at Elsewhere are helping us plan our perfect trip! Not only are they helping me plan my honeymoon, but they’re also VERY GENEROUSLY giving away a trip to one of my besties!!! That’s right, we are giving away the adventure of a lifetime worth $10k! If you are interested in entering the giveaway, check it out HERE! All you need to do is enter your email—it’s that simple!

I cannot wait for this trip to take some time off with my boo and explore a brand new place! If you had an unlimited budget and could travel anywhere in the world, where would you go?

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.

Hotel Workers Want 5-Star Treatment 🤍🌟

One of the biggest hospitality strikes is happening nationwide right now, as hotel workers protest for higher pay and better working conditions.
Workers at Hiltons, Hyatts and Marriotts in nine U.S. cities started walking off the job on Labor Day Weekend, one of the busiest weekends for travel. CNN reported that as many as 10,200 hotel workers at 25 hotels stretching from Boston to the West Coast to Hawaii went on strike starting last Sunday.
Hotel workers’ union Unite Here said they are fighting for higher wages, as many hospitality workers live paycheck to paycheck, as well as a restoration of some of the pandemic-era cuts, including daily room cleaning. Workers say despite a huge surge of travel again, they’re working with tiny crews, lower wages and less opportunity to make a living.
HYCU; If you’ve been traveling, this will no doubt affect you—the union is threatening to expand to 65 more hotels in cities including Oakland, California, Providence, Rhode Island, and New Haven, Connecticut. Hotel workers have been striking in rolling waves since last year, often tied to busy tourist seasons like the Fourth of July and the Eras tour weekends. Of course, it’s frustrating as a tourist, but hopefully indicative of how much we need people working at these hotels. Tip your cleaning staff and travel on off-season times if you want to avoid the strikes (plus, save more money, so win-win).

Schools Failing Their Own Homework 🤮🍎

The excuse of your dog eating your homework might become a historical relic, because the amount of schools assigning homework are decreasing, according to a new study from the National Center for Educational Statistics.
37% of 13-year-old students said they had “no homework assigned” the day before the survey, compared to 21% in 2021.
A couple factors are contributing to this change: the correlation between homework and academic achievement is hard to measure, Axios reported, and it’s one of the biggest stressors for students. California even passed a bill last week to reevaluate the impact of homework on childrens’ mental and physical health.
It’s all bubbling to the surface now because even more students are using AI tools like ChatGPT to do their homework; for teachers, they say the time is more worthwhile to give out assignments that involve critical thinking rather than a straightforward answer.
HYCU; Wait, so if homework doesn’t even prove your hard work or intelligence, then why did I spend so much time doing algebra sets after school? I could’ve spent way more time raising Neopets and causing mayhem on Club Penguin. Still, this is a clear indicator that things are changing. It will likely impact everything from how universities evaluate applications, how the future workforce will think and act, even shift the very fabric of how we gauge success. At the very least, teachers will spend far less time writing “see me” on ten sheets of paper every week.

Fed Cuts Incoming In Three…Two… 💸😗

Unemployment rates dipped for the first time since March, but getting a job is still harder than getting Beyoncé tour tickets.
After a summer of layoffs and mass labor cuts, the Department of Labor shared new data showing that unemployment ticked down to 4.2% from 4.3%, which was the highest level in three years. Can we call that progress, chat? You tell me.
The New York Fed said that staffing agencies reported slow job gains “as firms are approaching hiring decisions with greater hesitancy [...] job candidates are lingering on the market longer.”
HYCU; We don’t need the Department of Labor to tell us this, but it’s a weird labor market to be in. Whether you’ve survived your company’s layoffs or you’re currently stuck in the limbo of looking for a new job, no data makes the reality of any of this easier. Because of this shaky economic climate, the Federal Reserve has all but guaranteed an interest rate cut when it next meets on September 17 and 18. So what does that mean? The pros: When the Fed lowers interest rates, we’ll see mortgage, car loan, and personal and business loan rates come down too—usually within 12 months. And there’s speculation there’ll be even more cuts after September. But these rate cuts aren’t all sunshine and rainbows. Savers will likely see reductions in what their high yield savings accounts or CDs are earning them. But that’s the whole point. The Fed wants to re-stimulate growth in our economy. When it’s cheaper to borrow, and your savings aren’t earning you as much, people are more likely to spend money, and in the case of corporations, hire employees.

Commonly asked question: Colleen asks, “Hi! Absolutely love your emails, instagram, all of it!! I have a question regarding credit card utilization/history. I've got two credit cards, one through my credit union (with either none or very little benefits) and a travel credit card, with the option to earn miles. I have, at this point, moved everything to the travel card, in hopes of earning as much as i can in points. This means that i do not use my other credit card for anything! Is this hurting my credit score/credit history? It is my oldest card/line of credit, but only by maybe less than a year (as i wanted to get points/rewards as soon as i could via card.) So while i've learned (from you :)) about the oldest line of credit, and how that impacts credit score, etc, does it really make a difference in my case? Should i move something easy, like a 10$ recurring charge, onto that card? What do you think?”

Hi Colleen! Thanks so much for your question and your support 💚. I’m so happy you’ve been watching my content ahead of doing anything drastic, especially when it comes to playing the credit card game! Yes, you are correct, you should NOT cancel your oldest credit card. Even though you only have about a year of difference in between opening your credit cards, it absolutely makes a difference in terms of the length of your credit history. The more time you have on your credit history, the better! If you were to cancel this card, you would be cutting time off that history and therefore, you’d most likely see a score drop off. As for a solution? You’re already on the right track! Instead of canceling, I would recommend adding an easy recurring subscription charge on your older card each month. For example, I only use my oldest card for my Netflix subscription! Hope this helps!

Want to be featured in our Question Bank section?

Drop a Question Here!