🛀 Start a financial self-care routine

Plus, how did you cope with losing a pet?

View this email online Photo Illustration by Becky Harlan/NPR Rule of thumb: Before you set financial goals, work on your life goals. Brent Weiss, a certified financial planner and life coach, asks his clients where they want to be in five to ten years. “What has to happen for you to look back and say, ‘That was a wildly successful period of my life?’” But here’s the catch – Weiss tells his clients not to mention money. Because money is a means to an end. A way to get you closer to what you want. Maybe you want to start a business. Or move to another city or even country. Once you’ve mapped out your life goals, you can work backward to factor in money. Whatever you want for your life, your financial goals should help you get there. This idea comes from a recent Life Kit episode about financial wellness. In this newsletter, we’ll break down three aspects of your financial life to look into every year. (The episode covers much more – including tasks you should perform quarterly and even daily. Even more on financial wellness In addition to setting goals, here are a couple of great habits to get into every year – no appointment necessary.  Check in on your investments. At least once a year, check in on your investment accounts, like 401(k)s, Roth IRAs and brokerage accounts. If you have a 401(k), what are you contributing per month or paycheck? Maybe you've gotten a raise since you set up the plan; consider increasing your contributions.  Generally, when checking your investments, pay attention to fees, which you can find listed under the term "expense ratio." "The lower the expense ratio, that's less fees," says Rita Soledad Fernandez Paulino, the CEO of Wealth Para Todos. When you can, Fernandez Paulino says to invest in funds with lower expense ratios. Whatever sort of account you have, you'll also want to look at how much money you're earning on your investments – also known as your rate of return. You can find that information on your account statement or through the online portal for your brokerage firm. Fernandez Paulino says you want to earn at least a 10% average return over ten years. Some years may be higher or lower, but as long as your investments are doing about the same as the S&P 500 (a stock market index made up of 500 of the largest publicly traded companies in the U.S.), Fernandez Paulino says you're probably in a good position. If not, you'll want to rebalance your portfolio. How you rebalance depends on your specific situation. For a deep dive into investing, check out this Life Kit episode. Get the most out of your savings. Maybe you opened a savings account years ago. Have you checked what interest you're accruing or considered moving that money? Not all savings accounts are created equal. If you have an account with a major bank, your interest rate might be as low as 0.01% says NPR reporter Arezou Rezvani. Some banks offer savings accounts with interest rates between four and five percent, which can make a difference in growing your savings. Just make sure wherever you end up putting your money, the federal government insures it. Look for the acronyms FDIC or NCUA to check. Get ready for taxes. Get out your last paystub and check your tax withholding, the money your employer takes from your paycheck and sends to the government on your behalf. If they take out too little, you might get a big tax bill you weren't expecting in April. An accountant or tax planner can assist with the math. Also, the IRS has a calculator to see what your employer should withhold. If you find the numbers are off, you can download a W-4 form from the IRS website, update it, and submit it to your employer. If you're self-employed or an independent contractor, you can prepare for your quarterly tax bills. "I think a really good habit to build right away is to set up a tax savings account," suggests Paco de Leon, author of Finance for the People and owner of a bookkeeping agency. De Leon says you should be saving anywhere between 10% to as much as 30% of every dollar you earn.  Of course, this isn’t an exhaustive list – but it’s a start to getting you closer to your goals.  –Clare Marie Schneider, Life Kit producer and editor  Newsletter continues after sponsor message Access Sponsor-Free Episodes Want to support our show? Try a subscription to Life Kit+ and get all the tips and tricks you love sponsor-free! Learn more at plus.npr.org/lifekit.  Learn More Kaz Fantone/NPR 💔 How have you dealt with the loss of a pet? We’d love to hear how you coped with that grief. Did you honor your pet's memory in some special way? Do you have recommendations for someone going through it for the first time? Send us an email by Monday, August 28th, with your full name and location. We may use your response in an upcoming newsletter or for a digital story on npr.org.  Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: LifeKit@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Daily News, Code Switch, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Life Kit emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy

Hoping for Hollywood to learn the right lessons from summer success

Plus: Hip-hop verses, Meryl Streep, and the World Cup

View this email online by Linda Holmes Welcome! It was the week when a movie's real-life story took an upsetting turn. It was the week when Netflix's DVD business decided to go out with a bang. And it was the week when a film adaptation soared. Let's get to it. Opening Argument What everybody can agree on is that Barbie has made an earth-shaking amount of money. And when anything makes an earth-shaking amount of money, Hollywood tries to figure out how to find the next thing that's going to make that kind of money -- especially now, in this weird, unsettling, transformative period in making movies and television. We know that there are already plans to make a lot more movies about Mattel toys and games -- Uno, Polly Pocket, Magic 8-Ball. Rock 'Em Sock 'Em Robots. It's hard to imagine what on earth an Uno movie would look like (the other ones are easier), but here we are. And it's too easy to declare that movies based on games or toys can't be good, even beyond Barbie. On top of the success of Barbie, The Lego Movie got good reviews, as did this year's Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. But is "audiences love movies about toys" the right lesson? Because Barbie has a lot of qualities other than being a toy movie. It's a movie from Greta Gerwig, it's a movie starring Margot Robbie, it's a movie with a lot of women in it, it's a movie that taps into nostalgia, it's a movie without sex or violence, it's a movie that was marketed out the wazoo, it's a movie that is aesthetically bright and cheerful. You could list 50 possible things Hollywood could decide they should make more of if they want to continue with the success of Barbie. The same kind of question arises about the recent Suits discourse. As you may know, Suits is a light comedy-drama that ran on USA from 2011 to 2019, about a law firm (where one paralegal is played by Meghan Markle). It was well-liked enough to last for 134 episodes, and now it's available on Peacock and Netflix (Peacock has all of it; Netflix has all but the last season). As Alan Sepinwall wrote in Rolling Stone, Suits belonged to what's often called the "Blue Skies" era of USA, where they were making a lot of light, easily digestible, but also creatively solid drama series like Monk or Burn Notice. (I think of Burn Notice as the show that most exemplifies the era.) This summer, it seems that Suits has gotten extremely popular. Now, streaming services provide very little transparency around numbers, so you have to be cautious. But Netflix has been showing it high on its streaming charts for some time, so even if these numbers are imprecise, there seems to be something happening, enough that you have to suspect Hollywood is going to be trying to figure out how to make money from whatever that something is. That's true even though it's not entirely clear how to draw a line between viewing and money on a channel like Netflix, at least when people are watching without ads. Frederick M. Brown/Getty Images There's an ongoing conversation among critics and creatives about what this means. Does it mean people still miss the longer seasons that traditional TV used to offer? (Most of the Suits seasons had 16 episodes, in between the eight-to-ten that you often get now and the 22 that used to be the broadcast standard.) Does it mean people are interested in the lighter tone of Suits, as opposed to what became a fondness on the prestige end for supergritty anti-hero shows? Does it mean people are still curious about in Meghan Markle? Of course, at least some of the lessons of Suits and Barbie are directly related to the SAG-AFTRA and WGA strikes. Suits writers have pointed out recently just how little money they make from their show's resurgence on Netflix. It's true that streaming can give a show new life, but who benefits? NPR's Eric Deggans pointed out this week that the strike itself may be behind the Suits-aissance, as it's pushing people more toward streaming (and perhaps to library titles rather than new stuff). With Barbie, you can see the critical contributions of a lot of people in crafts like production design and music supervision, all of whom are part of other unions with their own contracts to figure out. And given how much this strike has focused attention on fortunes created by writers and actors, the success of Gerwig and Robbie's collaboration is a welcome reminder that it takes hard work and vision by human beings to make work that's really worth seeing. Moreover, Suits in particular drives home that on a streaming service, there are opportunities to manipulate what succeeds much more directly than would have been possible with traditional marketing. Netflix can put Suits at the top of your home screen if it chooses to; it can use whatever promotional photo works best based on who they think you are; it can recommend it to you every time you turn around. If streaming services were paying residuals in a way more similar to what broadcast does, could they also decide to bury something they don't want to pay people for? It certainly seems like they could, absent some reason not to. It calls to mind some of the "creative accounting" discussions that have also flared around these strikes; there are lots of ways to end up not paying people. What is taken away from a success is just as important as the success itself. There are past examples of hit properties like Get Out and Gone Girl where attempts to duplicate the performance of the original have mostly led to so-so results. We won't know for a while which lessons Hollywood learns from 2023's success stories; on top of the strikes, it takes a while for imitation as the highest form of flattery to work its way through the system of development and production. Perhaps we're all in for a summer blockbuster where the Hungry Hungry Hippos (who have been circled for a possible movie project for some time!) start a law firm. Newsletter continues after sponsor message We Recommend I spent an evening with the Netflix romcom Happiness for Beginners this week. The film stars Ellie Kemper and Luke Grimes as two members of a group going on a sort of adult camping excursion (like, camping for adults, not adult camping). Do they fall in love? Yyyyyyyes! It's based on a book by Katherine Center, whose stuff I really like, and if you're a person who likes a weekend watch that goes down easy, I recommend it. I've been catching up with Only Murders in the Building, which is about a third of the way into its third season. They're making great use of both Paul Rudd and Meryl Streep (as well as the core cast), and if you're a person who likes musical theater, you're going to get a lot out of this season. Frequent and marvelous PCHH panelist Ronald Young, Jr. has a new podcast out called Weight For It, and there are few people I would trust more to do this work well. Listen to the Podcast Sponsor-Free Support your favorite pop culture junkies AND listen without sponsor interruptions with a subscription to Pop Culture Happy Hour+! Learn more and sign up at plus.npr.org/happy. Learn More What We Did This Week Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Firefly Music Festival Aisha hosted a tremendous episode hearing from a variety of voices including Sidney Madden, Felix Contreras, Brittany Luse, and Gene Demby about "the hip-hop verse that changed my life." We revisited the discussion Glen had with Cyrena Touros and J.C. Howard about Harley Quinn. Stephen talked to Daisy Rosario and Jasmine Garsd (the host of NPR's The Last Cup podcast) about the World Cup. And Glen and I talked with Margaret H. Willison about The Afterparty. Over at NPR Music, Stephen wrote about the Tiny Desk appearance of Post Malone. What's Making Us Happy Every week on the show, we talk about some other things out in the world that have been giving us joy lately. Here they are: Margaret Willison: The Right Sort Of Man and other books in the Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery series by Allison Montclair Glen Weldon: The Paul F. Tompkins episode of the Good One podcast Linda Holmes: The Kaiju Preservation Society by John Scalzi Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. Subscribe to Pop Culture Happy Hour+. Your support helps make our show possible and unlocks access to our sponsor-free episodes. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: pchh@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Music, Books, Daily News and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Pop Culture Happy Hour emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy

Your fall reset 🍂

Plus, your guide to college 🎓

View this email online Paige Vickers for NPR   Last week, I got a flyer in the mail announcing the arrival of city leaf pickup. It was as if the city was reminding me: Even if you can’t feel the chill in the air yet and the leaves are still green, fall is coming. I came home from a hot day at the beach to the notice, so it felt like an unimaginable projection.  But they used a cute picture of a mouse to demonstrate how to dispose of leaves properly, so I’ll forgive them for the early reminder.  Even over sweaty outdoor dinners, friends are discussing the changes to come — brisker days, longer pants, and an overall turning inwards (and indoors).  It’s only mid-August, but many K-12 schools have already started or will start in a few weeks. And the same goes for colleges and universities.  I haven’t been on a school calendar for years, but the beginning of fall still feels like a transition — a time to pick out your proverbial back-to-school outfit and plan for the season ahead. Even if you’re glad to be rid of the days of worrying about homework and catching the bus for school, you can still treat the fall as a reset.  For me, with fall approaching, I’ve noticed myself decluttering. Using up the last bits of a tube of sunscreen, going through my bookshelf and getting rid of sweaters I haven’t worn in years. I also started a long novel in anticipation of more nights at home. The summer energy of bopping around influenced my reading habits — I didn’t have the patience for anything too long or involved, so I gravitated to short stories. But now I’m ready to dig into a more built-out world. Plus, I’m not traveling and won’t have to lug the book around.  What kind of reset do you want to make this fall?  —Clare Marie Schneider, Life Kit editor and producer  To get you started, here are some ideas for a fall reset from the Life Kit team:  🤸 Move your body I'd like to reset so that I'm focusing more on my body. I want to be more intentional about moving and stretching every day. When I'm pressed for time, exercise and movement are the first things to go. But when I'm not feeling present in my body, everything else suffers. So I'd say my fall intention is: move. —Marielle Segarra, Life Kit host  ⏰ Make the time  My fall reset is to be more intentional with my hobbies and friendships. I've found that I often let work or work-related engagements take over my time. This fall, I want to also prioritize the things I enjoy doing outside of my work life, whether that's going to the movies, taking photos or hosting a get-together with friends. —Thomas Lu, Life Kit producer  🧹 Deep cleaning that can’t wait until spring After a busy summer, my heart is full and my car is gross. It’s filled with sand, trash, warm cans of La Croix and there’s dried dog drool on every surface. The back-to-school energy of August and September is the perfect motivation to deep clean my Honda Fit. I haven’t done it yet (hold me accountable, y’all) but I’m looking forward to a satisfying cleaning session and the sweet relief of a tidy car. If you’re carless, you’re not off the hook. Be brave enough to look inside your backpacks, purses and tote bags. Let’s go 💪. —Julia Carney, podcast coordinator ☀️ Don’t give in to the pressure of this newsletter — it’s still summer! It’s easy to feel like summer is already wrapping up. There are back-to-school ads on TV and I even saw pine cones and cinnamon brooms at Duane Reade last week. I’m trying to focus on living in the moment and savoring every day without succumbing to the end-of-season scaries. Here’s the thing: the official last day of summer is September 23. You have plenty of time to go to the beach, picnic, lie in a hammock and roast some sweet corn. It’s not over 'til it’s over! —Sylvie Douglis, Life Kit producer    Newsletter continues after sponsor message Access Sponsor-Free Episodes Want to support our show? Try a subscription to Life Kit+ and get all the tips and tricks you love sponsor-free! Learn more at plus.npr.org/lifekit.  Learn More Episodes for if you are headed back to school: 🎒 Congratulations, you're in college! Now what? Getting into college can feel like the hard part. But once you’re accepted, you’ve got to find your way around campus, pick out classes, make new friends and figure out a plan to graduate on time.  🎓 Thinking about returning to college? A guide for taking the leap. "Should I go back to college?" Here are tips to help you figure out how to do just that — whether it's to change jobs, make more money or finish something you started. 🏫 Most students who want to transfer colleges don't. Here's how to start. The process of transferring colleges can be complicated and confusing and differ from state to state and institution to institution. Despite these hurdles, transferring is a common route to a four-year college. So how do you make the process go as smoothly as possible? Start early, stay organized and find a good fit. 😵‍💫 College is important. So is mental health. Here's how to study without burning out. Should you hand-write your notes or use a laptop? What about flashcards? Does highlighting even do anything? Here's how to improve your study habits, remember what you've learned and keep college stress under control.   And some episodes for after (or instead of) school:  💼 How to get a job after college. Now that you have your diploma, you'll need to focus on a different piece of paper: a resume. Here's how to think about what you want to do and then go out and get a job — maybe even a career. 🧑‍🔧 Finding your way to a (high-paying) trade job. Many jobs don't require a bachelor's degree and still pay well. Here's what to consider if you're thinking about a job in the trades — from assessing your options to choosing a training program.   Stream your local NPR station. Visit NPR.org to find your local station stream. What do you think of today's email? We'd love to hear your thoughts, questions and feedback: LifeKit@npr.org Enjoying this newsletter? Forward to a friend! They can sign up here. Looking for more great content? Check out all of our newsletter offerings — including Daily News, Code Switch, Health and more! You received this message because you're subscribed to Life Kit emails. This email was sent by National Public Radio, Inc., 1111 North Capitol Street NE, Washington, DC 20002 Unsubscribe  |  Privacy Policy