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December 31, 2018By Paula Pant

#169: One Tweak a Week in 2019 — Easy Improvements to Your Financial Life in 2019

Happy New Years! To kickoff 2019, we’ve created a free book called One Tweak a Week, outlining 26 easy, actionable ways that you can improve your financial life.

Today’s podcast episode covers these 26 tweaks, so you can listen in audio format, in addition to reading the book.

If you put these into action for the first six months of 2019, you’ll be in a stronger position in June than you started in January.

Each tweak takes less than one hour (some are as quick as five minutes), and taken together, these tweaks can accumulate into a serious impact.

Improve your money management and get closer to financial independence with our free book, One Tweak a Week. You can download it here: https://affordanything.com/2019

These tweaks include super-practical steps, like:

  • Track your net worth
  • Automate an extra one percent into savings
  • Sell at least one household item on Craigslist/eBay/Facebook Marketplace

The tweaks also include bigger-picture action items, like:

  • Write your “why” in 100 words or fewer
  • Create an estate plan
  • Identify one area in which you’re not performing enough preventative maintenance (such as routine veterinary checkups, or routine car maintenance)

When you download the book, you’ll also get a free weekly email reminder of This Week’s Tweak, delivered to your Inbox every Sunday.

You’ll get the podcast show notes, where you can read the description of the latest episode.

Finally, you’re invited to join the Facebook community, where you can share your stories with the rest of the community. We’ll be talking about This Week’s Tweak for the first six months of 2019.

Speaking of the community, I also wanted to cap off 2018 by sharing the numbers of how much the Afford Anything community has grown this year.

First, at the start of 2018, this podcast had 2 million downloads. We’re ending 2018 with 4.6 million downloads under our belt. Wahoo!

It took us two years to reach the first two million downloads — averaging a million a year — and then in our third year, we more than doubled our total downloads.

We nearly tripled our community on Instagram, starting 2018 with 4,000 followers and ending the year with 11,500.

We quadrupled the size of the community on YouTube, starting the year with 3,300 subscribers and finishing the year with more than 12,300.

Our email subscriber community has stayed exactly the same, starting the year with 49,000 email subscribers, rising to a peak of 55,000, and then falling to 50,000 after we culled the “cold subscribers,” those who aren’t opening emails or engaging with the content.

But the most important metric — the one that I bragged about to friends over Christmas (and it wasn’t a humble brag, it was a straight-up “hey check this out!”) — is that this community raised $21,653 for charity:water in 2018.

Screenshot of final charity:water fundraiser in 2018 for Afford Anything

The Afford Anything community came together and raised enough money to sponsor either one mega-water-project or two separate water projects.

This money will go towards a water project, like digging a well or creating a rainwater catchment system, in an area of the world in which people get illnesses like cholera and typhoid from drinking polluted, dirty water.

We raised $21,653 this year. That’s incredible. And that’s the most powerful metric of all.

Thank you. Thank you for being part of this community. Thank you for subscribing to the show notes, for leaving a review, for sharing the episodes with your family and friends. Thank you for joining in the conversation on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, for tagging your friends, for spreading these ideas. This community is growing stronger everyday, and when we come together, we can (and we are!) making a massive positive impact on the world.

Cheers, and Happy New Years. Here’s to an amazing 2019 ahead.

– Paula


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Thanks to our sponsors!

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Rothy’s

Rothy’s are great for travel!

Rothy’s shoes are stylish, sustainable, and comfortable for every day wear, anywhere. They come in three styles, their lineup is updated often, and I love that they make flats from recycled plastic water bottles! If you want to order a pair and get free shipping (with no minimum), enter the code paula at checkout on rothys.com.

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#170: Ask Paula - When Should I NOT Use the One Percent Rule for a Rental Property?
Next Newer Episode »
#168: How to Optimize Your Time and Energy -- with Mike Vardy, The Productivityist
Next Older Episode »

Posted in: Episodes, Personal Finance 101

14 Comments
Leave a Comment
  1. Emily Lynch

    # December 31, 2018 at 1:42 pm

    I really enjoyed listening to this episode and thought you had some great tips. I have a couple caveats, though. Optimal tire pressure varies by type of car and is printed on a sticker, often inside the driver’s door jamb or on the visor. Making an extra mortgage payment may make sense for some people, but if someone has another debt at a higher rate of interest, or an investment that earns a higher rate, it makes more sense to put extra money there. Thanks, and I look forward to implementing some of your tips.

    Reply ↓
  2. Leanne

    # December 31, 2018 at 4:48 pm

    Fantastic podcast Paula! A wide ranging set of things to do in 2019. I’ve already listened to the episode twice, and just downloaded the ebook.

    Thanks for all you do, I truly am appreciative, and have been listening since the first podcast with J.
    Happy New Year!
    Leanne

    Reply ↓
  3. Alex

    # January 2, 2019 at 10:57 am

    Hi Erin & Paula,

    I was wondering if you guys already had the tweaks in a list in a spreadsheet or word document so we could print it out and check it off as we go (visual progress meter).

    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
    • Erin @ Team Afford Anything

      # January 2, 2019 at 5:20 pm

      Hi Alex – we don’t, sorry!

      Reply ↓
    • Mike Horton

      # January 3, 2019 at 4:45 pm

      you might be able to copy and paste from the book.
      at the following location. https://affordanything.com/2019

      Reply ↓
    • Katherine

      # May 6, 2020 at 8:12 am

      I know this is much later, but I put the tweaks into a Google sheet as a checklist. Happy to share of it’s helpful.

      Reply ↓
  4. Mia

    # January 3, 2019 at 4:23 pm

    Hi Paula,
    This is great, I’m excited to tweak my weeks this 2019!
    I was wondering if you had any recommendations for city dwellers who rent and utilize public transportation? I do not have a mortgage, control my thermostat, nor do I have tire pressure to check. My major payments go to student loans, retirement, and vacation. Otherwise I have electric, insurance, cell phone, and internet bills. I can always substitute your tweak strategies so that they are applicable to my situation, but let me know if you have any advice.
    Thanks!

    Reply ↓
    • Erin @ Team Afford Anything

      # January 3, 2019 at 6:29 pm

      Hi Mia – this would be an excellent question for our Facebook community (if you’re on Facebook), as I’m sure you’re not the only one in this situation! Our members may have some advice. =) The group is here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/1627154974180598/ Everyone is welcome to join!

      Reply ↓
  5. Janel

    # January 3, 2019 at 9:06 pm

    Awesome suggestions! Already implemented tweak #1 and started #2. What do you suggest for internet when cutting cable? I’m all for it as I don’t watch TV but I work from home and need reliable internet and cable internet are the only options in my area that I’m aware of and it is more expensive to have just internet and no TV so I have a basic TV package despite never watching it. I’d love to hear if there are other options out there!

    Reply ↓
  6. Ashley

    # January 4, 2019 at 10:18 am

    Love this episode, Paula! I am going to make a list based on the recommendations you suggested and calendar them so that I can remember and keep track (type A much, lol!)

    One resource for estate planning is the ICE Binder offered by Smart Money Mamas – formerly Mama Fish Saves — I downloaded last year based on J. Money’s recommendation and it is AMAZING — so thorough!

    Reply ↓
  7. John

    # January 4, 2019 at 5:05 pm

    I entered my email but only received a ton of junk emails and not the ebook.

    Reply ↓
    • Erin @ Team Afford Anything

      # January 6, 2019 at 10:50 pm

      Hi John – I checked our records, and the only email our system is reporting you having received is the email we send to confirm that you want to download the ebook. Clicking the confirm button prompts the ebook download.

      If you received any other emails, please let us know, as that means there’s an error with our email system.

      Reply ↓
  8. Annabelle

    # January 9, 2019 at 6:25 pm

    Hey Paula! I’ve been following your podcast on Spotify, and would really love to download the ebook – I already got started while listening to this episode 🙂 Unfortiunately, the link in the name of the book (affordanything/2019) only takes me to a page that displays the latest podcast episodes of 2019.

    Reply ↓
    • Erin @ Team Afford Anything

      # January 9, 2019 at 6:48 pm

      Hi Annabelle, thanks for pointing this out! We just underwent a new site design and we’re working out some kinks. =)

      The link (https://affordanything.com/2019) should be working now, so you should be able to download the ebook now! If it doesn’t, please let me know and I’ll email it to you.

      Reply ↓

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Afford Anything

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    • Binge
  • Podcast
    • Binge
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    • Your First Rental Property
    • Travel
    • Start a Blog
    • Earn Extra Income