I was whining yesterday to my wicked smart friend Mina Ratkalkar (sex therapist, forensic psychologist, and consent expert) that I had no newsletter ideas. She bailed me out by texting the following:

Mina’s suggestion came on the heels of being invited to speak at a Recession Rx Your Money event hosted by another buddy, medical money guru Latifat Akintade, MD.

It’s clearly time to tackle the scary financial headlines in everyone’s doomscrolling feed.

Picasso developed cubism because he was a classically trained artist.

He broke all the rules because he knew them so well. He knew their weak points and their strengths. He knew how the rules cast a spell on the viewer. By being so intimate with the existing paradigm, Picasso was able to create a new one.

Not in a negligee-at-the-door-I-cleaned-out-the-garage-and-I also-paid-off-your-student-loan way but in a whoops-there’s-no-money-in-the-checking-account kind of way?

Negative surprises in business, as in committed relationships, are often a sign that you’re not paying enough attention to your partner.

My friend Claudia Mott, a fee-only certified financial planner, former Wall Street strategist, and stellar human being told me something that had me falling out of my chair.

She said that the number two New Year's resolution, after getting fit, was getting one's money shit together. I had no idea so many of us feel so inadequate in the personal finance department, but it makes total sense.

Think of the witticism "You can never be too rich or too thin", attributed to various high society dames, but first mentioned in a 1963 Harper's Bazaar article titled "High Living on Low Calories" 🤦🏻‍♀️.

Did you hear about Jake Freeman, the 20-year-old who parlayed a $27 million investment in Bed Bath and Beyond (BBBY) into $110 million?

The news generated a lot of pearl-clutching, and for good reason.

For one, a twenty-year-old slinging that much money around is unusual.

For another, this was the ONLY position in the fund.

Yet another, Freeman happened to top-tick BBBY perfectly. (Translation: he sold at the top, right before the stock rolled over and died.)

And to top it all off, he made all this dough in a meme stock.

You’re meeting with your accountant to go over your quarterly results.

She’s reviewing expenses now.

As you watch her scan through the list, you have a pit in your stomach.

“What’s this $1,200 paid to the Sheik Yerbouti store?” she asks.

You freeze up. You were afraid of this.

“Is it a business expense?”

You feel like the Spanish Inquisition just caught you with a receipt for candles on Friday before sundown.