The Daily Meaning

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Travis Shelton 9/9/23 Travis Shelton 9/9/23

The Painful (Yet Beautiful) Cost of Parenting

Today is a big day! Not only is it one of the biggest college football games of our season (Iowa at Iowa State), but it’s Northern Vessel’s official launch party for our new canned cold brew partnership with We Will Collective (Iowa State’s NIL collective). It will be an absolutely fantastic event…..and I’ll miss most of it.

Travis Shelton 9/1/23 Travis Shelton 9/1/23

The Hidden What-If Cost

Yesterday, I shared a meal with a friend. He's a young guy who reminds me of how I was around 20. Like me at 20, he loves investing. And, like me at 20, he prefers to do it irresponsibly and overconfidently. Ah, so many similarities between us. Part of me wants to shake him out of it, but then again, I don't think anyone was going to shake me out of my ridiculous ways back when I was his age.

Travis Shelton 7/27/23 Travis Shelton 7/27/23

The Beauty of (Some) Bad Financial Decisions

I have a confession: I might soon make a bad financial decision. Mathematically, it's not the right thing to do. It won't increase my net worth. It won't improve my monthly cashflow. It won't lead to the betterment of my family's financials over the long term. It's a flat-out bad financial decision. If that's true, and I know it's true, why on earth would I entertain such a decision? Because not everything is about money. Not everything in life is about optimizing for money's sake. We aren't little robots whose job is to crunch numbers and make the best mathematical decision at every point along the way.

Travis Shelton 6/27/23 Travis Shelton 6/27/23

Taking Advantage of THOSE Moments

One of my friends/clients just experienced a significant moment in his life. It's one of THOSE moments, which come in various shapes and sizes. Some are the result of skill, some luck, and others a combination of the two. Each of us will experience a handful of these opportunities in life.....some more, some less. This situation is the first real moment in my friend's young journey. In his case, it looks like a large sum of money coming his way. It's one of THOSE moments!

Travis Shelton 6/20/23 Travis Shelton 6/20/23

Avoid Life-Altering Mistakes

In my ten years as a youth group leader, there's one piece of advice I levied on my young friends more than any other. Well, maybe the third most: 1) Love God, 2) Love others, and 3) Don't make life-altering mistakes.

Travis Shelton 5/20/23 Travis Shelton 5/20/23

Unwinding Your Way to Contentment

The pursuit of more is a slippery slope. It starts innocent enough. We enter the real world and get our first place. We see how nice our friends’ place is, so we also get something nice. Maybe we’ve been driving a beater for a while, so we decide to get an upgrade. After all, we’ve been working hard and we’re finally making grown-up money. Then the new iPhone comes out and we realize ours is already a few years old……better get a new one. One small step, then another, then another.

Travis Shelton 4/15/23 Travis Shelton 4/15/23

The Psychological Impact of Sunk Costs

I thought you deserve an update on my NBA play-in game ticket debacle. After literally everything working against me, I had two tickets to last night’s 8-seed play-in game (which cost a total of $550)…..and nobody to go with me. As the week played out, I continually debated what to do about the situation.

Travis Shelton 1/31/23 Travis Shelton 1/31/23

Slow Down or Get Burned

We recently made a bad decision in one of my businesses. It’s not a life-threatening mistake, but it was serious enough to cause some heartburn and consequences. We haven’t made many bad decisions in the past, but this one was a doozie. In the moment I kind of knew there would be regrets, for one specific reason. We rushed to make a decision and did so under pressure.

Travis Shelton 12/27/22 Travis Shelton 12/27/22

Cost vs. Value

I’ve had $5 meals that were a rip-off and $200 meals that were a bargain. It’s easy to look at those two prices and naturally assume it’s the other way around. After all, $5 isn’t much and $200 is far too much. However, we tend to look at just one side of the coin: cost. When assessing purchases in our lives, we need to look at both cost AND value. The cost matters, but the value is equally important. In order to determine if the cost is worth it, whether $5 or $200, we need to understand the value to us.

Travis Shelton 12/24/22 Travis Shelton 12/24/22

Not Making It About Money

A while back, a client called me with an idea. Well, it was partly an idea and partly wanting me to tell them “no.” There was an opportunity on the table for them, but it felt like a bad financial decision. They were right…..it was a terrible financial decision. There was no possible way to spin this into a “good financial move.” However, by the time our 15-minute conversation concluded, I strongly encouraged them to do it anyway. This shocked them.

Travis Shelton 12/10/22 Travis Shelton 12/10/22

Netflix For the Entire Town!

I was recently in a coaching session when things got heated between the husband and wife. They were trying to figure out how to free up some cashflow in their monthly budget so they can lean into things they actually value. Here’s where the conversation broke down. One spouse wanted to cancel Netflix and the other wanted to cancel Hulu.

Travis Shelton 12/2/22 Travis Shelton 12/2/22

Don't Let Your Memory Become a Nightmare

In yesterday’s post, I talked about the idea of investing in memories and not dwelling on the cost. The key point was that memories will last forever, while you soon won’t even remember what you paid for them. Two readers quickly pointed out this perspective seemed a bit negligent. That it’s irresponsible to recklessly pursue memories at the risk of impairing one’s financial life.

Travis Shelton 11/18/22 Travis Shelton 11/18/22

The Why Behind the Why Behind the Why

When I’m having a conversation with people, especially in a coaching setting, I repeatedly ask the question, “why?” I sound like my 6-year-olds, I know. I find that when “why?” is asked, we continually get closer to the truth.

Travis Shelton 3/9/20 Travis Shelton 3/9/20

The Daily Meaning

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“Your daily blog posts have become a great part of my morning routine, waking up and reading your posts challenge me to reflect on something that matters in my life or view something from a different perspective.”

"Love starting my morning with a daily dose of positivity or perspective!"