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Today, I’m happy to share with you the news that Baby Boomer Super Saver was nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! There is no money involved in winning the Sunshine Blogger Award, but I’m cashing in on it as an opportunity to talk about personal finance and ways to catch-up retirement savings after a late start.
Table of Contents
What is the Sunshine Blogger Award?
You can’t apply for it, and there’s no money involved, so what makes the Sunshine Blogger Award so appealing? This award is special because it is a peer-recognition award. That’s different from the self-congratulatory Blogiversary post.
The Sunshine Blogger Award is an award given to bloggers by other bloggers! It brings recognition and overall positivity to the blogging community.
The award is designed to celebrate creative, talented, and entertaining bloggers. By participating in the process, bloggers can make new friends, network within the blogging community and gain new readers. It’s also a great feeling to know that other bloggers are reading and enjoying your blog content!
Here’s how it works…
Sunshine Blogger Award Rules
- Thank the person who nominated you. Add back links to their blog.
- Answer the 11 questions they posed to you.
- Nominate another 11 new bloggers and give them 11 new questions.
- Include these rules in your post and use the Sunshine Blogger Award logo in your post.
Who Nominated Me?
I was nominated by Smelly Socks and Garden Peas. Thank you!
Smelly Socks and Garden Peas blogs about her life and family. She shares funny stories about life with a couple of silly boys who are guaranteed to laugh at the mention of smelly socks or garden peas. Go figure. She also writes about balancing life and work, and the tougher side of family life. On top of all that, the photos she shares of her prolific garden proves that she has quite a green thumb!
Smelly Socks & Garden Peas asked me these questions:
1. When you get up in the morning, are you alert and ready to go or sluggish and befuddled?
My schedule is off due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but unless I don’t get enough sleep, I’m alert when I wake up. The sad part is that I’m staying up late, getting up late, working late to make up for it, and then the cycle starts over. Can anyone relate?
Since the pandemic started, I’ve been working from home. I’m so grateful to be able to continue making an income, since I’m still trying to catch-up retirement savings. However, my heart goes out to those who have been negatively impacted by the shutdown.
We could all use a few smart strategies to protect health and make extra money. That’s why I’ve been looking at getting more exercise, eating healthy, trying to improve my sleep pattern, and turning my hobbies into income streams.
News
2. What’s your preferred way of getting news and why?
When I was driving to work, I would listen to the news on National Public Radio (NPR). Now, I see what’s trending on Twitter and check the news online, from independent sources.
Twitter is also a great place for news and information if you are trying to learn about personal finance, getting out of debt, making extra money through side hustles, or creative ideas for catching up retirement savings after a late start.
All you have to do is follow a couple hundred personal finance bloggers on Twitter. There is often enough quality content posted weekly to get your financial education off to a good start!
3. How can we put an end to the idiocy of Brexit? Really, how?
Unfortunately, we are dealing with horrible political problems here in the United States, too. The best thing everyone can do here in the USA is to vote. Get involved in your community.
4. What subject do you wish you worked harder on at school?
I wonder if a focus on math would have helped me manage money better when I was younger. Personal finance was not taught in elementary or high school when I was growing up. Financial literacy is an important life skill that should be taught to everyone.
5. Coffee or tea?
I’m a tea drinker. I never learned to like the taste of coffee, so I did not have to come to terms with the latte factor – the idea that if you give up your daily coffee habit, you’ll be able to save enough for retirement. This was popularized by David Bach’s book, The Latte Factor, which is still a great read!
It’s true that cutting back on small daily purchases can help you to save money over time. However, if you are trying to catch-up retirement savings after a late start, you will be far more successful if you can increase your income in order to save more.
That might be by going after a promotion at your current job, switching companies for better pay, starting a business on the side, or even working a second job (side hustle).
Looney Tunes, or Money Tunes?
6. What’s your favorite cartoon (now or when you were a kid)?
Is there a cartoon about money? Why, yes, there is! Featuring who else but Warren Buffett? Here’s a short clip from the Secret Millionaires Club:
7. What’s the bravest thing you’ve done?
I don’t really think of myself as an overly brave person. I think I’m like anyone else, just trying to do the best I can, with the cards I’ve been dealt. However, I’ve been through some scary situations, like the time my husband almost died.
Who expects to get sick, have a spouse pass away early, or be faced with a global pandemic? These things sure highlight the importance of having an emergency fund, though!
8. Out of the books you’ve read this year, which was your favorite and why?
In a previous post, I mentioned the 3 Best FIRE Books That Will Inspire Late Savers. These are the books I found most helpful when I was seeking guidance for catching-up retirement savings after a late start.
9. How long have you had your current mobile phone number?
Ever since I had my first mobile phone. I’d rather spend money on other things that mean more to me than getting the newest phone that comes out.
However, I did purchase a special plastic-free phone case for my most recent phone. I was super excited to find the eco-friendly, biodegradable Pela phone case. The Pela Case is made from plant-based material instead of plastic, and it is 100% compostable!
I’m a big fan of value-based spending. That means I ruthlessly cut spending on things I don’t care about, so that I will have money to spend on what’s important to me. This also frees up more money to invest in my retirement accounts.
10. How annoyed are you at having to think of a bunch of questions for other people?
Ha, ha, it’s not so bad! I kept my questions related to the topic of personal finance. I think the biggest thing that stops people from catching-up retirement savings is the fear that it is too late.
It’s never too late to make tomorrow a little better. I hope my questions inspire others to think outside the box and take action to start saving.
In The Spotlight
11. Which post have you written that we should all read?
In these troubling times, I think it’s important to remember that it is not easy to catch-up retirement savings after a late start. It’s possible, but not easy. First, you must educate yourself, then take action.
Taking action is the hardest part. You might have to get an extra job or even change jobs to make more money. Or you might have to start selling stuff to generate some cash. After that, you have to actually start investing the extra money you earn.
Finally, please be aware that we don’t have a level playing field when it comes to wealth building in this country. It’s important to know that institutional racism has kept many people in poverty, and continues to do so. For that reason, I would love it if everyone read this post I wrote on the topic:
Examining Implicit Bias and the Racial Wealth Gap
My Nominees For The Next Sunshine Blogger Award
Almost all of these bloggers write about personal finance, in some form. Be sure to visit their blogs and leave them some love!
Andrea at Saving Joyfully
Chrissy at Eat Sleep Breathe FI
Kat at Cash for Kat
Brooke at Blue to Bliss
Jerry at Four Columns of a Balanced Life
Deanna at Recovering Woman Wealth
Robin at Mastering the Side Jam
SDot at W.T.F.F. (Working Toward Financial Freedom)
Steve at The Frugal Expat
Crista at Richful Thinker (Ph.D. student on FI/RE)
Kari at Money In Your Tea
Finally, Questions For My Nominees:
- What is your earliest memory about money?
- How much money do you feel you need to have in an emergency fund for yourself or your family? Three, six, or twelve months worth of expenses?
- What is your saving rate (amount saved per year divided by your gross income)?
- Which is better for getting out of debt – the debt snowball or debt avalanche?
- If money was no object, how would you spend your time?
- Out of the money books, blogs or podcasts you’ve consumed this year, which was your favorite and why?
- Has your financial situation gotten better or worse since COVID-19 began?
- What financial changes would you like to see 12 months from now?
- Imagine your future self in retirement – what would you say to your younger self about money?
- Why did you start blogging and what is your blog about?
- As a blogger, which one of your posts do you feel we should all read?
My Final Thoughts About the Sunshine Blogger Award
Once again, I’d like to thank Smelly Socks and Garden Peas for honoring me with the Sunshine Blogger Award. It was an unexpected pleasure to be nominated and I’m grateful to know people are reading and enjoying my blog. I appreciate every single person who reads and comments on my posts!
If you’ve been nominated, congratulations! You will be a winner when you’ve written your own post about the Sunshine Blogger Award and passed it on.
For readers of the blog, be sure to answer one of the questions from the post in the comment section below! Which money question speaks to you? I’d like to know how you think about money, too.
Looking for additional ways to make and save money for retirement? Subscribe now and we’ll keep the creative ideas coming your way!
I enjoyed your answers and thought it was clever the way you related them back to your theme of finances. I answered the same questions on my blog. If money (and Covid-19) wasn’t an issue, I would spend my time traveling the world. We bought a campervan at the end of the summer. I’m looking forward to using it more when the current lockdown is over.
Thank you, Robin! Yes, I love to travel, too. Can’t wait to get back to it once it is safe.
Love your answers and how passionate you are about your goals and helping others to achieve theirs. My favourite thing about these posts is discovering new blogs, I think I’d only seen 2 of your nominees before so I’ve enjoyed half an hour browsing new content. Thanks so much for joining in. Xx
Aw, thanks, Smelly Socks and Garden Peas! Getting to discover new blogs is a treat! I’m so glad you enjoyed checking out the bloggers I nominated. And thank you again, for nominating me!
Congratulations to you!!
Thank you, Sandra! It’s kind of you to cheer me on!
Thank you for the nomination, Kathy! I’m honoured to be included. As you may have noticed, I’ve fallen off the blogger wagon, so I’m verrry behind with my posts. 😢
I’ll do my best to participate! I appreciate the shout-out and nomination. This is such a great group to be part of.
Chrissy, I’m happy to nominate you! Don’t put too much pressure on yourself. My posting is sporadic. I’m only posting more this month because I decided to participate in Blogtober, lol.
Hi Kathy!
A miracle happened tonight, and I actually managed to write and publish my Sunshine Blogger Award post! Here it is: https://eatsleepbreathefi.com/the-sunshine-blogger-award/
I hope you enjoy it! (You asked some fun and interesting questions!) Thanks again for nominating me. You’re too kind!
That’s so awesome, Chrissy! I just read it – great job! I’ll be checking out all the bloggers you mentioned (a few were new to me), and also The Financial Classroom podcast with Tim and Will. I love your money memory, thanks for sharing, and thanks for participating in the fun!
Nice concept. And congratulations
Thank you so much, Seema! Glad you enjoyed the post!
Thank you so much for nominating me! You’ve asked some really interesting questions regarding personal finance so I have some thinking to do.
You’re welcome, Brooke! I look forward to reading your answers to these money questions on your own Sunshine Blogger Award post!
Congratulations on the nomination! I always enjoy reading these blogger tags, it’s lovely to find out more about fellow bloggers. And I’m very pleased you’re a fellow tea lover 🙂
Thank you, Lisa! I’m so glad you enjoyed it – hopefully with a nice relaxing cup of tea!
Love the unique way you have done this post; cashing in on something is something we should all do more often!
My earliest memory of money was saving up dimes to buy Sugar Daddies with . . . the small versions cost only 25 cents, while if I saved a little longer I could buy the big ones for $1.25. I was about eight. 🙂
Oh, my! I remember Sugar Daddies, lol. That is a great money memory, Jaya! Especially because at 8 years old, you were already learning about delayed gratification and making your money go further. Thanks for reading & sharing your money memory!
Congratulations on the nomination! I loved reading more about you too!
Thank you, Charity! So glad you enjoyed it – these types of posts are a fun way to get to know other bloggers.
I’ve never read one of these award posts where the answers were SO informative! Thank you for sharing and well done for being nominated. Always nice when a blogger recognizes your work 🙂
Thank you for your kind words, Jenny! I’m very happy to hear that and glad you enjoyed the post!
First, congratulations on your nomination. Secondly, there really isn’t a level playing field when it comes to race, or gender identity for that matter. People are far to happy to blame poor people for being poor, even if they’ve got a full time job. Like somehow budgeting more when you have no money will magically help or that everyone can get a higher paying job, even though lower paid jobs actually have to be filled too
Thank you, Unwanted Life! Sounds like you read my post on Examining Implicit Bias and the Racial Wealth Gap, too. Thank you so much for checking out the post I highlighted in my answer to Question 11. Yes, I agree with all of your observations. For those earning very low incomes, there is nothing to “cut back” in the budget, which makes it even harder to save for retirement, or catch-up retirement savings after a late start.
Congratulations on this fun nomination! This is the first time I’ve come across your blog and loved reading the answers getting to know the blogger behind the blog! I’ve always been driven by money so I love learning more about saving and investing 🙂 Great post!
Thank you, Lynn! I’m so glad you dropped by, especially since we have a shared interest in money, lol.
Congratulations on your award nomination. Love reading your answers and the questions you wrote out for your nominees.
Aw, thank you, Anita! Glad you enjoyed the post. Be sure to check out my nominees’ blogs to see how they answered my questions.
Great answers, this was a really fun post to read! I’m definitely checking out your post on biases, that sounds really interesting 😀
Anika | chaptersofmay.com
Thank you so much, Anika! Glad you enjoyed this post and I look forward to hearing what you think about my post on Examining Implicit Bias and the Racial Wealth Gap.
I love these tag style posts as I’m able to get more of an insight into different bloggers! Loved learning more about you x
http://www.dellalovesnutella.co.uk/
Yes, they are a fun way to get to know other bloggers. Thanks so much, Della!
What a great spin on the award post answers! I totally agree that we need to teach financial literacy in schools. It should be part of the math curriculum in every grade.
It sure should be, Michelle! A group from the Choose FI community is working on developing a curriculum. I hope it will be widely adopted!
I get a lot of my news from Twitter too. I find it’s a great source for that and if there’s any disinformation in a post, Twitter users are usually on top of calling it out! It was great to get to know you through your answers 🙂
Thanks so much, Alison! I appreciate you taking the time to read & comment. Twitter is one of my favorite (if not the favorite) social media platform.
What a great idea! I have never heard of this award before but it seems like fun! I definitely agree with you about getting updates and news from Twitter. I feel like it might be replacing the TV news al-together because of how fast information is received on there first before it airs on TV. My first interaction with money was when my parents gave me money to spend at the fair, I really felt like I could do whatever I wanted, even though I only had $10. Lol my feelings about having money as a child are different in comparison to having money right now xxx
Great money memory, Josie! Thank you for sharing it! That’s been my observation about the news on Twitter, too – people jump right on Twitter with updates, you can count on it!
This sounds like a great award! I loved all your answers to the questions they asked you. Thank you for sharing!
It was fun to be nominated, Lex! Happy to use it as another way to talk about catching up retirement savings after a late start. The best part was reading other bloggers’ work and coming up with my own list of nominees to highlight! Thanks for reading & commenting!
Such a lovely award! I’m exactly the same in the morning! A lack of sleep and I’m completely thrown.
I run my own business, so my (lack of!) savings are very dependent on that, but like you, I have cut out all unnecessary personal spending. I am more of a decaf in the morning and a peppermint tea in the afternoon 🙂 But I would never buy it out! I will only buy a water if it is absolutely essential if I’ve ran out of my refillable bottle.
Helen | http://www.whathelenloves.com
Thanks, Helen! Nice to hear your thoughts! I enjoy herb tea, too.
Absolutely love these award posts, being recognised by your peers is incredible!
Loved your answers and I love your blog it’s so bright and beautiful!
Thank you, Emma! That is very sweet of you! Yes, these posts are a lot of fun, and a good way to connect.
I had never heard of such award, this is so great for supporting other bloggers. Love this idea xx
Definitely agree, Kitsu! Thank you so much for stopping by and sharing your thoughts! Appreciate your support!
Congratulations on your award. I always love to get to know bloggers better!
Thank you, Lisa Marie!
Hi Kathy. Congratulations! I enjoy these posts, it’s always interesting to read more about our fellow bloggers and to find new blogs to read. Thank you.
Glad to hear you enjoyed the post, Richie! Thank you!
Such a fun tag, love getting to know the blogger behind the blog and enjoyed reading your answers!
Tash
Aw, thank you, Tash! Great to get your feedback. Thanks for reading and sharing your thoughts.
Your answers here were so well thought out and informative, I don’t think I’ve ever seen one like it that’s been so in-depth. I totally agree with what you had to say about financial literacy, we’re not taught anything like that here either and it’s definitely something lacking from education x
Sophie
Wow, thank you, Sophie! I appreciate your kind words. It would be so helpful to have financial literacy taught in the schools from an early age.
Fun post! I get my news from so many sources – live streaming, twitter, feedly etc. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks, Jodie! It sounds like you have a good variety of news sources. Thanks for sharing your answer to Question #2!
Congrats on being nominated Kathy, well-deserved for sure! I agree with what you said about the big political problems we are having right now. Please VOTE everyone!
I also agree that I really didn’t learn about basic financial skills when I was in school. The only thing I can remember is learning how to write a check in like the 4th grade. I think that’s a huge tragedy that we never learned more.
Thank you, Clarissa! Seems like we need a little more world history and financial education taught in our schools. Along with critical thinking skills!
That interview was so interesting for reading. I enjoy so much.
New Post – https://www.exclusivebeautydiary.com/2020/11/carolina-herrera-good-girl-marc-jacobs.html
Glad you enjoyed it, thanks for reading & commenting!
Congrats on your nomination! I love posts like these and glad to hear you’re a fellow tea fan, I can’t get behind coffee either!
Thank you, Hannah Louise! Yes, these types of posts are a lot of fun to read and to answer. Especially enjoyable with a good cup of tea, lol.
Congrats on the award! And fun to get to know you through your answers. I’m a tea drinker too!
Love tea, Cindy! Thank you for your kind words. I enjoyed checking out your blog, too!
Congratulations on your nomination! I’m new to the blogging world so this is my first time hearing about this award.
I find it refreshing to see how supportive (and encouraging) the blogging community as a whole is of one another.
It seems to be all about co-operation instead of competition … a model I wish the rest of society would embrace.
Thank you, George! I agree, the blogging community is very supportive. I’ve received so much encouragement and assistance in my blogging journey so far. Glad you are here, George!
Congratulations for being nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award. I was nominated for this award last year and it was my first award as a blogger. I was grateful for the opportunity. Hope your blog will be more successful in the future.
Aw, thank you for your kind words, Fadima! I feel grateful for the opportunity as well. Plus it is a fun way to get to know other bloggers.
Congratulations on being nominated for the Sunshine Blogger Award! I love your answers to the questions asked.
I now have a nice list of things I definitely have to check out including “Warren Buffet’s Secret Millionaires Club” cartoon!
Thanks for being an inspiration and for continuing to motivate and support others in reaching their personal finance goals and in the blogging community as a whole.
(blushing)
Thank you so much, FI Heroes! I’m so glad you enjoyed the post!
Actually, I look up to you as well. I’ve learned a lot from reading your blog, such as how to get free tickets to a Broadway Show!
Congrats on the tag! I am starting to see more and more blogger tags and I am enjoying reading them all.
I was recently tagged in a Fall Bloggers tag and it was so much fun answering the questions and then coming up with my own question to add.
I usually don’t participate but wouldn’t mind doing another bloggers tag in the future.
Yes, Erica, the blogger tags are a lot of fun! It’s interesting to meet other bloggers this way, and get to know people a little better. I also enjoy giving my answers a personal finance slant. Thanks for reading & commenting!
I have never heard of this award, so thank you for sharing x
Thanks so much for stopping by to check it out, Demi!
This is fantastic What a great way to get to know one another while gaining exposure Happy Thanksgiving Cris
http://www.photosbycris.com.au/?p=11100
Aw, thank you so much, Cris! Thanks for stopping by!
Many congrats on your award. Hope you have a lovely holiday season.
Thank you, Margarida! Wishing you the best in the coming year, as well. Thanks for reading & commenting!