No pics? Still happened.

HAPPY TUESDAY, LOVERS

Heather here. We hope this newsletter finds you sun-kissed and refreshed from the long holiday weekend. If not, we are sorry to rub it in, but we are indeed sun-kissed and refreshed from the long holiday weekend. 

Seeing our older daughter off to sleepaway camp the week prior left us feeling a bit uneasy, so we took our younger daughter down to my dad’s at the Jersey Shore for the week. I’m not sure when the last time was that we blocked our calendars just to chill with family, but truly, we needed it. For six days, we just took it slow: no treks to the boardwalk for rides, no dinners at crowded hotspots, no waiting in long lines for anything. Instead, we beached until dinner. We ate lots of ice cream. We wore the same sweatshirts for three nights straight. Doug and I also got locked out on our second-story balcony late at night and had to give a man in an American flag bandana our garage code, but I’m saving that story for a Reel.

In essence, we practiced what we preached in our new CNBC article that dropped right after July 4th. Our goal in writing about summer travel was to help you maintain your priorities in this ever-visible, ever-covetable world we live in. Look, I love social media as much as anyone, and I’ll be the first to admit that I get “caught up” in a flurry of envy scrolling through everyone’s European holidays while I’ve got my toes in the 52-degree sludge of New Jersey’s Atlantic Ocean. But letting other people’s picture-perfect vacations increase the benchmarks you’ve set for your own vacations creates a slippery upward spiral. 

More than a third of summer vacationers are willing to take on debt to travel. Our question is, for what? To make sure you’ve danced on the same table that some other woman in your feed danced on two months ago? No judgment around dancing on tables (I’m down with that), but to blow your budget or overextend yourself cannot be more rewarding than getting exactly what you need out of a vacation, photo-ops be damned. At the end of the day, I guess, it’s about traveling for you guys – not anyone else!

We hope you’ll check it out and share with your S.O. Have a great week!

Want to chat with us for our book or The Joint Account? Find us here: [email protected].

OUR PICKS

Mine:

• I interviewed Dr. Nicole Pensak about the seismic mental, emotional, and financial shifts couples go through when welcoming a child into their lives. Her new book, Rattled: How to Calm New Mom Anxiety with the Power of the Postpartum Brain, is a must-read for new mothers and the people who should be caring for them, too. Buy it here!

• If you follow me on Instagram, you’d know, I stan the Abercrombie rebrand. The Cut dove deep on it this week.

• The New York Times ran a great article about a new report indicating that couples hesitate to talk about money, because they’re afraid it’ll lead to an argument. Several experts (including those we spoke with for our book!) share why it’s still important.

Doug’s:

• A tequila aficionado himself, Doug liked this primer on collecting liquor without breaking the bank in The Wall Street Journal. 

• He also appreciated Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire way more than I did when we watched it together last Saturday night. We’re both pretty into apocalyptic sci-fi, but it was a little too middle earth for me.

READER ROLE CALL

Do you have a money question you’d like answered in a future issue of The Joint Account? Don’t be shy!

BOOK UPDATE! We’re speaking with so many real-life couples about love and money, but we need you, too. If you’re interested in having a Zoom double date with us, email: [email protected].

Are you a brand or business interested in reaching The Joint Account’s audience of 12,000+ subscribers? Email [email protected].

Find us everywhere: @dougboneparth + @averagejoelle