Weekend Roundup – And CMO Around Town

Happy weekend everyone! Welcome to another weekend roundup, where I share interesting articles from around the internet and what’s going on here at CMO Central.
And boy, have things been going on here!
Today I’ll go through my favorite articles of the week – including some fascinating news from Vanguard on retirement statistics. I’ll be sharing some of the successes (and not) of blogging, and a reminder to brush your teeth….I mean, close out your Q2 finances. If you need inspiration to tackle this task, I’ve got it here!
Then I’ll go through what’s been happening here, and end with a BIG FEATURE. So stay tuned.

First, some of the interesting articles I’ve seen around this week:

Weekend Roundup

In good news for my career, and this website, coffee is good for you again! Apparently I can drink as much coffee as I want, according to some new research by JAMA Internal Medicine.
I don’t know why I missed this earlier, but Vanguard has released their most recent How America Saves report. Some interesting statistics include:
  • 60% of plan participants are enrolled in automatic investment programs. They predict this to rise to 75% by 2022. People really don’t like picking their own investments.
  • 90% of plan sponsors now offer target date funds
  • 46% of sponsors now offer auto-enrollment. Automatic enrollment has been criticized for creating a large number of small accounts, but I’m old enough to remember the days before auto-enrollment. Guess what happened when people had to opt in? They contributed nothing.
  • Auto-enrollment plans have a 92% participation rate, while voluntary enrollment plans had 57% participation. This supports bullet number three above
  • The average contribution rate between both employee and employer contributions is 10.5%. Not shabby!
  • 68% of plans offer a ROTH option, and 12% of participants in those plans picked it. So that means 88% did not.
  • The average account balance in 2017 was $103,866, while the median was $26,331. A small number of very large accounts would cause this.
  • In 2017, the average account balance rose 8%, and median balances rose 7%. Sounds good! Until you remember that the S&P 500 returned over 20% last year. What would cause this discrepancy? Obviously, most people aren’t 100% stocks. But beyond that, it’s been proven before that investors consistently underperform the market.

My Twitter friend Feminist Financier shared how smart millennial’s are getting about marriage. More of them are signing prenups than ever before. Good for them!

My friend Laurie, my first Women on FIRE interview, reached her goal of location independence early.

Do you think blogging is easy?

Maybe you’ve heard it’s a great way to make money from home in your pajamas with only a few minutes a day of work? Anyone who told you that is likely trying to sell you on Bluehost web hosting (because they get affiliate commissions), or a course. Remember to beware of people preying on your dreams. I hate seeing people get taken advantage of.
That being said, there are some folks out there doing great and who share their real experiences!

Did You Close Out Q2?

It’s time for your Q2 close – that means quarterly net worth updates and goal check ins! If you didn’t do it yet, be sure to do it this weekend. Here’s a few other reports to inspire you:

CMO Around Town

I didn’t get to go blueberry picking last weekend like I was hoping – the blueberry farm we usually go to only opened this past Tuesday. Instead, we went on Wednesday since I was off for the Fourth of July. We picked a HUGE tray of blueberries, which will be eaten and largely frozen to use throughout the year. There’s nothing quite like fresh fruit, and freshly frozen fruit.

I also made an awesome blueberry pie, which is a once-a-year treat we have once we’ve picked all those berries.

And Alex (my three year old) stole a bunch of blueberries one at a time, you can check my Instagram for that funny video.

Of course, there were obligatory fireworks in the evening. We went to my sister-in-laws house, where you can see them from the lawn.

At work, we had a lot less meetings than usual, which was great for my productivity. I had some extensive research I had to do to pull together some documentation, and a quiet office with a day largely free of meetings was perfect for the task. I feel very prepared for next week, which is a great way to start the weekend.

My husband took care of a car recall for me on Thursday. This is what I mean when I talk about the value of a stay at home parent (or Chief Household Officer, as I’ve rebranded it). He also did the grocery shopping, ran errands, and generally kept the house running all week.

On the docket for this weekend includes such fun as renewing my drivers license (DMV, here I come!), working on the site, and likely just spending time with the family. You can check me out on Instagram if you want to see what I’m up to.

Where You Can Find Me… And Big News

You now know what I did all day last Sunday – climbed up #calculatormountain. This post took off like crazy, being featured on Camp FIRE Finance, a Money magazine email, Passive Income MD, Four Pillar Freedom, and Of Mice and Money. I’m glad you all enjoyed my climb – my goal was to somehow make an article about 26 retirement calculators interesting and engaging, and it seems I succeeded.

Lots of folks commented, tweeted and e-mailed their favorite calculators that I hadn’t tackled. I plan to pick of some of my favorite wine, so I can plot my return to #calculatormountain. Look for that soon.

Revanche featured my article on the ups and downs of balancing balancing childcare the past 14+ years we’ve been parents. As always, she has plenty of other awesome ones in her link love roundup – you should check them out.Lisa Rowan, a woman who went to Lola Retreat, wrote an article which featured a mention of how my story of my husbands illness stayed with her. Check it out here.

I did a guest post over on Go Curry Cracker with some tips for teaching kids about money, which was featured by the Wall Street Physician in his forum mailbag.

And The Big One

I was featured on Business Insider.

An article I wrote. About my family.

I’ve had successful women from all around the country, and around the world, reach out to me to share their stories after reading this. It was forwarded to them by their son, their mom, or their friend. Some were parents to be, others new parents, and some had stay at home dads back in the 80’s.
They work in all different industries, but they all related to what I had to say. Many of them felt alone, or like they were the only ones who got a raised eyebrow when responding to the question, “What does your husband do?”
That article, as of Thursday afternoon, had nearly a million views. By now, I wouldn’t be surprised if it were more.
This is why I write.
To make a difference.

P.S. I’ve, um, more than met my goal for the year of reaching 100,000 people. Time for a new goal.

I Want To Hear From You!

Let me know what’s going on with you this weekend, and whether you read anything interesting I might enjoy! Also, if you have suggestions for more retirement calculators, be sure to let me know. But hurry, you need to get them in before I start climbing #calculatormountain again.

Be sure to follow my blog for more great posts via e-mail or WordPress, or connect with me on Facebook or Twitter and say hello! You can also check out what I’m buying or baking on Instagram,  what I’m pinning on Pinterest, or the latest books I’m reading (or want to read) over on Goodreads.

11 thoughts on “Weekend Roundup – And CMO Around Town”

    1. chiefmomofficer

      Thanks! It was an honor to be asked to write it. And the huge reaction was pretty unexpected. I didn’t think many people would be reading Business Insider the day before the 4th of July.

  1. Wow a million views one article. That is incredible and congratulations for hitting such a lofty milestone.

    Blogging is definitive hard (the big guys make it look so easy). There is so much behind the scenes stuff with every post that I didn’t appreciate until I dipped my toes in myself.

    For those considering blogging I forgot the source but I read somewhere great advice. Before you spend one dime on a host or domain, just go ahead and write 10 or so posts and see how it feels. If you like it and think you can carry on nothing is lost and you can transform it to a real post when starting blog. If you don’t think you can maintain it you saved yourself money and can alway contribute what you did write as guest posts

    1. chiefmomofficer

      Love that idea. I did something similar and wrote a bunch of posts for a few months before I started. Saved them in word documents and used them after I launched

  2. I’ve been playing at blogging for over ten years. I say “playing” because I don’t do SEO research, I don’t write for Google, I don’t spend hours on Pinterest, I tweet only sporadically and I write when I feel like it. I also use free hosting through Blogger, not self-hosting on Bluehost or elsewhere. I do use affilliate links, and accept guest posts or sponsored posts. I’ve made a little money, gotten review copies and gotten a chance to learn that no, I really DON”T want to be a writer when I grow up. I’ve accepted that I am unlikely to get rich, but I’ve also realized that as in most things, people who make money blogging WORK at it.

  3. Congrats on the BI feature!

    Ohhh man those Bluehost links. *eyeroll*

    A young girl at work was complaining about how she would have to sign a prenup if she marries her BF – which from an emotional perspective I can totally understand, though I’m very pro prenup for anyone who wants one.

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