#gonna be thinking about this all dayyyyyyy

[pretty-pup-stevie]

Everyone give Stevie head pats! He’s such a good boy(?), yes you are Stevie! Pspsps who’s a good boy? Who’s a good boy!?

Assksjsisjshusisjsns stoppppppp 🤭

This legit made me smile like omg??? I’m a good boy??? AND HEADPATS???!!!!

Thank you so much!!!! ☺️ This made my day!!!

[ddejavvu]

ok this one may be a little off putting BUT

Spencer, going out with the bau clubbing and bau!reader is getting absolutely hammered throughout the night bc of em and jj, and eventually it leads to the responsibility of him taking the reader home but the reader is trashed and feels gross so she wants to take a shower and basically begs spencer to get in the shower with her to wash her hair.

love u have a great dayyyyyyy 🤍🦆

Spencer the germaphobe would have never thought he'd have his nails raking through unwashed hair that was not his own. He takes solace in the bubbles frothing at his fingertips, an assurance that he's cleaning your hair, not just spreading the filth from the club through its strands, but it's still several steps to the left of his comfort zone.

If it were anyone else, he would have said a very firm, but kind, no, and he may have gagged as soon as they were out of earshot. But it was you, and you looked at him with your pretty eyes, your pretty sad eyes, your pretty tired eyes, and asked him to please help you clean yourself up before bed, because you'd just washed your sheets and you didn't want to dirty them with the remnants of a night out.

He reasons that designated driver duties included walking you to your door, getting you a glass of water for the morning, and locking your apartment behind him, but he hadn't planned on helping you shower. That he had only agreed to under extreme stress (those pretty, sad, tired eyes he can't stop thinking about) and it's how he finds himself now crouched on the lid of your toilet, scrubbing suds through your hair.

"Thanks, Spence," You groan, feeling his nails rake across your scalp, "I was- I dunno how I was gonna do this without you. I'm dizzy."

It's a concerning observation to be made while cross-legged on the ground and not tired with the effort of standing up, but Spencer reasons that you'll feel better after a night's sleep. A night that he's not sure he can let you spend alone for fear of you choking on your own sick.

You've taken to resting your flushed forehead against Spencer's calf, and it's leaving a soapy stain on his poor excuse for social wear. The only two types of pants that he owns are slacks and pajama pants, and he's not sure he'll be able to properly clean this pair anymore. But he doesn't push you off - in fact, he takes note of the feeling of your touch against his leg.

"I'm cold," You shiver in place, despite the warm water flowing around you, as well as the clothes still on your body, now soaked. Thankfully you'd retained enough of your brainpower to know not to strip in front of Spencer, and he's grateful that he didn't need to enforce the matter.

"You're still dressed," He muses, taking the showerhead and rinsing his hands, then turning it on the mass of bubbles atop your head, "You'll be in pajamas soon."

"M'kay," You accept, even though Spencer can still see goosebumps on your exposed forearms from the cold, "Will you help me change?"

Perhaps you had not retained as much of your brainpower as Spencer thought you had.

"Uh," He stammers, "focused on a patch of suds near the nape of your neck, "Do you think you could- um, do it yourself?"

"I guess. Maybe. I don't know," You laugh at the absurdity of your own statements, "What, you don't wanna see me naked?"

"Y/N!" He gushes, cheeks burning hotter than the water that's pooling around your form on the floor of your shower, "No, I- I mean not while- not now! You're drunk."

"I only got drunk so I'd finally man up and make a move," You grumble against his calf, and Spencer's previously racing heart stops beating altogether, "Just- tell me I said that tomorrow, okay Spence? I'm gonna be pissed at- uh, at me if I forgot."

Spencer agrees with all the niceties that he's learned in dealing with the public, an empty promise falling from his lips when all else fails him, "Okay, I will."

"Liar," You accuse, your nose still nestled snugly against his leg, "This sucks. We're both too scared to make a move. Maybe we should both get shitfaced, and just buy a Plan B the next morning."

Spencer is well and truly speechless. He has several options as to his next response, if he can ever muster up the courage to enact them: an awkward laugh, a strained chuckle, prolonged silence. Instead of choosing any of those he swallows, the action almost hurting his now-dry throat, "Uh- Plan B can interfere with your next menstrual cycle, and there's a host of other side effects that aren't ideal for you."

"Fine." You snort, "We'll keep the baby."

[fiddler-sticks]

I really don't get my aunt sometimes. This is the gist of what I got out of a conversation with her and my mom and grandma tonight:

I think my 15yo daughter's acne is from stress, so I read a book about screentime, and the book says to not let your kids have social media 'til 18, and to only give them around 1hr a day. So we're gonna do that so she can focus on her advanced schoolwork (including being in algebra 2 as a freshman), several hours of homework every evening, at least 5 extracurriculars that she doesn't eve like doing and just does them for socialization, and a job at a fast food place, because freshman year of super elite private high school isn't as rigorous as 8th grade of super elite private grade school, and my daughter doesn't seem stressed about high school at all, and she can't possibly be hiding anything because she doesn't have social media, and that's how teenagers hide stuff, right?

UGH, JUST LET YOUR KID CHOOSE WHAT SHE WANTS TO DO, FFS, AND SHE'LL PROBABLY BE DOING HALF THE WORK SHE'S DOING NOW AND HER ACNE WILL FUCKING GO AWAY BECAUSE SHE'LL HAVE GOTTEN RID OF 90% OF HER STRESS

Her 13yo son also hates school and only gets away with doing the bare minimum. He'll do enough to get an A, and that's it. He does sports, but doesn't even like doing the sports and is just there for the friends. Like, my guy probably has some sort of childhood depression because he's being pushed and burnt out at super elite private school

She literally said today that he can't understand why his cousins won't play sports with him, and only want to expand the world and lore of their pet rock Dwayne The Vegan Rock. LIKE, WHO WOULDN'T WANT TO PLAY WITH DWAYNE THE VEGAN ROCK!! I'M A 20YO FUCKING ADULT WITH A RETAIL JOB AND I LOVE DWAYNE, THESE KIDS SUFFERING THROUGH SUPER ELITE PRIVATE SCHOOL PROBABLY NEED DWAYNE MORE THAN ME

And she said her 10yo daughter needs downtime in between every task she does, like she'll practice piano, and then need to play with her dollhouse for 15 minutes before she's ready to do flash cards or something, and SHE DOESN'T GET WHY. She doesn't get why she can't just get all this work done from super elite private school first, and then have the rest of the night to play dolls. BECAUSE THEN THERE WON'T BE ANY TIME AND YOU HAVE TO TAKE WHAT DOWNTIME YOU CAN GET, AND BECAUSE SHE'S FUCKING GETTING BURNT OUT, THAT'S WHAT

And then you go and give us dirty looks for homeschooling. My siblings get all their schoolwork done in a few hours in the morning, and then they're free to do what they want. They're either right where they should be with the public school, or in the case of my middle brother, a whole year advanced based on his age. And also, because we all have our own screen and unlimited access to it, screens aren't a novelty anymore, and we don't feel the need to constantly have screen time because we know what it's like to be on a screen constantly, and we'd much rather do stuff out in the real world

Anywayyyyy, now that you know what I had to put up with listening to, how was your dayyyyyyy lol

[harryforvogue]

ok so can i just say one thing…

i’ve been following u for a while maybe about 2 years and when i first came on here i read about faye and mia cause they’re popular gals so i read their stories and extras and tags and fell in love with them and i’m like yeah i won’t love anyone like i love them many hugs and kisses for them 😘😘😘😘😘

…. but then i come across this miriam girl…. with her beautiful shy introverted bf and i EAT THAT SHIT UPPPP! like gobble them down read everything i can about these two babies and i put them in my pocket to keep them safe 💛

and now we have lucía and harry… hoe my god…… girlie i love them i love them i love them! i’m so happy they found their way back together they were made for each other and harry deserves all the jokes and teasing from his dad cause my man really gave lucía a front row seat to her nightmare 👊🏼💢 but all is forgive as long as he gives her lots of kisses and lets her lay on his tummy allllll dayyyyyyy 💛

and then… who’s this fierce french girl trying to save her marriage with her broken war husband???? ummmm maybe i’ll take a peek… 👀 BRO i read that whole story in two days and I LOVE THEMMMM YOU WROTE THEM SO BEAUTIFULLY AND THEIR LOVE WAS JUST SOOOO IDK NO WORDS AND HOW THEY WORK THROUGH HIS TRAUMA & HER HEARTACHE AND CAME OUT STRONG IN THE END yup go into my pocket little babies i will keep u safe ☺️

and i’m like yeah how can all these stories be good???? it doesn’t make sense but i’m just gonna fan girl over these ones i’ve read about cause no one will compare….

but then i read about yasmine…. 🙂 I FUCKING LOVE THEM!! THEY ARE MY FAVORITE! their little bickering and making eyes across the classroom????? ate it up! the way they’re so vulnerable and precious behind closed doors and yasmine doesn’t even acknowledge his existence in public??? perfection lmao yasmine & harry i will keep you safe in my pocket with the rest of them thank you very much

and safiyya and harry???????? i didn’t expect to love them so much too but sarah you do it every time i don’t know why i still doubt you and your ability to make me fall in love with everyone you write!!! their story was so beautiful and unique and i absolutely love their beautiful family 🥺 they go to the bottom of the pocket cause if anyone even THINKS about being mean to them i’ll mess up 🙅🏽‍♀️🙅🏽‍♀️🙅🏽‍♀️🙅🏽‍♀️🙅🏽‍♀️ i will protect this family w my life

and then i read the cottagecore life i’ve been dreaming of…. miss nisha you lucky lucky girl 💕 how i wish i had a hard working uni boy who lived across the street who worked too hard so i so make him pies and bring him fresh fruit and veggies from my farm?????? UM YEAH PLEASE AND THANK YOU!!!!!!

now now now now fleur……….. harry….. does it get any hotter than them???? me personally thinks NOT! the sexy sexual tension is SO hot! like all i can think about is how bad ass they are together and that they’re SO HOT LMAO i love them no one better hurt them in my pocket you go cause i have to keep you crazy spies safe 🤗

and i just finished reading about serena and harry!!! 10/10 love them and how much they joke around even tho they just met!!! like serena telling h she was staying in the hospital cause they have amputate her finger had me ctfu they were so comfort with each other off the back and their love was so easy and effortless 👏🏼 love love love in my pocket you go as well

in conclusion, i fell in love with the way you took harry and gave him 10 different unique personalities and then matched him with the perfect girl your beautiful brain thought of!! and not only did you make a story for these 10 couples but you add more and more life to them daily with every extra blurb or answering questions about them. i really truly appreciate what you’re doing this month cause i pushed me to read your stories which i’ve been hesitant to read(also i have fomo and didn’t want to miss out on all the fun and discussions lol) BUT seriously you deserve all the kisses and hand massages and love for what you’re doing!!! ty x10000000000 and can’t wait to read what you put out for the rest of the month and everything that follows 💕

i read this twice. and i think my brother is looking over my shoulder JSJSJSJWJW

what the fuck because….. what the fuck

they are in your pocket and they are SO fucking happy to be there. it’s important to me that you know what this means to me. every fucking thing.

you are fucking amazing. you are EVERYTHING. THANK YOU FOR GIVING THEM ALL A CHANCE BECAUSE I KNOW SOME OF THEM ARENT PEOPLE’S CUP OF TEA LIKE SERENA AND HARRY! i totally totally get that. and even w harry and lucía: i get that a first person narrative isnt what people normally like to read. i know oc aren’t what people normally read.

SO THANK YOU for giving them a try AND for loving them!!!

if i didn’t have this support on tumblr, i don’t think i would write. like genuinely, because i don’t have this support from my family and i’m with my family 24/7. so you really have no idea how much this encourages me

[sugars-fluffy-escapes]

OKAY YES and when Lee!Peter is hiding his face just getting all up close while tickling him and going "look me in the eye Spider Menace"

WHAHDJSHEHJSJSJDHDHSJAJDJF ANON THIS IS SO PERFECT- I can't stop smiling this is so cute 💀💞 "Spider Menace" is just adorable oh my lord I'm gonna be thinking about this all dayyyyyyy

I totally feel like reader would put on the most serious face they could. Like the smile just drops before they say it (could totally see Peter catching a glimpse of this through his hands and absolutely malfunctioning)

I could totally see him just shaking his head at that point and going "Mm-mm. Nohohope. NOPE!" Because it's bad enough he got flustered enough already but that comment would cause peak flustered Peter Parker (anon I love this so much thank you! You have put me in such a happy mood before work and I'm just abshskdjfbe)

[ichayalovesyou]

The Undiscovered Country (Live Reaction)

CAPTAIN SULU OF THE EXCELSIOR CAPTAIN SULU OF THE EXCELSIOR CAPTAIN SULU OF THE EXCELSIOR EVERYONE STFU HE DESERVED HIS OWM GODDAMN SHOWWWWW!!!! “Should we report this?” “Are you kidding??” I love him so muchhh

Oh this one is gonna be about racism isn’t it? Yup. I know people judge Kirk for his prejudice against the Klingons in this movie, and I wanna clarify that it’s still not okay, but I just... look back on all of his experiences with Klingons, and he became less and less chill with them as they kept doing stuff to him and his crew, torturing Spock, Sherman’s planet, torturing Chekov, the ugly decisions in A Private Little War then on top of that they killed a son he never got the chance to connect with because his ex never allowed him custody. They almost cost him the chance to bring Spock back on top of that too. I’m not saying it’s not right, and whether it’s justified is subjective, but I also know he learns his lesson in this film. It makes me think of Katara’s arc in S3 of ATLA, how much she hated (understandably) Zuko and the Fire Nation, how she almost killed the man who killed her mother, but then didn’t. If we can love her still with that character growth, I see no reason to suddenly hate Jim.

“Logic is the beginning of wisdom Valeris” god I love Spock, he’s grown so much ☺️ also maaaaan everyone is old now lol, wait?! Where’s Bones?! Oh there he is! Oh wow I can smell the traitor on Valeris she is acting extremely shady! Oh hey it’s General Chang!! I’ve heard of this guy!! Apoliticality hall of fame up in here huh ST? Damn. Klingons love them some Shakespeare lol. Nice Scotty! Ohhhh Chang that was a loaded question, oof thanks for saving your grumpy husband. Ooooh man I love dinner scenes like these, the tension, the delicate conversation, the unspoken words ugh hell yeah. Oof!

Chancellor made a DAMN good point there! Calling Kirk out on his shit before they left! Yessssssss!! Lol everyone is hung FUCK WHAT JUST HAPPENED??? OH FUCK OH FUCK OH FUCK!!! That Zero G effect is cool as fuck! Oh no oh no oh no oh no the war is being staged oh god oh no oh shit oh shit ohhhhhh no!! Ohhhhhhhhhh shittttt this is B A D. Ok so Klingon blood is pink? Huh.

Even with Jim’s prejudice he still values this peace than he does his feelings and that is a Captain Kirk ass thing to do. Bones being fucking AWESOME! Ohhhh nooooo, I liked Gorkon 😔 “Don’t let it end this way Captain.” Wowwww that was cool ass last words. “I sympathize Mr. Scott” growth 🌿 oh hey Sarek is back! Federation has an alien president now? Neat! Also I freaking LOVE Gorkon’s daughter, I am also growing progressively more confused by their kinda over exaggerated behavior in future TV shows? (I imagine they probably had a fanatical ideological takeover, kinda like the Vulcans and Surak but... violent.)

The defense attorney sounds like Michael Dorn??? I know it’s not him but still? OH MY GOD IT IS???? Cool! His name is also Worf? Weird. Awww Bones he’s GOTTA stop making me cry like this I can’t even do this oh man he’s breaking my hearrrrrt. Oh wow they really just listing everything “bad” Jim has ever done huh? Damn. CAPTAIN SULU IS BACK oh and he’s gone again damn. Ooooof penal colony punishment yiiiiikes, seems the Klingons have as outdated a prison system as we do now 😬 oh so Spock is distantly related to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle? Neat. Oh Spock don’t trust Valeris, I know you don’t know better yet but still 😬😬😬

Ooof this whole person thing is super interesting?? Who is this WOMAN whose informing them McCoy & Jim, I love her! I love this political intrigue murder mystery stuff!! Those Wargs look AMAZING wow, loving seeing TOS crew with a budget love it! “Not everyone keeps their genitals in the same place Captain.” OH MY GOD 😂😂😂 oh it’s McKirk hours boys, and awww even in a Klingon prison Jim’s prejudice is decaying. McCoy is DUDE WHAT IS WITH YOU?? And I agree, even as an old man Jim is a lil’ bit it a slut. WAIT CHRISTIAN SLATER???? That was a weird cameo. Even after he made out with that lady he was like “damn, what is wrong with me??” Lol

WAIT IS MATIRA A CHANGELING?? That transformation was VERY gooey?? I mean I know there are a bunch of shapeshifter races but still???? Hey watch McCoy is gonna give out from the cold first cuz he’s a southern damsel just you wait. Aaaaaand it took 5 minutes! 😂 he’s immune to dinosaurs but vulnerable to cold. Bullshit Uhura doesn’t know Klingon??? What was that?!?! Oh she’s not a Changeling. TWO KIRKS AGAIN???? How many times is this now, four? 😂😂

Now they’re close enough to kiss lmfao KISS DAMNIT! Aw. Uh oh. I have never, NEVER seen Spock this posed off ohhhh my god. OH MY GOD HE JUST SMACKED THAT SHIT OUT OF HER HAND. Ooof I need to sit down (I say sitting down) way to frickin kick Jim right in his soul with his own words damn Valeris... wow this is so GOOD, fuck. Oh man, the amount of personal strength, feelings of hatred and betrayal, and circumstance it takes for Spock to FORCIBLY meld with someone when we all know how he feels about consent 😨 this is like, the only ONLY situation I can imagine him, in character, EVER doing this to anyone. Wow... wow. Oh my god. OH MY GOD. Ohhhhhh wow, that’s gonna haunt Spock for the rest of his life... fuck.

SULU IS HERE TO SAVE THE DAYYYYYYY WE LOVE HIM!!! Awwww look at these too poor idiots regretting their moral transgressions :( they’re so married. Over here examining prejudices and stuff, I need to study this screenplay oh my goddddd. This is so GOOD oh my god. Kittomer Accord hours!! Here we go! Oh MAN Chang is a cool ass villain!! Here we gooooooooo!!! EXCELSIOR IS HERE TO HELP!! Aw Spones out here flirting before they go save peace in their time, love that! This battle tastes like a beautiful marriage between Balance of Terror and Conscience of A King 😍 YEAH SCOTTY!!! And thus, Kirk completes his character growth. Lol and then everyone claaaaaaped.

Man, Sulu and the Excelsior really deserved their own his Star Trek show, something I hope they will someday remedy! Awwww that little love letter to TNG and all future Treks at the end heck yeh ☺️

[goldkirk]

My five happy things for this morning

I woke up really panicked out of nowhere and was dreaming about mental hospitals and stuff???? so I’m just gonna. think about nice stuff for a minute

• those sprays that make your hair smell really nice all dayyyyyyy UGH NICE

• surprise tiny chocolates you find in your bag or a friend hands you or whatever

• waking up to sunlight instead of an alarm

• pop tarts

• old soft worn out hoodies that make you feel comforted when you put them on

[scary-mostaccioli]

Itssssss Mother’s Dayyyyyyy. So here is my request: creeps finding out their s/o is pregnant?

» It isssssssss

Finding out their s/o is pregnant

Toby

"Wait wait wait wait (x30)-- Really?." *A noise only classifiable by the name 'fangirl scream'*

I don't think a person could be more excited.

Bear hugs and lots of smiles. Very pure.

He's the kind of parent to go between wanting to know the gender and wanting it to be a suprise.

Masky

"Ha ha very funny." *Long silence* "Oh my fucking god you're serious-"

Parental Panic™

Oh so many questions.

He immediatly decides he wants to quit smoking, ect-- even if he's not the one carrying the baby.

The panic will eventually turn into happiness it's fine.

Jane

For one, obviously a planned pregnancy if its vitro fertilization lol.

"It actually worked!? Oh my gosh (x7 increasing in pitch each time)!!!"

So many smiles and hugs and tears and kisses.

Jane is a very prepared mom. Shes ready for any cravings they might have as well as prepared for moodswings-- but above all shes fuckin ecstatic.

Liu

"Holy shit Im gonna be a dad."

Pure lack of words past this point. He has to think about 30,000 things.

He's more calm then anyone else, calm excitement.

Hes super excited to know the gender, and is very aware that a lotta stuffs gotta change.

Sully isn't entirely keen on it, thats for sure, but he wont do anything to stop it.

[makeste]

ITP: an incomplete but lovingly assembled list of people who have it out for my kid

hi anon, thank you!!

and omg. I... don’t know, lol. like, I’ve thought about it before, but I always just ended up going “???”. there just doesn’t seem to be anyone tailor-made for him, and it’s honestly weird. shounen tropes have taught me that these things are always foreshadowed in advance. so where is it? WHERE IS THE FORESHADOWING, WHERE ARE MY TROPES. he literally got kidnapped by a whole troupe of them and not a one made any real effort to click. that was like the villain equivalent of The Bachelor and it still didn’t get us anywhere omg.

anyways, since I’m undecided, I’ve taken the liberty of listing and rating all of the Possible Bakugou Antagonists I could think of on a scale of 1 to 10, and I’m not gonna pretend like I didn’t enjoy every second of it, either.

Spinner - 1/10

no offense Spinner. you’re a great guy. but we just didn’t connect. you have absolutely nothing in common. those sparks just aren’t flying. I’m sorry. you’ll find someone someday I know it just keep being true to yourself.

Stain - 1/10

gtfo.

Mr. Compress - 2.5/10

I have no idea who Mr. Compress will end up battling, but it won’t be Bakugou. how do I know this? I just know.

Dabi - 3/10

honestly, Dabi kind of has chemistry with everyone. so it’s a shame he’s already spoken for. by three other people, no less. between Endeavor, Shouto, and Hawks, he’s really got his hands full already. it really is a pity because he was the one who actually kidnapped Bakugou, like grabbed him by the back of the neck and dragged him through the portal and everything. but he has beef with too many other people to make room in his fridge for even more. sorry Bakugou.

someone from the Liberation Army - 3.5/10

they had better not! he deserves someone more interesting! but, the one thing they do have going for them is their fierce commitment to the whole QUIRKS ARE SUPERIOR!! ideology, because I do have to admit, there’s a part of me that does like the idea of Reformed Shithead Bakugou Katsuki taking a stand against some prejudiced dickbags. so yeah. but also, no.

Twice - 4/10

honestly this rating is too high. there’s no chemistry here either. but on the other hand, Twice is basically the Kirishima of villains, and I just really enjoy the concept of him antagonizing Bakugou lol. plus he does have the whole Satisfying Cannon Fodder thing going for him too on account of he can clone himself x infinity and just attack Baku in waves only to get repeatedly blown up. this does win him extra points, because I feel like one of the important criteria for a Bakugou Antagonist is the ability to actually put up not just a good fight, but an entertaining one, and that’s pretty difficult against a quirk like Kacchan’s. so yeah. this honestly won’t happen but if it did I would be down for it.

Gigantomachia - 4.5/10

on the one hand, Machia is insanely powerful and definitely a worthy antagonist. but on the other hand he has no personality whatsoever aside from LOYAL TO AFO!!! so yeah, he gets mad points for being a challenge, but I can’t see him having staying power.

 okay so now we’re done with the ones who really have no chance, and on to the ones who genuinely could really pull it off. starting with...

 Toga - 6/10

okay so Toga is pretty much a lockdown for being Ochako’s main villain honestly. but I’m gonna give her a decent score anyway, for three reasons:

(1) I love her.

(2) Bakugou is thus far the only male character in the series who’s actually had a real fight against a female character, and not pulled any punches. yeah boy!! he’s a feminist! so I would kind of love to see this even though Horikoshi probably won’t. boo.

and last but not least, (3) THE MIND GAMES. omg. who wouldn’t love to see Toga transform herself into Deku or Kirishima or BEST JEANIST NOOOO or Camie or whoever else you can think of that might fuck with Bakugou’s head. yesssss. god I love Toga so much.

anyways!

Hagakure the U.A. traitor - 7/10

see above re: mind games. you’ll notice that the top tier of this list consists solely of villains who (with the exception of Tomura) all have the whole Now It’s Personal thing going for them. this is especially important because there is no clear-cut candidate to be Bakugou’s antagonist yet. so if he’s going to get one, they’re gonna have to get cracking on that bad blood between them so he can get his vengeance on. anyways the traitor will probably wind up being someone else’s main villain in the end, but they still get a high score because they would do an excellent job if they did end up being Bakugou’s villain.

Hawks - 7.5/10

on the one hand, not an actual villain. but on the other hand, YOU KILLED MY MASTER angst for daaaaaaaays omg. holy shit. Hawks what kind of hole have you dug yourself into?? you probably think you’re so slick you can just fly out of any and all metaphorical holes. BUT NOT IF THE HOLES BLOW YOU UP, HAWKS. anyways yeah. I don’t think Hawks will be a final villain, but as things currently stand there is a very high likelihood of there being at least some temporary antagonism between them, and my verdict is: bring it.

Shigaraki Tomura - 8/10*

the * is there because this score is contingent on Deku and Bakugou facing off against Tomura together. as it is, Tomura’s been built up to be Deku’s antagonist, so he’s not going to go after Bakugou instead unless Gang Green is also there. even though Tomura did engineer Bakugou’s kidnapping and all but single-handedly launched his character development into orbit, so there is history there! but yeah, I just can’t see it happening unless they double team him. that being said, the odds of that are actually pretty good IMO, hence the high score.

All For One - 8.5/10*

same deal as Tomura! but he gets a higher score on account of him actually being the final villain. so if you, like me, believe that the series is building up to Deku and Bakugou working together to become The Greatest Heroes as a team, then you have to assume that this battle is inevitable. unless you’re all-in on Tomura being the final villain instead, in which case see the previous entry.

confession time: I’ve had this plot bunny?/headcanon?/?? thing in my head for the longest time in which the League launches a huge attack on U.A. near the end of the series, and either AFO or Tomura goes after All Might and almost finishes him off, but then Bakugou steps in before they can finish the job, and proceeds to take them on solo. and he puts up an insanely good fight, but loses in the end (because he���s still just a kid! HIS TRAINING IS NOT COMPLETE) and nearly dies and/or has his quirk stolen, but then Deku and/or the others show up, and the villains leave (for some reason. shh). it’s my self-indulgent hurt/comfort as-a-result-of-being-a-self-sacrificing-badass fantasy. anyways then he probably passes out in All Might’s arms or something because I love me some Dad Might angst also. the thing is, if Bakugou ever finds out about Nighteye’s prophecy, there’s a good chance he’ll react even worse than Deku, because it already almost came true, and it would have been his fault. All Might actually went into the Kamino battle thinking that was the end for him, even. willingly ready to give up his own life to save this kid. can you imagine if Kacchan ever learns that. anyways so yeah the idea of him taking a potentially fatal blow for All Might in order to stop the prophecy coming true is something that’s stuck with me for a while now. and it has just about nothing to do with Final Villains, but I just thought I’d throw that out there because that’s one way to establish some Now It’s Personal hella beef between two characters for sure. having one of them nearly kill the other while targeting his mentor lol. anyways I went off on a real tangent, my bad.

 so now, drum roll please! last but not least, we have...

 Ujiko - 9/10

you guys. like 3/4 of the way through this post I suddenly went “!!!!” and remembered, OH YEAH, WHAT ABOUT THAT GUY WHO FUCKING TORTURED AND KILLED BAKUGOU’S CHILDHOOD FRIEND, THOUGH. holy shit. I forgot all about him. and also, what the hell, what is this thing all of a sudden where people whom Bakugou is secretly fond of keep getting secretly murdered by villains and he doesn’t know about it omg. like, why is that an actual trend. between all that and the prophecy, it’s like Horikoshi is actually just hoarding this huge pile of Things That Bakugou Doesn’t Know About Yet That Will Absolutely Fuck Up His Day When He Finds Out. like, I picture him stacking up a bunch of heavy boxes just behind a doorway and then waiting for Bakugou to step into the room so he can push the boxes over and they all fall on him and probably kill him fuuuuuuck.

anyways, but yeah. Ujiko, though. I really do think he’s got the best chance of becoming the main villain for Bakugou now that I think about it. all of the criteria are there.

(1) Satisfying Cannon Fodder - you get a Noumu! EVERY! BODY! GETS! NOUMUUUUUUUS fff but yeah. if you want bad guys for Bakugou to fight that he can blow up without feeling guilty, Ujiko’s your guy. -- though on the other hand, maybe he will feel guilty if and when he learns what the Noumus actually are. oh my god. which brings me to point two!

(2) ANGST FOR DAYYYYYYYS - hey guys, so everyone knows about this fun little thing, right?

okay so the short version is this: in a volume 7 omake, Horikoshi strongly implied that the winged Noumu who kidnapped Deku and was subsequently killed by Stain during the Hero Killer arc is -- or was -- Katsuki and Deku’s childhood friend Tsubasa. so right away, that’s fucked up. and it gets worse! because Horikoshi went on to include yet another hint tucked away in a corner of the first databook, confirming that Tsubasa was actually the grandson of that doctor in chapter one who diagnosed Deku as quirkless. the same doctor who is 99.9% confirmed to actually be AFO’s personal physician and the architect of the Noumus.

so yeah. this man took his own grandson and turned him into a lab experiment who was later murdered by another villain. and oh yes, that murder just so happened to caught on tape and subsequently went viral. holy shit.

I have been waiting and waiting and waiting for this shoe to finally drop, guys, and I’ll continue to be patient. but holy shit, though. anyways, so yeah. if/when Kacchan and Deku learn about this, I can’t even imagine how they’ll react. but it’s safe to say that Ujiko has the Now It’s Personal factor more than covered. if Katsuki is going to go on a roaring rampage of revenge toward anyone, it’s this motherfucker right here.

and last but not least, (3) Ujiko is kind of at this perfect tier of almost-but-not-quite final villain level. like, he’s the guy behind the scenes. not on the same level as AFO, but there have definitely been hints that he’s pulling Tomura’s strings more than Tomura realizes. he seems to be AFO’s right hand man, honestly. so yeah, huge plot importance here, and definitely worthy of being a foil to the series’s deuteragonist. I can definitely see it happening.

so that’s it! I’m sure I’ve missed some people, but I think I got the big ones. anyways, this has been your friendly reminder that the Noumu are going to fuck everyone’s shit up, and there are tidal waves of angst on the horizon that we honestly might not survive. good thing we have a budding hero to root for who always wins no matter what. godspeed, kid.

[survivor-iceland]

Ep. 13 - “So its been a dayyyyyyy Jayyyyyyy” - Jack

Timmy

How in the fuck am I still here?!?! I'm overjoyed and this is incredible. Tbh Jack totally just fucked his game but this is so good for me, even if I get out at 6, I still made it a little further than I thought I would've. Also, Raffy really popped the fuck off and it was so funny to watch. I'm just in a really good mood right now.

Maynor

I cant believe idol play was amazing but it wasnt needed. Sjdbsb it was 4-3 for Jack to go is crazy. And im so happy that Timmy stayed in the game. I dont want to play the game without him. So im super happy that he’s still in. We need to win this immunity and keep it away from zoe and Raffy. We need those options open. And also try n keep the idol away from them.

Raffy

Last night was a wild trip. Firstly, I cannot believe Ellie would betray us like that when Maynor is still in this fucking game. No one, except me, seems to think that he's going to win if we keep letting him have control of the game. It's as if I am in a game with a bunch of sheep where I am the only free thinker. This applies to Jack too since he voted out Ellie instead of Timmy in the revote. Like imagine keeping Timmy in this game when he has done so much!!! Like we just keep letting them get away with things and we just keep letting them have control of the game. I'm sick of it!!! I can only trust Zoe now since apparently everyone else is too brain dead to see the obvious threats in this game. I pretended to be fake mad to Jack in order to keep him on our side. I told him that my aggression was a ploy to make them think that he's on their side. I mean I was real mad, but he doesn't need to know that. I don't know whether the lie worked or not, but I just need to find an idol or win immunity because I am sick of Maynor and Timmy being like cockroaches in the nuclear fallout. Like??????? And don't get me started on the goat Joseph who doesn't even know how to talk to people properly. All of them can go fuck off for all I care. 

Raffy

Well I didn't find the idol, and I know that Jack is on the other path with that BS rotating puzzle. So, tomorrow I'll be doing the tundra and hopefully find it before anyone else, otherwise my time in this game is running out. I don't know how well I will do with the immunity challenge, but I have to be confident to do well. I'm praying that Zoe found something because we desperately need it if onyl to prevent Maynor from having it.  

Raffy

Also this is the mood for the rest of the game for John and Ellie and maybe Zoe if she doesn't make it to FTC with me:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P0U_Cdrbols

Timmy

Raffy is so fucking smug. He laughed whenever someone messed up in the challenge and basically almost cackled when Maynor and I got it. Like don’t fucking kick me when I’m down. 6th is my Achilles heel and I’m already freaking out. 

Jack

So its been a dayyyyyyy Jayyyyyyy. First Zoe comes in here like, "hey my idol still works" so my and raffy and zoe are like okayyyy we have to freaking one of us get immunity so its at least 2/3 and then zoe wins, and then moments later i finished the HELL PUZZLE WITH THE POINTY IDENTICAL LOOKING PIECES AND BACKGROUND and whoops i found the idol, so theoretically the three of us are like 3/3 safe and can vote out maynor. He's a sweet guy but like yeet. Raffy might be in trouble if zoe like wigs out and doesnt use the idol on him/ was like totally bullshitting about it? but i hope she aint cause yeah

Raffy

I'm glad that Zoe won the immunity challenge because it keeps safety away from both Maynor and Timmy. I wanted to win it, but I am proud that Zoe was able to either way. Her idol will be extremely useful going into this next round as we are planning to use it on me in order to make sure that 2/3 of us are safe tonight. Additionally, if the votes ends up tying 3-3, we can make sure that Jack is safe by revoting and keeping him in this game. Although, I doubt it has to come to that because Jack has also found an idol from the rehidden hunt. This means that all three of us will be safe going into this next tribal council unless they have an idol nullifier. Even then they still can only nullify one which means we're still the dominating force. Basically all is looking on the bright side for Raffy in this vote, and I hope things go smoothly in spite of my confidence.

Jack

I don't remember if I already made a confessional on this, but i found an idol, so now Zoe has immunity, she's gonna play her idol on Raffy, and imma play mine on me. Timmy's been hitting me and Zoe up about flipping on Raffy but we ain't doin thatttttt. Also Joseph was like "what happened in the challenge," and then was like what you thinkinnnnnnn. Maynor in general is like kinda accepted fate vibes. Hopefully everything goes well tonight.

Timmy

I’m distraught and upset. I guess it’s pretty much guaranteed that either myself or Maynor will be leaving tomorrow. I’m so sad and he deserves to stay so much and deserves to win and if he stays, I will not regret anything I did in this game. I want him to be happy and I know he belongs in this game and seeing him happy makes me so happy. 

Raffy

The plan right now is for Zoe to use her idol on me and for Jack to use his idol on himself so that we are all safe at tribal council tonight. My FTC plan right now is Zoe, Joseph, and I. I love Jack, but he needs to go because I feel like he beats me at the end. He has an amazing redemption arc, and he has pulled off so many things in his short time here without many social connections. That's pretty impressive. However, I want to take him out at F5 or F4 because I still need him on my side. My boot order currently is Maynor -> Timmy -> Jack. However, Jack is also good at challenges which means I have to pry the immunity necklace from his hands. I know I can beat him. I just have to go out there and do it. 

Maynor

Tonight might be my last night in the game and its bittersweet. I feel like i played a good game. I also feel like i was given credit for the moves Ive made. I am very proud of myself, and usually im always very hard on myself. I feel like this was my most out there game play ive had and im still very in aw that i was able to pull off a 4-3-3, vote 3-2-2 vote, able to flip Jack to vote Ellie saving Timmy, found an idol and many things. This has been a favorite game even though i might be out tonight. Like they know Ive played hard and i kept fighting to stay in this game. Tribal is going to be 3-3. We are voting jack (me timmy joseph) and (zoe raffy jack) are most likely voting for me once again. I hope. Jack has the idol cuz he did the trees path were i knew it was going to be at but my dumbass decided to do mountain instead. Jack is either going to use his idol on Raffy to try n avoid a tie or of jack plays it on himself and he negates all his votes. Either way. We are going to lose someone and they arent. So whatever happens tonight i will be content with cuz ive done everything that i could to try and survive. ❤️ Jay for having me back. Youre the best. Love you. ❤️

Maynor

My thoughts on 5 of the Final 6 people in the game: 1. Jack- oh the second boot. Was very paranoid early of this game and its understandable. Did good in EOE and returned to the game. Seemed to fall into place to Raffy’s side by not even talking to me or people who were working with me. Made his own ‘move’ by doing Ellie during F7 vote. But honestly it was not a good move for him. Even though I preached Jack has his own story. Honestly, he is still kind of a goat. No one would vote for him to win over others left in the game. Going to the end with Zoe and Raffy is his death sentence but going also everyone else in the game is his death sentence. 2. Joseph- people are saying he is a goat but that is not necessarily true. He has made moves in this game to help his position in it. He took the opportunity at f10 to make a move. Again with John vote. Dylan vote as well. Same with Jack that turned to Ellie vote off. The moves he has made were to help him make it to the end. People are underestimating his game play and if he makes it to the end then he really deserves to win it. Especially over like Jack. Also Raffy and Zoe tbh. 👀 MaynorPart 2: 3. Zoe- Zoe is a good player. But gameplay this season, i dont think she deserves the win. She was already voted out. All her strategic moves did not go according to plan. Was over confident and cocky and comfortable in the game. Wasnt going to make it to the final 7 anyways because her allies Raffy and Dylan were going to take her out. Her game play after making it back into the game due to eoe has made her into a goat. Like if someone votes for her to win its due to them being bitter over everyone else. She didnt try to make connections with everyone. She went right back to the people she was working with. And you can feel the ooze of over confidence when she said “im fitting in perfectly” when her as only talked to Raffy and ellie and Jack. So 🤷‍♂️ Honestly social game aint that good either. 4. Raffy- oh boi. Raffy raffy. Were do I start. None of his plans have happened besides the Stephen vote and even that he said it wasnt his move. Gave it to Dylan. So 🤷‍♂️ What moves has he done really? Hes been rude to a few people here and honestly leaves a bad taste in my mouth (game wise) cuz its been more game talk from him. He gets mad when things dont go his way and just starts yelling at people that they made the bad decision. But he still fought in this game. I would gove my vote to him over people like Zoe and Jack. MaynorPart 3: 5. Timmy- can i say how proud i am with Timmy this season. His social game was amazing and strong. He had people wanting to work with him and was in a good spot for a bit. He felt in the bottom and made a move. Since then has been fighting to stay in the game. Got ellie to flip on her alliance. Said Dylan’s name for the target. He played an idol on me instead of himself. He really did all that in this game and he has a big shot to win this game. He just has to reach the final 3. I feel that he can do that. He’s a great person and honestly gunna be sad now going to be able to finish this game with him. Would have been amazing to be able to sit with him at the end of the game. But alas ive made myself into a huge target that no one would want to work with me to get to the end and i understand. It just sucks i wont be able to finish this game with him. But he would be a great winner. And he deserves it with the game he has played. Im wishing him the all the luck and sending him good vibes for the rest of the game. ❤️

[sroloc--elbisivni]

re: keeping track of work (especially in college):

I have struggled with that, in the past, a lot, especially because I have ADHD. I’ve seen “get a planner” as advice but I have tried that. Let me give you a summary of how it goes for me:

-shit where’s the planner

-wow that’s a lot of text i don’t want to read that

-i crossed out the things i did and now there are black lines this is bothering me so i’m not gonna read it

-i scheduled stuff by day and then blanked on it and now i am Stressed

-i wanted to break this up but now i’m out of space

-i can’t read my own handwriting what the fuck is this

-sHIT WHERE’S THE PLANNER

-wow my backpack is heavy can i get rid of anyth--nope

-i don’t want to find the planner to write it down i’m sure i’ll remember it

-fuck there was homework what do you mean there was homework

-but I don’t WANNA flip to the specific dayyyyyyy

-why is there random crap in here 

-i had an assignment due tuesday but the calendar is laid out Monday-Sunday so i didn’t realize until the day before when i turned the page

-shit where’s the planner

you get the gist. 

APPROACH THAT ACTUALLY WORKS FOR ME:

-Reminder app on phone. I’ve only ever used the iOS, but i bet there’s a similar one for Android

-no calendar. Make specific “Homework” list. Sit down at the beginning of schoolweek (which for me the way it’s scheduled is Tuesday). Check syllabi. Check blackboard. 

-list out EVERYTHING

-Start every line with an acronym of the class that’s it’s for, break up assignments by what i’m likely to do in blocks. Example: “BT Chap 2″ means “read the chapter 2 for biotechnology” and is all in one place because i'm more likely to get it done without delays for incremental rewards. “HIW discussion reply” pops up twice, because my online History course requires 2 replies each week, and i hate doing them so that’s acceptable to break up and reward myself for as needed

-if i need to, i can delete things, or split them up, or combine them, or reorder them, which is helpful and allows me to think about them

-timed reminders! exclamation points!

-things go away when i check them off and there is no greater satisfaction than a clean to-do list

-IT’S ALL RIGHT THERE. EVERY WEEK. I DON’T HAVE TO KEEP DIGGING IN THE PLANNER.

-can leave it open so when i try to distract myself by looking at my phone i can see how much work i have to do

-INFINITE SPACE TO PUT THINGS. I CAN BREAK ESSAYS UP BY PARAGRAPH IF I WANT. TANGIBLE FEELING OF ACCOMPLISHMENT.

-use with Calendar app scheduling classes to best effect

in conclusion if you use a planner and it works good on you, rock that aesthetic, if you don’t want to, embrace technology and turn into an app-using gremlin it can make life much easier

[0xcusesfitness]

Boundless exuberance!

Boundless exuberance!

Dear Reader,

TGIF! Although to be honest, the first thing on my mind when I woke up this morning was not “TGIF” – it was a bit of a muffled “Back to sleep, sweetie” sort of sigh if that makes any sense.

What do I mean?

Well, my little girl’s been up since 6:30 A.M. this morning – actually RARING to go to school today – and why?

It’s FRIIIIIIDDDAAAAAAAYYY, Papa! And that of course means no more school for two days, and she was so thrilled about it that she probably dreamed of it all night long (judging by the smiles on her face, anyway).

This exuberant attitude was on display right until the front gate of the school – and when normally it’s a bit of a “slow walk” to class, she practically BOUNDED in today.

Photos are on Instagram (and Twitter a few days ago) – and as for my “go back to sleep?”

Well, it was pouring right about 4:15 or so (right, THAT time, hehe) in the morning, and we had left our clothes out to dry, so it was off to get ’em back in. Then it was time to give the “baby gorilla” some water as she was coughing.

By the way, this little girl has turned into a bonafide grip MONSTER – at the tender age of 4.5. And if you don’t believe me, I can show you her “paw” marks on my fingers as she furiously tries to, as she says “squooosh Papa’s hands between hers” (and her feet too!).

And if a 4 year old can do it, then YOU, my friend  can benefit IMMENSELY from what I teach you in Gorilla Grip (Advanced) as well. Grab it now if you so choose, and watch your grip strength skyrocket almost immediately.

And then finally as we went back to bed – our little one woke us up again, hehe. “Daddy! It’s Friday! Yay! Junk food dayyyyyyy!”

Anyway, my point in saying all this, you ask?

Well, it’s to point THIS out – little kids live life the way it should be lived.

Each day is a NEW one – with past mistakes erased confidently from the pysche. Each day is one of amazement, and wonderment – and they find something to look forward to DAILY without fail – and WITH boundless excuberance, zest, vim, vigor and GUSTO!

‘Tis Nature’s way, my friend. Ever seen an adult tiger – or elephant – or croc, for that matter, wake up and hit the snooze button and groan about “another long day ahead”?

I didn’t think so, my friend.

It’s wake up – and then BANG – off to work as it were. A new day, as they say!

As adults we’d do well to learn from both these examples. Now granted, kids aren’t immune to a case of “well, Monday’s around the corner either” – apparently my daughter had that thought in mind too, but it was a teeny weeny one, and one that I quashed almost instantly after she brought it up as an afterthought.

“Live in the moment, honey! Enjoy TODAY – and enjoy the next two days!”

“Monday will come – but we’ll deal with it when it comes!”

And truth be told, the only reason she even brought that up was because of an overly “cautious” (I’m being polite here) adult who constantly tries to pester her into doing the exact opposite of what she’s meant to be doing at her age (and all ages).  Not gonna mention her here, but you probably get my drift …

Key takeaway from all this – is – this – live in the MOMENT, my friend. There truly is no other way.

When it comes to fitness, don’t worry about the bad workout you had yesterday – or what you “think” you may have today.

Don’t worry about “how difficult” the workouts may be – or not.

Don’t worry about the lookie lou’s. Dont’ worry about the gym gorillas telling you pushups don’t build strength. Oh yes they dooooooooo – big time!

Just get on the floor – or chinning bar if you so choose, and start cranking out your 0 Excuses Fitness stuff, my friend.

Live in the moment. Workout in the moment. And so forth.

There truly is NO other way!

Best,

Rahul Mookerjee

P.S. – Quote of the morning – “Be happy in the HERE and now. That’s really all we need – not more!”.

P.S. #2 – And as far as the gym gorillas and naysayers are concerned, well, HERE is another way to shut ’em up. Get to the point where you can do 10 – or more – perfect pull-ups at a go, and keep doing ’em for reps. Do it in the gym. Watch mouths drop as your bat wings SPREAD!

[heliosfinance]

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit

Hump Dayyyyyyy!

Came across this financial checklist over at Personal Finance Junkie this morning (how good is that name?) and thought it would be fun to see how many of these bad boys we can check off.

She says they’re good goals to hit by the time you’re 40, but really they’re great goals to achieve no matter your age, so whether you’re 20 or 60 let’s see how you’re looking so far…

I’ll go first, then your turn!

15 Goals to Hit On Your Way to Financial Freedom

#1. Build a starter emergency fund of $1,000. Check! The first step to getting things stabilized, and probably one of the hardest when you’re first starting out. Especially when you’re making minimum wage and stuck in the checking and savings shuffle game… I was king of that! ($50 into savings today, $50 back into my checking account at the end of the month when I’ve run out of money!) And the worst is that your brain only remembers the “saving” part, making you feel like you’ve saved when you haven’t ;)

#2. Organize your important financial information in a binder or eFile. Check! I still wanna do that Legacy Binder idea because it’s nerdily bad ass, but for now we keep our important $$$ and Life info into a centralized Google Doc, as well as partially printed out and stored in our safe. I do need to be better about keeping everything updated though as info changes all the time!

#3. Develop a monthly budget habit. Fail. What??? On a site called Budgets Are Sexy??? How is that possible?? Well, it’s possible because I spent 5+ years watching every penny and eventually got good at predicting my expenses without needing to look at it anymore :) I still think budgeting is one of the most important things to do when starting out, if not THE most important, but the good news is that once you’ve got a handle on everything you’re allowed to do whatever the F you want, haha… Even if you end up spending a little more had you continued to track it all :) So yeah – definitely still a huge fan of budgets and you gotta know where it’s all going, but my “budgets or die!” mantra has since eased up over time, and now I tend to focus more on the overall snapshot and trends (i.e. Net Worth) than I do tracking every transaction. If you’re a budgeting beast though and it’s working for you no matter what stage you’re in, more power to you!

#4. Pay off all of your debts. Fail. No budgeting and DEBTS?? What the hell kind of $$ blogger are you? Haha… An enigma? Wrapped in a conundrum? :) I don’t really know, but I have been known to go years without any debts whatsoever, so I guess this checklist caught me on a debt-year. Though does it make it better if I can pay it off at any time if I wanted to?  (It’s our car loan – no credit card debt or anything)

#5. Build a mid-level emergency fund of $10,000. Check. You probably do need to be out of your teens and early 20s to hit this level, but fortunately as the years – and job skipping/promotions – continue, it gets easier and easier to start padding this boy. Though watch for kids and first homes and that bitch of a creeper, lifestyle inflation!

#6. Cut your expenses. Check. We could definitely be better, especially with the big three: home, car, food, but I’m giving us a pass here because we’ve come a far way over the years and planning on changing at least the home one significantly when we move next year. We’ve also been cable-free for over two years now – woo! (And iPhone free for over three!)

#7. Be aware of your credit score. Check. I use a combination of grabbing my free Experian score from USAA (currently 829), and then also my TransUnion and Equifax scores which uses the VantageScore 3.0 rating from Credit Karma (currently 835 and 833). There’s a ton of different scoring systems out there, but really as long as you’re monitoring one of them consistently over time you should be fine. If it moves sharply in any direction you know something’s up!

(Don’t forget – you can always get your free credit *report* every year too through Credit Karma as well as AnnualCreditReport.com! (I know that last one sounds sketchy, but I swear it’s legit :))

#8. Earn extra income. Check. My “day” job and my “hustle” jobs are pretty much mixed these days, but I have recently taken on more consulting jobs so I’m gonna go ahead and count that as extra since I had stopped for a handful of months. Big thanks to FinCon for letting me judge the FinTech Competition which brought in a wave of new business!

#9. Read the top personal finance books. Check. Although I’m much better about reading the top personal finance blogs since they tend to be more fun and relatable :) You’ll have to check out our books directory though over at Rockstar Finance as we recently polled over 100 financial bloggers on their favorites and then built a place to feature them all. Let me know what you think: PF Book Directory

#10. Automate your savings. Check/Fail. I automate a little of it, like when using Digit, but I tend to do most things manually these days just to have more control over it and appreciate it more. Like for example our new Spavings Experiment we’ve just started. Automation can be great, but don’t discount the power of consciously moving things over yourself too!

#11. Automate your bills. Check/Fail. I automate the bills that never change, but for everything else I just go in once a month and knock ’em out in one sitting to make sure all is kosher and the accounts have the funds needed when anything unusual is going on. Similar to the automation of savings and other areas, it makes me feel better manually handling stuff and forcing myself to check in at least once a month.

#12. Automate investing. Check/Fail. (Are you sensing a pattern here? :)). I automate some stuff, like our kids’ 529 investments and when I was experimenting with Acorns, but by and large I manually push money into my SEP or Roth IRA when it’s time again for all the reasons listed above. Although for my wife’s TSP plan (the gov’ts version of the 401(k)) we automate that fully, and I highly advise everyone else doing the same who has access to it, if not just to grab all that free $$$$ most employers give you!

#13. Write a 5 year financial plan. Major Fail. Haha… If there’s one thing I just cannot do no matter how hard I try, it’s to forecast my future. It’s amazing I’ve made it this far in the career/money world to be honest with you, as I can barely plan 5 weeks out no less 5 years! So anyone who can answer this question with a resounding “Yes”, or even a half-assed yes for that matter, gets major street cred in my books… I admire you greatly for being able to do that!!

#14. Start maxing out your retirement account every year. MAJOR CHECK!! Whew – ending on a good note here! My only rule with $$$ is to max out both of my retirement accounts every year ($20,000’ish total), and I’m proud to say that I’m now on year #7 or #8 so far and still going strong :) It’s pretty much the entire backbone of my net worth, and so long as you can do that you get a free pass at sucking at everything else, haha… it’s just a matter of time until you become a millionaire even if you do nothing else!

#15. Complete your emergency fund so you have at least 6 months’ expenses saved. Check. I dip above and beyond this number depending on what month/year you catch me, but as it stands we do have enough to last us if another penny didn’t come in over the next 6+ months… This is a tough one to pull off for sure though, especially if you’re doing #14 above. At least once you hit it though you don’t have to touch it until an emergency comes up!

So there it is! 15 financial goals to hit by 40 (or whenever)!

Looks like I scored a 10.5 out of a total possible 15, woops, haha… Someone take away my blog card! But it’s true – I could certainly improve in a number of areas, not gonna lie. Always something to work on, right? Life would be boring being perfect, or something like that? :)

A good exercise to check in on yourself though, whether you feel like sharing your results with others or not. All that counts is that you’re aware of what’s going on and striving to get better! And I’m rooting you on over here!

For those who do want to share though, let us know in the comments below what you scored, and how old you are if you dare :) Can be as easy as this, “I’m 37 years old and I scored 10.5 points out of 15. Yay?”

Thanks for the stimulation, PF Junkie!

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B

[fesahaawit]

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit

Hump Dayyyyyyy!

Came across this financial checklist over at Personal Finance Junkie this morning (how good is that name?) and thought it would be fun to see how many of these bad boys we can check off.

She says they’re good goals to hit by the time you’re 40, but really they’re great goals to achieve no matter your age, so whether you’re 20 or 60 let’s see how you’re looking so far…

I’ll go first, then your turn!

15 Goals to Hit On Your Way to Financial Freedom

#1. Build a starter emergency fund of $1,000. Check! The first step to getting things stabilized, and probably one of the hardest when you’re first starting out. Especially when you’re making minimum wage and stuck in the checking and savings shuffle game… I was king of that! ($50 into savings today, $50 back into my checking account at the end of the month when I’ve run out of money!) And the worst is that your brain only remembers the “saving” part, making you feel like you’ve saved when you haven’t ;)

#2. Organize your important financial information in a binder or eFile. Check! I still wanna do that Legacy Binder idea because it’s nerdily bad ass, but for now we keep our important $$$ and Life info into a centralized Google Doc, as well as partially printed out and stored in our safe. I do need to be better about keeping everything updated though as info changes all the time!

#3. Develop a monthly budget habit. Fail. What??? On a site called Budgets Are Sexy??? How is that possible?? Well, it’s possible because I spent 5+ years watching every penny and eventually got good at predicting my expenses without needing to look at it anymore :) I still think budgeting is one of the most important things to do when starting out, if not THE most important, but the good news is that once you’ve got a handle on everything you’re allowed to do whatever the F you want, haha… Even if you end up spending a little more had you continued to track it all :) So yeah – definitely still a huge fan of budgets and you gotta know where it’s all going, but my “budgets or die!” mantra has since eased up over time, and now I tend to focus more on the overall snapshot and trends (i.e. Net Worth) than I do tracking every transaction. If you’re a budgeting beast though and it’s working for you no matter what stage you’re in, more power to you!

#4. Pay off all of your debts. Fail. No budgeting and DEBTS?? What the hell kind of $$ blogger are you? Haha… An enigma? Wrapped in a conundrum? :) I don’t really know, but I have been known to go years without any debts whatsoever, so I guess this checklist caught me on a debt-year. Though does it make it better if I can pay it off at any time if I wanted to?  (It’s our car loan – no credit card debt or anything)

#5. Build a mid-level emergency fund of $10,000. Check. You probably do need to be out of your teens and early 20s to hit this level, but fortunately as the years – and job skipping/promotions – continue, it gets easier and easier to start padding this boy. Though watch for kids and first homes and that bitch of a creeper, lifestyle inflation!

#6. Cut your expenses. Check. We could definitely be better, especially with the big three: home, car, food, but I’m giving us a pass here because we’ve come a far way over the years and planning on changing at least the home one significantly when we move next year. We’ve also been cable-free for over two years now – woo! (And iPhone free for over three!)

#7. Be aware of your credit score. Check. I use a combination of grabbing my free Experian score from USAA (currently 829), and then also my TransUnion and Equifax scores which uses the VantageScore 3.0 rating from Credit Karma (currently 835 and 833). There’s a ton of different scoring systems out there, but really as long as you’re monitoring one of them consistently over time you should be fine. If it moves sharply in any direction you know something’s up!

(Don’t forget – you can always get your free credit *report* every year too through Credit Karma as well as AnnualCreditReport.com! (I know that last one sounds sketchy, but I swear it’s legit :))

#8. Earn extra income. Check. My “day” job and my “hustle” jobs are pretty much mixed these days, but I have recently taken on more consulting jobs so I’m gonna go ahead and count that as extra since I had stopped for a handful of months. Big thanks to FinCon for letting me judge the FinTech Competition which brought in a wave of new business!

#9. Read the top personal finance books. Check. Although I’m much better about reading the top personal finance blogs since they tend to be more fun and relatable :) You’ll have to check out our books directory though over at Rockstar Finance as we recently polled over 100 financial bloggers on their favorites and then built a place to feature them all. Let me know what you think: PF Book Directory

#10. Automate your savings. Check/Fail. I automate a little of it, like when using Digit, but I tend to do most things manually these days just to have more control over it and appreciate it more. Like for example our new Spavings Experiment we’ve just started. Automation can be great, but don’t discount the power of consciously moving things over yourself too!

#11. Automate your bills. Check/Fail. I automate the bills that never change, but for everything else I just go in once a month and knock ’em out in one sitting to make sure all is kosher and the accounts have the funds needed when anything unusual is going on. Similar to the automation of savings and other areas, it makes me feel better manually handling stuff and forcing myself to check in at least once a month.

#12. Automate investing. Check/Fail. (Are you sensing a pattern here? :)). I automate some stuff, like our kids’ 529 investments and when I was experimenting with Acorns, but by and large I manually push money into my SEP or Roth IRA when it’s time again for all the reasons listed above. Although for my wife’s TSP plan (the gov’ts version of the 401(k)) we automate that fully, and I highly advise everyone else doing the same who has access to it, if not just to grab all that free $$$$ most employers give you!

#13. Write a 5 year financial plan. Major Fail. Haha… If there’s one thing I just cannot do no matter how hard I try, it’s to forecast my future. It’s amazing I’ve made it this far in the career/money world to be honest with you, as I can barely plan 5 weeks out no less 5 years! So anyone who can answer this question with a resounding “Yes”, or even a half-assed yes for that matter, gets major street cred in my books… I admire you greatly for being able to do that!!

#14. Start maxing out your retirement account every year. MAJOR CHECK!! Whew – ending on a good note here! My only rule with $$$ is to max out both of my retirement accounts every year ($20,000’ish total), and I’m proud to say that I’m now on year #7 or #8 so far and still going strong :) It’s pretty much the entire backbone of my net worth, and so long as you can do that you get a free pass at sucking at everything else, haha… it’s just a matter of time until you become a millionaire even if you do nothing else!

#15. Complete your emergency fund so you have at least 6 months’ expenses saved. Check. I dip above and beyond this number depending on what month/year you catch me, but as it stands we do have enough to last us if another penny didn’t come in over the next 6+ months… This is a tough one to pull off for sure though, especially if you’re doing #14 above. At least once you hit it though you don’t have to touch it until an emergency comes up!

So there it is! 15 financial goals to hit by 40 (or whenever)!

Looks like I scored a 10.5 out of a total possible 15, woops, haha… Someone take away my blog card! But it’s true – I could certainly improve in a number of areas, not gonna lie. Always something to work on, right? Life would be boring being perfect, or something like that? :)

A good exercise to check in on yourself though, whether you feel like sharing your results with others or not. All that counts is that you’re aware of what’s going on and striving to get better! And I’m rooting you on over here!

For those who do want to share though, let us know in the comments below what you scored, and how old you are if you dare :) Can be as easy as this, “I’m 37 years old and I scored 10.5 points out of 15. Yay?”

Thanks for the stimulation, PF Junkie!

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

[fesahaawit]

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit

Hump Dayyyyyyy!

Came across this financial checklist over at Personal Finance Junkie this morning (how good is that name?) and thought it would be fun to see how many of these bad boys we can check off.

She says they’re good goals to hit by the time you’re 40, but really they’re great goals to achieve no matter your age, so whether you’re 20 or 60 let’s see how you’re looking so far…

I’ll go first, then your turn!

15 Goals to Hit On Your Way to Financial Freedom

#1. Build a starter emergency fund of $1,000. Check! The first step to getting things stabilized, and probably one of the hardest when you’re first starting out. Especially when you’re making minimum wage and stuck in the checking and savings shuffle game… I was king of that! ($50 into savings today, $50 back into my checking account at the end of the month when I’ve run out of money!) And the worst is that your brain only remembers the “saving” part, making you feel like you’ve saved when you haven’t ;)

#2. Organize your important financial information in a binder or eFile. Check! I still wanna do that Legacy Binder idea because it’s nerdily bad ass, but for now we keep our important $$$ and Life info into a centralized Google Doc, as well as partially printed out and stored in our safe. I do need to be better about keeping everything updated though as info changes all the time!

#3. Develop a monthly budget habit. Fail. What??? On a site called Budgets Are Sexy??? How is that possible?? Well, it’s possible because I spent 5+ years watching every penny and eventually got good at predicting my expenses without needing to look at it anymore :) I still think budgeting is one of the most important things to do when starting out, if not THE most important, but the good news is that once you’ve got a handle on everything you’re allowed to do whatever the F you want, haha… Even if you end up spending a little more had you continued to track it all :) So yeah – definitely still a huge fan of budgets and you gotta know where it’s all going, but my “budgets or die!” mantra has since eased up over time, and now I tend to focus more on the overall snapshot and trends (i.e. Net Worth) than I do tracking every transaction. If you’re a budgeting beast though and it’s working for you no matter what stage you’re in, more power to you!

#4. Pay off all of your debts. Fail. No budgeting and DEBTS?? What the hell kind of $$ blogger are you? Haha… An enigma? Wrapped in a conundrum? :) I don’t really know, but I have known to go years without any debts whatsoever, so I guess this checklist caught me on a debt-year. Though does it make it better if I can pay it off at any time if I wanted to?  (It’s our car loan – no credit card debt or anything)

#5. Build a mid-level emergency fund of $10,000. Check. You probably do need to be out of your teens and earl 20s to hit this level, but fortunately as the years – and job skipping/promotions – continue, it gets easier and easier to start padding this boy. Though watch for kids and first homes and that bitch of a creeper, lifestyle inflation!

#6. Cut your expenses. Check. We could definitely be better, especially with the big three: home, car, food, but I’m giving us a pass here because we’ve come a far away over the years and planning on changing at least the home one significantly when we move next year. We’ve also been cable-free for over two years now – woo! (And iPhone free for over three!)

#7. Be aware of your credit score. Check. I use a combination of grabbing my free Experian score from USAA (currently 829), and then also my TransUnion and Equifax scores which uses the VantageScore 3.0 rating from Credit Karma (currently 835 and 833). There’s a ton of different scoring systems out there, but really as long as you’re monitoring one of them consistently over time you should be fine. If it moves sharply in any direction you know something’s up!

(Don’t forget – you can always get your free credit *report* every year too through Credit Karma as well as AnnualCreditReport.com! (I know that last one sounds sketchy, but I swear it’s legit :))

#8. Earn extra income. Check. My “day” job and my “hustle” jobs are pretty much mixed these days, but I have recently taken on more consulting jobs so I’m gonna go ahead and count that as extra since I had stopped for a handful of months. Big thanks to FinCon for letting me judge the FinTech Competition which brought in a wave of new business!

#9. Read the top personal finance books. Check. Although I’m much better about reading the top personal finance blogs since they tend to be more fun and relatable :) You’ll have to check out our books directory though over at Rockstar Finance as we recently polled over 100 financial bloggers on their favorites and then built a place to feature them all. Let me know what you think: PF Book Directory

#10. Automate your savings. Check/Fail. I automate a little of it, like when using Digit, but I tend to do most things manually these days just to have more control over it and appreciate it more. Like for example our new Spavings Experiment we’ve just started. Automation can be great, but don’t discount the power of consciously moving things over yourself too!

#11. Automate your bills. Check/Fail. I automate the bills that never change, but for everything else I just go in once a month and knock ’em out in one sitting to make sure all is kosher and the accounts have the funds needed when anything unusual is going on. Similar to the automation of savings and other areas, it makes me feel better manually handling stuff and forcing myself to check in at least once a month.

#12. Automate investing. Check/Fail. (Are you sensing a pattern here? :)). I automate some stuff, like our kids’ 529 investments and when I was experimenting with Acorns, but by and large I manually push money into my SEP or Roth IRA when it’s time again for all the reasons listed above. Although for my wife’s TSP plan (the gov’ts version of the 401(k)) we automate that fully, and I highly advise everyone else doing the same who has access to it, if not just to grab all that free $$$$ most employees give you!

#13. Write a 5 year financial plan. Major Fail. Haha… If there’s one thing I just cannot do no matter how hard I try, it’s to forecast my future. It’s amazing I’ve made it this far in the career/money world to be honest with you, as I can barely plan 5 weeks out no less 5 years! So anyone who can answer this question with a resounding “Yes”, or even a half-assed yes for that matter, gets major street cred in my books… I admire you greatly for being able to do that!!

#14. Start maxing out your retirement account every year. MAJOR CHECK!! Whew – ending on a good note here! My only rule with $$$ is to max out both of my retirement accounts every year ($20,000’ish total), and I’m proud to say that I’m now on year #7 or #8 so far and still going strong :) It’s pretty much the entire backbone of my net worth, and so long as you can do that you get a free pass at sucking at everything else, haha… it’s just a matter of time until you become a millionaire even if you do nothing else!

#15. Complete your emergency fund so you have at least 6 months’ expenses saved. Check. I dip above and beyond this number depending on what month/year you catch me, but as it stands we do have enough to last us if another penny didn’t come in over the next 6+ months… This is a tough one to pull off for sure though, especially if you’re doing #14 above. At least once you hit it though you don’t have to touch it until an emergency comes up!

So there it is! 15 financial goals to hit by 40 (or whenever)!

Looks like I scored a 10.5 out of a total possible 15, woops, haha… Someone take away my blog card! But it’s true – I could certainly improve in a number of areas, not gonna lie. Always something to work on, right? Life would be boring being perfect, or something like that? :)

A good exercise to check in on yourself though, whether you feel like sharing your results with others or not. All that counts is that you’re aware of what’s going on and striving to get better! And I’m rooting you on over here!

For those who do want to share though, let us know in the comments below what you scored, and how old you are if you dare :) Can be as easy as this, “I’m 37 years old and I scored 10.5 points out of 15. Yay?”

Thanks for the stimulation, PF Junkie!

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit posted first on http://ift.tt/2lnwIdQ

[heliosfinance]

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit

Hump Dayyyyyyy!

Came across this financial checklist over at Personal Finance Junkie this morning (how good is that name?) and thought it would be fun to see how many of these bad boys we can check off.

She says they’re good goals to hit by the time you’re 40, but really they’re great goals to achieve no matter your age, so whether you’re 20 or 60 let’s see how you’re looking so far…

I’ll go first, then your turn!

15 Goals to Hit On Your Way to Financial Freedom

#1. Build a starter emergency fund of $1,000. Check! The first step to getting things stabilized, and probably one of the hardest when you’re first starting out. Especially when you’re making minimum wage and stuck in the checking and savings shuffle game… I was king of that! ($50 into savings today, $50 back into my checking account at the end of the month when I’ve run out of money!) And the worst is that your brain only remembers the “saving” part, making you feel like you’ve saved when you haven’t ;)

#2. Organize your important financial information in a binder or eFile. Check! I still wanna do that Legacy Binder idea because it’s nerdily bad ass, but for now we keep our important $$$ and Life info into a centralized Google Doc, as well as partially printed out and stored in our safe. I do need to be better about keeping everything updated though as info changes all the time!

#3. Develop a monthly budget habit. Fail. What??? On a site called Budgets Are Sexy??? How is that possible?? Well, it’s possible because I spent 5+ years watching every penny and eventually got good at predicting my expenses without needing to look at it anymore :) I still think budgeting is one of the most important things to do when starting out, if not THE most important, but the good news is that once you’ve got a handle on everything you’re allowed to do whatever the F you want, haha… Even if you end up spending a little more had you continued to track it all :) So yeah – definitely still a huge fan of budgets and you gotta know where it’s all going, but my “budgets or die!” mantra has since eased up over time, and now I tend to focus more on the overall snapshot and trends (i.e. Net Worth) than I do tracking every transaction. If you’re a budgeting beast though and it’s working for you no matter what stage you’re in, more power to you!

#4. Pay off all of your debts. Fail. No budgeting and DEBTS?? What the hell kind of $$ blogger are you? Haha… An enigma? Wrapped in a conundrum? :) I don’t really know, but I have known to go years without any debts whatsoever, so I guess this checklist caught me on a debt-year. Though does it make it better if I can pay it off at any time if I wanted to?  (It’s our car loan – no credit card debt or anything)

#5. Build a mid-level emergency fund of $10,000. Check. You probably do need to be out of your teens and earl 20s to hit this level, but fortunately as the years – and job skipping/promotions – continue, it gets easier and easier to start padding this boy. Though watch for kids and first homes and that bitch of a creeper, lifestyle inflation!

#6. Cut your expenses. Check. We could definitely be better, especially with the big three: home, car, food, but I’m giving us a pass here because we’ve come a far away over the years and planning on changing at least the home one significantly when we move next year. We’ve also been cable-free for over two years now – woo! (And iPhone free for over three!)

#7. Be aware of your credit score. Check. I use a combination of grabbing my free Experian score from USAA (currently 829), and then also my TransUnion and Equifax scores which uses the VantageScore 3.0 rating from Credit Karma (currently 835 and 833). There’s a ton of different scoring systems out there, but really as long as you’re monitoring one of them consistently over time you should be fine. If it moves sharply in any direction you know something’s up!

(Don’t forget – you can always get your free credit *report* every year too through Credit Karma as well as AnnualCreditReport.com! (I know that last one sounds sketchy, but I swear it’s legit :))

#8. Earn extra income. Check. My “day” job and my “hustle” jobs are pretty much mixed these days, but I have recently taken on more consulting jobs so I’m gonna go ahead and count that as extra since I had stopped for a handful of months. Big thanks to FinCon for letting me judge the FinTech Competition which brought in a wave of new business!

#9. Read the top personal finance books. Check. Although I’m much better about reading the top personal finance blogs since they tend to be more fun and relatable :) You’ll have to check out our books directory though over at Rockstar Finance as we recently polled over 100 financial bloggers on their favorites and then built a place to feature them all. Let me know what you think: PF Book Directory

#10. Automate your savings. Check/Fail. I automate a little of it, like when using Digit, but I tend to do most things manually these days just to have more control over it and appreciate it more. Like for example our new Spavings Experiment we’ve just started. Automation can be great, but don’t discount the power of consciously moving things over yourself too!

#11. Automate your bills. Check/Fail. I automate the bills that never change, but for everything else I just go in once a month and knock ’em out in one sitting to make sure all is kosher and the accounts have the funds needed when anything unusual is going on. Similar to the automation of savings and other areas, it makes me feel better manually handling stuff and forcing myself to check in at least once a month.

#12. Automate investing. Check/Fail. (Are you sensing a pattern here? :)). I automate some stuff, like our kids’ 529 investments and when I was experimenting with Acorns, but by and large I manually push money into my SEP or Roth IRA when it’s time again for all the reasons listed above. Although for my wife’s TSP plan (the gov’ts version of the 401(k)) we automate that fully, and I highly advise everyone else doing the same who has access to it, if not just to grab all that free $$$$ most employees give you!

#13. Write a 5 year financial plan. Major Fail. Haha… If there’s one thing I just cannot do no matter how hard I try, it’s to forecast my future. It’s amazing I’ve made it this far in the career/money world to be honest with you, as I can barely plan 5 weeks out no less 5 years! So anyone who can answer this question with a resounding “Yes”, or even a half-assed yes for that matter, gets major street cred in my books… I admire you greatly for being able to do that!!

#14. Start maxing out your retirement account every year. MAJOR CHECK!! Whew – ending on a good note here! My only rule with $$$ is to max out both of my retirement accounts every year ($20,000’ish total), and I’m proud to say that I’m now on year #7 or #8 so far and still going strong :) It’s pretty much the entire backbone of my net worth, and so long as you can do that you get a free pass at sucking at everything else, haha… it’s just a matter of time until you become a millionaire even if you do nothing else!

#15. Complete your emergency fund so you have at least 6 months’ expenses saved. Check. I dip above and beyond this number depending on what month/year you catch me, but as it stands we do have enough to last us if another penny didn’t come in over the next 6+ months… This is a tough one to pull off for sure though, especially if you’re doing #14 above. At least once you hit it though you don’t have to touch it until an emergency comes up!

So there it is! 15 financial goals to hit by 40 (or whenever)!

Looks like I scored a 10.5 out of a total possible 15, woops, haha… Someone take away my blog card! But it’s true – I could certainly improve in a number of areas, not gonna lie. Always something to work on, right? Life would be boring being perfect, or something like that? :)

A good exercise to check in on yourself though, whether you feel like sharing your results with others or not. All that counts is that you’re aware of what’s going on and striving to get better! And I’m rooting you on over here!

For those who do want to share though, let us know in the comments below what you scored, and how old you are if you dare :) Can be as easy as this, “I’m 37 years old and I scored 10.5 points out of 15. Yay?”

Thanks for the stimulation, PF Junkie!

A Checklist of 15 Financial Goals To Hit published first on http://ift.tt/2ljLF4B