The end of the year is nigh, and 2020 has been one of the most stressful in recent memory. Jesse offers some advice for those dealing with fear and anxiety during these times.

During times of fear and uncertainty, Jesse draws on Stephen R. Covey's seminal book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. The first habit is to be proactive and take responsibility for your reactions to events. To that end, Covey asks readers to consider their circle of influence -- What do you control? Where do you not have control? Drawing a very clear picture of your circle of influence, and defining what you don't control, can help with realizing what things you ought to be fear and what things are outside your influence, and thus should be outside your concern (or at least unworthy of spending mental bandwidth on). When people start budgeting, they often can't control what they make, but they can control some of things they spend on. So focusing on spending, giving their money a job, and following the four steps brings their attention to concrete, actionable things within their circle of influence.

Secondly, Jesse recommends learning more about the things you are fearful of. What information could you gather about a topic that would help you better understand it? If you are fearful about money, how about understanding how much you have in your checking account right now? Then take another step. What does that money need to do between now and the next time you get paid? Gathering data points and information about the things causing you fear and anxiety can help make them seem more manageable.

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Jesse and Taylor Brown, YNAB's Chief Technology Officer, celebrate the company being named Fortune's #1 Best Place to Work in Small Business in 2020. Jesse and Taylor take a walk down memory lane, reminiscing about the very early days of YNAB and how they much they've grown since, both as a company and as leaders within the business. The moniker "best place to work" doesn't just happen, but rather is a consequence of Jesse and Taylor's work in defining their company and employee values and consistently acting on those principles over the years.

Of course winning this honor is due to the work of everyone at YNAB, especially the operations team (lead by COO Chance Gurr) whose responsibility is making sure YNAB is a rewarding place to work. So, Jesse and Taylor wish to thank everyone at YNAB for their hard work and for embodying the company's values every day.

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Jesse sits down with acclaimed finance writer and entrepreneur Ramit Sethi for a long chat about the mindset of financial success, how to think like an entrepreneur, and why the most important question about personal finance you need to be able to answer is... "Why?".

Ramit is the author of the 2009 New York Times Best Seller, I Will Teach You to Be Rich, and the founder of Earnable, a community of entrepreneurs in which he coaches people how to think like entrepreneurs, develop viable business ventures, and market effectively to grow their business.

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Jesse interviews wellness expert, educator, and entrepreneur Robyn Conley Downs about applying her strategies for wellness to making lasting change in budgeting.

You can find Robyn here:

Real Food Whole Life: https://realfoodwholelife.com/about/

IG: @realfoodwholelife

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In the world of cost accounting, there's a concept known as contribution margin. Basically, it's how much you make on a product or service after you consider how much it cost to make that thing. The formula is revenue less the variable costs that go into making the product. Contribution margin is an important metric for businesses because it tells you whether you are making a profit on the things you sell. After all, it would do no good to sell a bunch of t-shirts for $18 a piece, if each of them costs you $20 to make!

Now, Jesse asks, what if we apply this concept to our life? We have jobs that earn us revenue. What do they cost to do? Time, obviously, but perhaps also driving/commuting, stress? The point is, the things that earn us money have a non-zero cost associated with them, and it's wise to keep track of that cost and make sure, at the end of the day, that we are using our time in a profitable manner.

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