{"id":46704,"date":"2026-08-16T09:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-08-16T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/?p=46704"},"modified":"2026-08-14T09:11:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T16:11:10","slug":"retro-recomendo-money-stuff","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/retro-recomendo-money-stuff\/","title":{"rendered":"Retro Recomendo: Money Stuff"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Our subscriber base has grown so much since we first started nine years ago that most of you have missed all our earliest recommendations. The best of these are still valid and useful, so we\u2019re trying out something new \u2014 Retro Recomendo<\/strong>. Once every 6 weeks, we\u2019ll send out a throwback issue of evergreen recommendations focused on one theme from the past 10 years.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A home budget that makes sense to me (YNAB)<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

For years I\u2019ve tried to keep a home budget, but it never seems to work. I end up spending more than I budgeted in some categories, less in others, and I don\u2019t keep good track of what I\u2019ve spent. When our Cool Tools podcast guest Lillian Karabaic recommended something called You Need a Budget (YNAB)<\/a>, I decided to give it a try. I\u2019m glad I did. YNAB\u2019s websites and mobile apps are excellent, as are the podcasts, videos, blog posts, and mailing lists they produce. It took me a while to wrap my head around the YNAB method, but now that I get it, I\u2019m a true believer. For the first time in my adult life, I feel in control of my finances. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

High-leverage philanthropy<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019ve been making micro-loans to entrepreneurs in the developing world via Kiva<\/a> for 10 years. I loan small amounts (less than $100) to, say, women in Africa hoping to buy a sewing machine to start their own sewing business, or herders in Bolivia needing some equipment to make cheese, and soon enough they will repay the loan so that I can re-loan the money again to someone else. I\u2019ve gone through 4 cycles of loans for my first money, and there is less than 0.1% delinquency \u2014 a rate any bank would die for. 100% of my money goes to helping the individuals I select; Kiva\u2019s operating costs are funded separately. The money keeps going around. It\u2019s one of the best bargains in the world. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Salary Transparent Street<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Salary Transparent Street<\/a> shares videos of people on the street being asked, \u201cWhat do you do?\u201d and \u201cHow much do you make?\u201d It\u2019s humbling and (mind-boggling!) to imagine how I would survive in the Bay Area on certain salaries across the U.S. The channel\u2019s goal is to promote pay transparency across the United States, close the gender pay gap, and increase diversity and equal opportunities. You can follow it on Instagram, YouTube, or TikTok. \u2014 CD<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Online notary service<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Notarizing documents traditionally requires visiting a notary, but I\u2019ve been utilizing online notary services for the past few years to avoid this hassle. All that\u2019s needed is a laptop with a webcam. There are numerous online notaries available; my recent choice was Notarize.com<\/a>, which charges $25 to notarize a single document. \u2014 MF<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Equipping students<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Few things in life are as satisfying as getting handwritten thank-you notes from school kids for helping them learn. DonorsChoose<\/a> is a non-profit that features thousands of public school teachers seeking basic school supplies, or extra gear for special projects (rocket kits for science!). The teachers post their pitch. You choose a project. When it gets fully funded, they post verification pictures of the kids using the resource which your funds provided, and later they\u2019ll send you a fistful of amazingly detailed (and endearing) letters from the students themselves. You\u2019ll want to do this. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zelle<\/strong> payments<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

I use PayPal to send money to strangers (like on eBay or Etsy); I use Venmo to pay friends; but if I need to send a lot of money (more than several thousand $$$), I use Zelle<\/a>. Unlike Venmo, which holds a reserve in your account that you replenish, Zelle is basically a bank-to-bank wire transfer \u2013 for free. But the interface is person-to-person. Still can\u2019t do it internationally, but it is very handy for larger peer-to-peer payments in the U.S. Easy to set up. \u2014 KK<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n\n\n\n

Sign up here<\/a>\u00a0to get Recomendo a week early in your inbox.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Recomendo – issue #527<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":47588,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0},"categories":[2323],"tags":[2324],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46704"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/47588"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46704"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46704\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46705,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46704\/revisions\/46705"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46704"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46704"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/kk.org\/cooltools\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46704"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}