enRICHed: Volume 21

Written By Rich BFF

Realistic Routines

Emma Chamberlain has a podcast that I love. I recognize that she is very young, but the way that she has grown up gives her a very unique view on the current state of societal culture and social media. Some may say I am giving her too much credit, however, this week on her podcast she talked about the idea of morning and night routines, and how social media makes it seem like you cannot possibly have your life together without one. Of course this is untrue, you can get through your day without waking up 3 hours early to do a 12 step skin care routine and make matcha at home. Realistically, some days you’re going to have 10 minutes to get out the door and you will pay $10 for your matcha as a result.

It got me thinking though - what are some habits that you have that are realistic, don’t make you feel bad if you miss a day, and don’t take all of the strength you have? Have you learned any of those habits from our BFF Vivian?

A few administrative reminders below:

  • HYCU, pronounced ‘haiku’: how the news impacts you and your wallet, aka How You Can Use

  • Spilling the Prosperitea 🫖 : our hot tips for you on all things money. Think discount codes, hacks, non-boring finance articles, sales, etc. 

Now that you’re up to speed, let’s get you enRICHed.

Super Bowl Ads

  • GM & Netflix are teaming up for their Super Bowl ads this year. Will Ferrell will promote GM’s new electric vehicles along side Netflix stars from Squid Game, Queer Eye, Bridgerton and Army of the Dead. Netflix is also teaming up with Michelob Ultra for an ad to promote a new golf docuseries.

  • The partnership extends beyond the Super Bowl, as Netflix has agreed to GM product placement in new shows and movies.

  • HYCU; can’t buy something pricey from your friends’ registry? Team up! Super Bowl ads cost $5.6M per 30 seconds last year, and bringing together budgets is a way to save cash while still causing a stir. These co-branded ads have been seen for the past few years at the Super Bowl and usually, they’re the most talked about.

More Weather News

  • After questioning why we hadn’t gotten any snow yet, Snow Miser laughed in our faces. “Life-threatening wind chills” hit the Northeast and South this weekend as the Weather Prediction Center said that New England could feel the coldest it has felt in decades.

  • In the Northeast, temperatures got to 25 below zero, while Texas faced an ice storm on Thursday that landed 0.2 inches of ice.

  • HYCU; these “generational” weather events that continue to hit the tape are a huge financial burden to cities and towns. 50 mph winds are bound to take down electrical wires and trees, causing damage to homes, businesses, cars, etc. Heating bills go up for individuals and cities spend money to create heating shelters. The list goes on unfortunately… but we hope you are staying safe and warm!

Chevron Buybacks

  • This week, Chevron announced that they will buy back $75B of its shares. This represents 20% of shares currently in the market. The buyback program will begin on April 1st and does not have an announced end date.

  • What is a buyback? Buybacks are a means by which companies can reward shareholders for their investment. Your share will become be worth a larger percentage of the company (because when you own share, you technically own a little slice of the company). Companies also use buybacks to boost earnings per share or EPS - a measure of value used in the stock market.

  • HYCU; in January 2023 alone, a record $132 billion of buybacks were announced. It’s technically a good sign for the economy, that the companies believe they are undervalued and that they have enough cash on hand to hopefully complete these programs.

“Love is sharing your password”

  • In case you missed all of the memes this week, a change to Netflix’s website sparked outrage about a crack down on password sharing. The Internet exploded with responses, as the rules were extremely convoluted, requiring subscribers to use the account on a home wi-fi network and watch every 31 days.

  • Netflix eventually announced that they had made an error, the rules were only supposed to be for Chile, Costa Rica and Peru. Twitter users are of course questioning if this rollback was a response to thousands targeting a tweet from Netflix in 2017 “love is sharing a password.”

  • HYCU; Netflix reps said that more than 100 million households are on shared accounts - chances are that you are one of them. Whether it’s a family account, a roommate, a friend or a sorority sister’s cousin’s coworker - shared accounts bring down Netflix revenues. But they have to strike a balance between this issue and keeping customers’ happy, as everyone questioned whether the Internet backlash was the reason for their statements.

Electric Vehicle Car Credits

  • The Biden Administration offered carmakers tax credits to incentivize an increase in electric vehicle battery manufacturing domestically. No one expected the pace at which car companies would take advantage.

  • The goal of these tax credits was to change our reliance on China for this type of manufacturing, while also trying to speed up the transition to electric as a means of clean and energy efficient transportation.

  • The numbers are a bit confusing, but Tesla expects to earn $1 BILLION in tax credits this year alone - so the credits are pretty significant.

  • HYCU; it was funny coming across this article because we have been seeing a ton of electric vehicle commercials lately, and we had just written about GM’s super bowl commercials. Is there a real correlation here? Who knows… but how does this affect you? If the automakers are saving, they could sell their electric vehicles at lower prices. They save AND you save, win win.

Rich BFF
Previous

enRICHed: Volume 22
Next

enRICHed: Volume 20