Together With

Happy Monday Future Funders Family!

Happy early Independence Day! Fun fact for all our readers is that today in 1890, Idaho became the 43rd state in this great union.

Okay, let’s get to it!

💬 Quote Of The Week

🍽️ The Main Course

Headlines That Matter

Medical Finance

Get Lower Drug Prices (For Real)

🚀 The quick version: Rising drug prices continue to be a massive problem for families with a recent CDC report claiming that 9 million Americans are not taking medications because of their cost.

Twitter is trying to shake things up.

This past week Elon Musk and Mark Cuban made headlines on the platform tweeting around a possible collaboration and bringing attention to Cuban’s new company, Cost Plus Drugs. The company caught Musk’s attention in a tweet, so he asked about it. The two naturally got into a conversation in front of 150 million combined followers about drug pricing and how Cost Plus Drugs could help people find a cheaper alternative.  

The exchange concluded with Cuban encouraging Musk to move Tesla and SpaceX employees (around 144,000 in total) to the platform as a way to save money, with Musk responding that he would seriously look into it.

Others chimed in and as a result, more and more people are aware of this new company that spends zero dollars on advertising (this is one of many ways they are able to keep costs low).

👪 How it affects your family: One of the lessor talked about positives from Covid that we continue to see in healthcare is the rapid increase in venture capital investment in the sector. In the first quarter of this year we saw $6.8 billion invested into the space (a record) which should lead to exciting new advances in the years to come.

Healthcare is changing and costs are going to come down in many areas. And here are are some steps you can take for your family today:

• If you have older parents, grandparents, are an employee or a business owner check out Cost Plus Drugs. We have no affiliation with them, but after investigation they do offer many medications cheaper than a traditional pharmacy. Downside as we see it right now is their selection (which is limited) and they don’t currently accept a lot of insurance (although they are constantly adding).

• Think about ways within your own family to lower healthcare costs. If you need some ideas we run through 15 quick ways to save money on healthcare.

• As noted above, with all of the money now flowing into healthcare start up companies, it’s important to keep at least a passing eye on the headlines of major news publications for advances coming that could benefit your family (here are some healthcare start up trends to watch in 2023).

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Even better, Bright Cellars ships the wine right to your door every month. And if you’re not 100% satisfied, Bright Cellars will make it right in your next box.

Personal Finance

Where To Start With Financial Advice

🚀 The quick version: This week a Harris poll surveyed 2,000 U.S. Adults finding that nearly 3 out of 4 Americans say they need professional financial advice.

But where do most people turn? According to research 32% of Americans get their financial advice from social media. Most others rely on friends and family and over 30% do not invest at all.

The problem as we see it is some combination of most of us never being taught much about money growing up, having emotional hang ups, being busy, not knowing the right questions to ask, and also trusting in who we are receiving advice from. 

👪 How it affects your family:  Not having a solid financial foundation can affect everything you do. We came up with several resources this week to help:

• Where to start. Not sure if you need a Financial Advisor or a Financial Coach? We know it can be confusing and so we break down the players in this industry that can help you. 

• Stock market basics. Not sure where to start when it comes to stocks? We break down the terms, key markets, and potential ways to get started with investing.

• Building Wealth. We break down the steps you can take to create wealth for your family over time while also teaching your kids.

🥘 The Side Dishes

A few things to know…

🛒 The grocery shopping habits costing you money. We admit that things like shopping hungry or not taking full inventory of what we have at home seemed obvious. But there were some on this list that surprised us.

🖼️ Don’t lose your photos! We learned this week that Google will permanently delete photos on their archive on July 19th. If you have important photos saved, get them off the platform today.

🤖 Make money with AI. Want to get smarter and learn to make money with AI? The AI Tool Report offers over 100,000 readers free daily tips and tricks in 5 minutes a day. One click subscribe here!*

🎫 Publisher’s Clearing House may owe you money. If you participated in any of their sweepstakes or contests, you may be in luck. This week they settled with the FTC over deceptive practices and will refund $18.5 million to customers.

🦈 Baby Shark Toy Recall. If you have young kids, you need to know that Zuru just recalled 7.5 million Baby Shark and Mini Baby Shark Bath toys for safety.

💳 Get savvy with your points. We came across PointsParadise and thought it was a great free resource for any family looking to learn more about credit card points and different rewards. On click here sign up here!*  

🏖️ How much do you need to retire? Americans think they will need $1.3 million to retire. To really know how much you need, we would focus on coming up with three numbers: the annual expenses for your retirement lifestyle, annual income you can (or want to) earn in retirement to support this lifestyle, and the annual savings and investment return income you will have by then.

🏠 Where to rent in America. RentCafe did some research and ranked the 50 best cities for renters. Some trends were obvious to us (hint: avoid the northeast), but we wouldn’t have guessed for example that Atlanta ranked as high as it did (not that we don’t love Atlanta).

🥤 Maybe pass on Diet Coke. The WHO is set to declare aspartame, one of the world’s most common artificial sweeteners, a possible cause for cancer next month (some sodas without the sweetener).  

*this is a sponsored post

🗓️ The Week Ahead

July 4th

Happy birthday America! Fun fact about this holiday is that The Continental Congress actually voted for independence on July 2, 1776. Despite John Adams wanting the holiday to be celebrated on July 2, we celebrate on July 4th since it was the day the Declaration of Independence was formally adopted (check out 24 other fun facts you can share with your kids).

July 7th

Today is National Father Daughter Take a Walk Day (yes, it’s a real holiday and as a dad with two little girls, my wife will surely take me up on some peace and quiet). The walk can be long or short, it’s more about promoting family bonding time between fathers and daughters as well as the benefits of physical activity.

July 7th

Today we will get the jobs report for June. Last month the unemployment rate moved up slightly to 3.7% and all eyes will be watching to see if that number moves higher again in June. While overall jobs growth has stayed strong, seeing that number move higher would continue to point to signs of a potentially weakening economy.

🍨 Dessert

This Week’s Deals For Families

Here are this week’s recs to help your family save and spend smarter*

🎅 Hanna Andersson is offering up to 60% off for their Christmas in July sale until July 5th.

👨‍🍳 BBQguys offering 4th of July sales of up to 60% off on grills, outdoor furniture, and accessories through July 5th.

🛏️ Oprah’s favorite Cozy Earth is offering 25% off bedding & loungewear through July 5th.

🩳 RuffleButts sale offering over 300 styles under $20 for a limited time on their website.

*we currently earn no commission on the above but may in the future (we will let you know when this changes)

Dinner Discussion ❓