4 things I do to feel financially hot

child: Non-Financial Cold Girl, adult: Financial Hot Girl | fhg #94

Happy Friday financial hotties 😚

As you know, I’ve been travelling Latin America for the last 7-ish months. It’s been one a hell of a ride, and our flight home to Edinburgh is slowly creeping up on us. That also means I’ve been getting myself in order, because the last 7 months have been far from Financially Hot.

Pre-trip Dev had a few nonsensical (in hindsight) assumptions. I thought it would be easy to stay consistent with movement and strength. I did not realise just how much travel would be involved in our travelling — I’ve spent countless hours (straight) on busses, haven’t had consistent access to quality food, and to be honest, too exhausted to even think about steps sometimes.

But for every 4-5 weeks of travel, we’ve found ourselves in a city with at least a week to reset our sleep, movement and eating habits. Personally I found these weeks great for catching up on work and content too, which for me, really feeds my zest for life. (Call me crazy, but that’s the beauty of loving what you do)

In these weeks, I’ve found myself doing a pretty specific group of activities that make me feel my hottest self. If you’re a longtime reader of Financial Hot Girl you’ll know that here, hot is not what you see in the mirror, it’s a feeling before that. So here are a few ways I’ve been recreating that feeling every time we’ve had a few days to slow down and reset.

1. Moving consistently

As of writing this I’m in Rio, and we have a couple of weeks to slow down, sightsee, learn Portuguese and catch up on work. Being in a city, I signed myself up to a gym and got myself straight onto a protocol of cardio, weights, and stretching.

I didn’t overthink what I’d do because I have a routine back home that I relied on—a minimum of two zone 2 cardio sessions a week, 10,000 steps and 3-4 full body strength days. I just scaled this up or down depending on how much time we had in each city.

Every single time I do this, I feel much more like myself. All it takes is one day of snapping back to my routine to make me feel hot. I forget all the inflammation and exhaustion of the weeks prior that are still on my body.

My previous routines, and how disciplined I’ve been with them, has given me that familiar sense of ‘I know what happens when I do this’ and that has feelings attached, too. I’m reminded of the fact that no matter what, I’ll do what it takes to rebuild the habit.

How to copy me: it doesn’t matter if your choices in life take you away from your routines, but find the routines you like and stay disciplined with them when you can, as best you can. The structure of a routine itself frees you from decision fatigue in the more chaotic moments of life, and keeps you grounded. Not to mention, emotionally, reminds you of the person who is strong, disciplined and trusts herself.

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2. Taking the brain bins out

For me, journalling is that one habit that almost got away. It was the one I could never make stick, but I always felt good after doing it. I became a consistent at journalling once I allowed myself to be consistent in different ways.

Before, I thought that if I didn’t put pen to paper in my aesthetic journal, it didn’t count as journalling. But slowly over time, I let myself brain dump thoughts in a blank Notion page. Another time in the Notes app on my phone. Another time in that aesthetic journal. One day I realised that I am a consistent writer, just not in a way that looks neat and squared up on the outside.

On this trip, journalling was the thing that stopped me spiralling when things felt uncertain and out of my control. It didn't fix anything. It just allowed my emotions to be guests in the home that was my brain—it created space between me and my feelings. If you’re Type A or an over thinker, this is incredibly necessary space that you need so you can focus on feeling hot.

How to copy me: do not make this practice precious. Five minutes, any method, no rules (except the five minutes). Just get your thoughts out of your head. You'll be surprised how much lighter you feel, and how much clearer your decisions become when your brain isn't trying to hold everything at once.

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3. My worldwide payday ritual

At least once a month, no matter where we were or how chaotic things felt, I sat down and went through my transactions. Checked how I was tracking against my financial goals for the trip. I just looked at it, and sometimes I didn’t action anything after.

And every single time, I felt relieved, clear-headed and proud. 99% of the time I also felt inspired to take action on something else I was procrastinating, like planning the next portion of our itinerary or booking some accomodation.

The relief and pride I felt wasn’t because everything was perfect, because it was far from it—seven months of travel to a budget, is what a rainy day is to a beautiful suede bag. I felt proud because I’m not the girl who ignores it anymore. That version of me used to avoid her finances because she was scared of her reality. Now I look because I respect myself enough to know and take action.

The act of checking in, even when things aren’t exactly where you want them, is what separates a Financially Hot girl from someone who is just letting life happen to them and hoping for the best. Hope is not a financial strategy, even in the chaos of the road.

How to copy me: once a month, sit down with your transactions and your goals. No spreadsheet necessarily required — just look. The habit of looking is the foundation everything else is built on.

4. Face and body massage

For years, after trips, I’d roll the heck out of my feet with massage balls. I never knew that what I was doing was self-myofascial release, which is having a hell of a moment on social media right now.

When I read books on how your body holds onto stress and trauma (not from physical pain but from emotional and spiritual pain) a lot of my instinctive habits made sense. As well as rolling my feet, I also loved massaging my face—particularly my brows and around my mouth. The muscles there are so tense that sometimes, they’re painful just to touch.

Knowing that I’m actually massaging stress and pain away takes a literal weight off of my body. And you know what I can do when I feel light as a feather? Many things:

• Think clearly

• Make better decisions

• Concentrate and focus

• Sleep better

• Converse more thoughfully

• Maintain more joyful moods

Need I list more benefits out to massaging your face more? I’ve gone on to invest into small tools to help me do this more methodically, and it’s slowly but surely becoming an incredibly soothing part of my day during a time I’ve needed to self-soothe and feel my hottest, lightest self while backpacking Latin America!

How to copy me: take a moment to yourself right now and close your eyes, to try and notice where your face or neck is holding tension. Maybe a clamped jaw or a furrowed brow. Gently, and very softly, start to massage those areas in a way that feels right to you. Then start to research proper techniques. Feel comfortable building the awareness in your face and body first.

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I want you to really think about the times you’ve been busy or stressed and imagined that more perfect, sensible conditions were needed for the habits that make you feel financially hot.

Take a look at my habits—these are the ones I do with 100% consistency in my controlled home environment, but I didn’t give up on them while travelling, and that’s the common thread between them that makes me feel hot. I do them even when it doesn’t look perfect, feel perfect, and when no one is watching.

Until next week,

— Dev xo