Hello, fellow tinkerer 👋

Happy Wednesday! I'm writing this as a flock of geese flies overhead, headed south for the winter. It's that time of year — and fall is my favorite time of year.

1) Reflection:

I've been thinking a lot about the content I want to create for 2026. I write a lot in my blog and want to make it as accessible as possible.

I'm the type of person who sometimes reads and sometimes prefers to listen to content. I've thought about doing this, but don't want to go down that path if it's not something people would actually listen to.

2) Tip #1

We've got a lot of purchases flowing through our household of five people. One way I simplify expenses is to put all recurring charges on a separate credit card. That way, I know that the total charges on the card will be (roughly) the same amount every month.

You can also do this to keep unused cards active. Credit card companies will often close cards if they're unused, which can hurt your credit report in the U.S. Put recurring charges on the card and then set up automatic payments.

3) Tip #2

Two tips this week! (The first one didn't make sense to call a "product").

I like to get text messages for credit card charges. A few times, I've caught fraud this way. It's also a way to catch changes to recurring charge amounts.

But not every bank and credit card company provides the alerts I want. So I set up my own custom SMS alerts based on email alerts. You can see the step-by-step process here.

Want more ideas?

→ My friend Sarah Duran is hosting a Freelance Business Retreat in Gran Canaria. This 5-day retreat is for experienced business owners ready to start strategizing for 2026. You can learn more and apply here. Mention "ABY" when you apply and get an exclusive price of €999 / £870 / $1,165.

→ I'm back on the Wisepreneurs podcast, talking about automation, AI, and how I stepped back from my business for several months this year. Listen here.

That's it for this issue of Tinkering! See you again in two weeks.

Cheers,
Anna

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