Real Wealth Check-in: August 2025

I’ve got back-to-school vibes

Welcome to The Real Wealth Project, where I explore what it really means to live well with money. This is where I write honestly about what I’m learning as I train to become a financial coach, and how I’m rethinking my own financial journey. If you find value in this work, you can help sustain it by becoming a paid subscriber.

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Introducing: The Monthly Real Wealth Check-in

Money is a tool to build the life you want to live, so in order to use it wisely, you need to understand your financial set-up.

A big part of financial coaching is understanding what coaches call “your current situation”. This involves gathering lots of documents – think tax statements, W2s and pay stubs – and going through the details to piece together a view of your entire financial life.

This process is crucial for all the steps that come next: a coach can’t diagnose any issues in your financial life if they don’t have a clear picture of it.

This newsletter can’t take the place of a personal financial coach (this is a good time to plug that I’ll be certified in a couple of months, ahem), but there are a few things you can do on your own to develop a good idea of where you’re at with your finances on a monthly basis.

Starting today, each month I’ll share a snapshot of my financial life – I’m calling it a Real Wealth Check-in. It will be a quick review of what I’m spending, what I’m saving, what’s working and what’s not.

You can use my own check-in as a template to do your own. Ready to see how I manage my money and map your own alongside me? Let’s get started.

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Here we are: the proverbial end of summer. Ironically, the weather here in NYC has been stunning: low to no humidity (which is really saying something for this sauna cesspool), clear skies and bright sunshine. If summer were actually like this, I’d say, may it never end!

But my truly favorite season is coming: autumn. With a new season on the way, it’s time to check in and make a plan for the most wonderful time of the year.

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How I Manage My Money

Before we dive into my August snapshot, it’s helpful to have some context for my money management method. I use an app to track all my money planning – every dollar that comes in and goes out is logged, accounted for and assigned to a bucket, or a category.