A GIF of an iPhone 12 displaying a sample of the course, with text and audio messages coming from Carl

The Spending Practice

DO YOU STRUGGLE WITH BUDGETING?

Understand your spending habits and bridge the gap between your values and budget.

Carl Richards teaches you simple daily routines that spark awareness, then action, to direct your spending where it matters most.

No budgets. No limits. No judgements.

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Carl Richards Is a Certified Financial Planner™ and Creator of the Sketch Guy Column, Appearing Weekly in The New York Times Since 2010.

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Learn to Spend with Your Values

This 2-week mobile course (all through text message!) will take no more than 5-15 minutes of your day. No spreadsheets, calculators, or billing statements required.

Each day, you’ll receive one morning and one evening audio message, alongside a short assignment aligning with that day’s subject. Learn unexpected tips to track daily expenses or mindful tactics to increase awareness of your purchase habits.

By the end of the course, you’ll have the simple, actionable skills to build new daily routines for finding more value in your purchases—without the line-item budget.

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Bridge the Gap Between Your Values and Budget

YOUR MONEY
How do you spend your money? Get tools to gain awareness of your spending habits.

YOUR VALUES
What are your values? Learn to identify your values to align them with your spending.

YOUR HAPPINESS
How does spending make you feel? Understand your emotional connection to your purchases.

YOUR LIFE
Learn the routines and tactics that will help you “re-invest” based on your personal values.

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Praise for Carl’s Sketches

“

Carl Richards shows how to shape our behavior to invest, save, and spend to foster greater happiness.

—
Gretchen Rubin, author of The Happiness Project

“

When it comes to money, most of us are idiots. Carl prods us to master money, rather than letting it master us.

—
Laura Vanderkam, author of All the Money in the World

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Frequent Questions

How does it work?

After you sign up, you will receive a welcome text message. If you register today, your first bit of spending practice advice will start tomorrow morning at 9 a.m. your local time. Your receipt will come via email.

Every morning for 14 days, I’ll send you a short audio message by text message to your mobile phone with a bit of advice for understanding your spending habits and aligning them with your values. You’ll be able to text back and respond to questions and prompts along the way.

This course is flexible—if you’re going away or need to pause, you can stop and start at any time. All you need to do is reply STOP to stop or pause receiving new messages and then reply START to begin again.

What happens when the program is over?

You’ll be on your way to spending intentionally. The program is stored on your phone so whenever you want to listen to the audio messages, you’ll have access.

What happens if I miss a day?

If you’re unable to participate or respond one day, you will still have access to the audio message on your smartphone, so you can listen or relisten to the audio message anytime and send the reply word when you’ve finished.

As a reminder, if you would like to stop or pause these messages, just reply STOP at any time. Reply START to begin again.

What countries does this work for?

This is available in the U.S. and Canada via SMS or in any other country through WhatsApp.

STILL HAVE QUESTIONS?

A black and white photo of Carl Richards.

About Carl Richards

Carl Richards is a Certified Financial Planner™ and creator of the Sketch Guy column, appearing weekly in The New York Times since 2010. Carl has also been featured on Marketplace Money, Oprah.com, and Forbes.com. In addition, Carl has become a frequent keynote speaker at financial planning conferences and visual learning events around the world.