Month: February 2025

Newsletter

✨ February 2025 Newsletter ✨

Corie Muldoon

Hey Friend!

February was a blast. We got knee deep into life partnership: What we can do (individually and as a couple) to improve our life situation, build our dream life, and stress less financially.

This month, I’m excited to share some simple tools to help you identify areas of improvement in your own life partnership. These tools are great for personal and relationship growth.

Let’s dive in!

✨ NEW ON THE BLOG ✨

✨ TEMPLATE OF THE MONTH ✨

Life Map: A Goal Setting System: Writing down our goals and breaking them down into small, doable tasks is how we get extraordinary results.

✨ WHAT I’M LOVING ✨

Hot girl walks with the pup, 5k runs, plant care, garden prep, spring cleaning, decluttering, romanticizing life with amber lights and dried herbs, burning sage, at-home dinner dates

✨ QUICK FIT TIP ✨

Made my first ever char-fruit-erie board this month! Super fun, quick to make, and a great pick-at-snack. Apple, banana, dates, clementine. High energy for hours and soo good!

char-fruit-erie board | Core by Corie

✨ KEEP ON STEPPING ✨

Another month in the books, so grateful for that! Wishing you all a March full of mindfulness, love, and joy. You got this. Whatever the goal, take it one day at a time. Takin it easy and breathin deeply.

General, Relationships

Reevaluate Life Prompts for Personal Growth: Couples Edition

Corie Muldoon

Ever feel like you and your partner are running on autopilot? When life gets busy, it’s easy to lose sight of your growth as a couple.

Joe and I set aside time once a year for a life check-in using thoughtful prompts. These prompts are meant to help us discover blind spots, celebrate progress, and realign our priorities together.

Thoughtful prompts aren’t just questions, they’re conversation starters. Try some out during your next quiet evening together and see what insights emerge.

Reevaluate Life Prompts

Below are some example questions:

  1. Looking at our current path: our jobs, our living situation, and how we spend our time – what parts feel really aligned with who we are and what we want? What parts might need tweaking to better match our values or goals?

  2. When we feel most content and ‘in flow’ together in our daily life, what exactly are we doing? Are we creating enough space for those moments, or should we reorganize some things to have more of what makes us thrive?

  3. What’s one thing we each feel a little nervous or uncertain about in our current plans? It could be something small or big – and then let’s brainstorm how we could address that uncertainty together.

These prompts aren’t meant to be answered once and forgotten. Keep responses in a shared google doc and revisit them every few months to see how you’ve grown. Jot down notes, write out any needed fixes, assign action items, keep on growing.

What’s beautiful about this practice is that there are no wrong answers. There’s only opportunities to understand each other more deeply and create a more intentional future together.

Remember, the goal isn’t to have perfect responses but to create space for honest conversation about what matters most.

Quick Tips for Success

  • Set aside distractions

  • Approach each prompt with curiosity rather than judgment

  • Be open to what you discover about yourselves as individuals and as partners

✨ Getting 1% better, together ✨

Featured Series, Productivity, Relationships

Couple Goals: How to Set and Achieve Dreams Together

Corie Muldoon

Want to know the secret to making dreams come true as a couple? It’s not just about having shared goals – it’s about having a system to achieve them together. Let me share the framework my partner and I use to turn our biggest dreams into daily actions.

Start with the Dream Session

First, grab your partner and some paper. Set aside 30 minutes of uninterrupted time (we do this over coffee on weekend mornings). Each of you writes down your big dreams. Everything from traveling the world to buying a house to starting a family.

Share your lists with each other. Look for:

  • Dreams you both share
  • Ways your individual dreams could support each other
  • Any conflicts that need discussion

Turn Dreams into Goals

Pick one shared dream to focus on first. Using the Goal-Strategy-Tactics framework, break it down together:

The Goal: Make it specific and measurable. Instead of “travel more,” try “take a 3-week road trip in 2025.”

The Strategy: What are the main approaches you’ll take? For that road trip:

  • Save $5000 for the trip
  • Research and plan the itinerary
  • Book camping spot at state park 14 nights

Daily Tactics: Here’s where partnership really shines. Divide specific daily actions between you based on your strengths:

Partner 1:

  • Put $200-500 into travel fund monthly
  • Research and plan itinerary
  • Plan to buy any gear needed
  • Get car serviced at mechanic

Partner 2:

  • Review itinerary, add notes
  • Create camping checklist
  • Track travel fund progress
  • Clean car out / prep car

Make It Stick

The key to achieving couple goals is building them into your daily life together:

  1. Weekly Check-ins: Schedule a regular time to review progress
  2. Celebrate Small Wins: Halfway to our savings goal? High-five! First draft of itinerary done? Yay!
  3. Adjust Together: If something’s not working, brainstorm new tactics as a team

Beyond Travel: This Works for Any Goal

This framework works for all kinds of couple goals:

  • Fitness: Train for a 5K together
  • Financial: Save for a house down payment
  • Personal Growth: Start a side business
  • Lifestyle: Create a healthier home

The magic happens when you combine clear goals, shared strategies, and individual daily actions that play to each person’s strengths.

Your Turn

Ready to start? Grab your partner and try this:

  1. Schedule your dream session
  2. Pick one goal to focus on first
  3. Break it down into strategies
  4. Assign daily tactics that excite each of you
  5. Set your first weekly check-in

Remember, the journey toward your goals is just as important as reaching them. It’s about growing together and supporting each other’s dreams along the way.

What goal will you and your partner tackle first!?

Productivity

Goal, Strategy, Tactics: A Simple Framework for Success

Corie Muldoon

Ever feel stuck between knowing what you want and figuring out how to get there?

I’ve found that breaking down any goal into three simple layers…

  • Goal
  • Strategy
  • Daily Tactics

…can bridge that gap and create real momentum.

Let’s break this down into something you can use today.

The Framework

Your Goal is your destination – the clear, specific outcome you want to achieve. Maybe it’s running a marathon, saving for a house, or learning to speak Spanish.

Strategy is your roadmap – the key approaches you’ll use to reach that goal. Think of these as your main paths forward. For a marathon goal, your strategies might be building endurance, improving running form, and maintaining proper nutrition.

Daily Tactics are where the magic happens – these are the specific, checkable actions you take every day. They turn your strategies into reality through consistent, small steps.

See It In Action

Here’s how this looks for a real goal:

Goal: Save $10,000 for a house down payment

  • Strategy 1: Reduce monthly expenses
    • Daily Tactics: Pack lunch for work, use shopping lists, cancel unused subscriptions
  • Strategy 2: Increase income
    • Daily Tactics: Spend 30 minutes on side hustle, look for overtime opportunities
  • Strategy 3: Automate savings
    • Daily Tactics: Set up automatic transfers, track expenses daily

The power of this framework is its simplicity. You always know what to do next because your daily tactics are clear and specific.

Make It Work For You

Start with one goal that matters to you. Write it down. Then ask yourself:

  • What are 2-3 main strategies that will get me there?
  • What specific actions can I take daily for each strategy?

Keep your daily tactics simple and doable. Remember, small consistent actions add up to big changes over time.

✨ Ready to transform your goals into reality? Grab a piece of paper and try this framework today. Your future self will thank you ✨

Featured Series, Finance, Relationships

Building Better Finances Together: A Couple’s Guide

Corie Muldoon

Talking about money with your partner can be tough, but it doesn’t have to be.

After years of learning (sometimes the hard way), I’ve discovered that building strong finances as a couple requires open communication.

It also involves creating shared systems that work for both of you.

Here are our tried-and-true tips for creating financial harmony in your relationship:

1. The Weekly Money Date

Schedule a regular 30-minute chat about finances. Keep it light – we do ours over Sunday coffee. Review your spending, celebrate wins, and tackle any concerns early. This prevents stress from building up and keeps you both in sync.

2. Create a Shared Vision

Before diving into budgets, talk about your dreams. What do you want to build together? A home? Travel adventures? Early retirement? Understanding each other’s financial goals makes daily money decisions easier and more meaningful.

3. Divide and Conquer (But Stay Connected)

Play to your strengths. In our relationship, I handle rental income and expense tracking while my partner manages our personal account. The key? We both stay informed about the full picture through our weekly check-ins.

4. Set Up Your Success System

Create a simple shared system:

  • Use a joint spreadsheet for tracking income & expenses

  • Use a shared credit card for easy expense tracking, pay card off weekly

  • Agree on a percentage % of income to move into joint savings account for taxes and investments

  • Share login access to all important accounts

  • Touch base before making big purchases. Do we need it or do we want it? The goal is to make more than we’re spending each week.

  • Set up automatic payments to investment accounts

5. Celebrate Progress Together

Track your joint financial wins, no matter how small. We touch base on our wins at our weekly meeting. From paying off a credit card to maxing out a Roth IRA account. It keeps the money journey positive and motivating.

6. Have Each Other’s Backs

Sometimes life throws curveballs. Create an emergency fund together and discuss how you’ll handle unexpected expenses before they happen. This creates security and trust in your financial partnership.

Remember, building better finances as a couple isn’t about having identical money styles. It’s about creating a system that works for both of you.

Start with one of these tips this week and build from there. Your relationship (and your wallet) will thank you.

Comment your favorite money tips below!

Books, Think & Grow Rich

Take Inventory of Yourself: 28 Questions You Should Answer

Corie Muldoon

> download your copy here <

The amount of money we make, the relationships we have, the progress we make… can be directly related to the effectiveness and quality of our actions.

At a warehouse for example, if the machine is effective, we’re pushing out quality products. The labels line up perfectly.

We’re like machines in that way. If we’re off in some way, the results we get will be slightly (or majorly) different from what we’d want.

Below are 28 questions that allow us to take a personal inventory. They come from one of my top books: Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill.

Ideally we find faults in our actions and work to improve them. Overtime we should find ourselves doing better, at a larger amount, with a good positive attitude. The theme of these questions is performance, at work and in life.

Self-Analysis Questionnaire for Personal Inventory

  1. Have I attained the goal which I established as my objective for this year? (You should work with a definite yearly objective to be attained as a part of your major life objective.)

  2. Have I delivered service of the best possible quality of which I was capable, or could I have improved any part of this service?

  3. Have I delivered service in the greatest possible quantity of which I was capable?

  4. Has the spirit of my conduct been harmonious and cooperative at all times?

  5. Have I permitted the habit of procrastination to decrease my efficiency and if so, to what extent?

  6. Have I improved my personality, and if so, in what ways?

  7. Have I been persistent in following my plans through to completion?

  8. Have I reached decisions promptly and definitely on all occasions?

  9. Have I permitted any one or more of the six basic fears [poverty, criticism, ill health, loss of love of someone, old age, death] to decrease my efficiency?

  10. Have I been either “over-cautious,” or “under-cautious”?

  11. Has my relationship with my associates in work been pleasant, or unpleasant? If it has been unpleasant, has the fault been partly, or wholly mine?

  12. Have I dissipated any of my energy through lack of concentration of effort?

  13. Have I been open-minded and tolerant in connection with all subjects?

  14. In what way have I improved my ability to render service?

  15. Have I been intemperate in any of my habits?

  16. Have I expressed, either openly or secretly, any form of egotism?

  17. Has my conduct toward my associates been such that it has induced them to respect me?

  18. Have my opinions and decisions been based upon guesswork, or accuracy of analysis and thought?

  19. Have I followed the habit of budgeting my time, my expenses, and my income, and have I been conservative in these budgets?

  20. How much time have I devoted to unprofitable effort which I might have used to better advantage?

  21. How may I re-budget my time, and change my habits so I will be more efficient during the coming year?

  22. Have I been guilty of any conduct which was not approved by my conscience?

  23. In what ways have I rendered more service and better service than I was paid to render?

  24. Have I been unfair to anyone, and if so, in what way?

  25. If I had been the purchaser of my own services for the year, would I be satisfied with my purchase?

  26. Has the purchaser of my services been satisfied with the service I have rendered, and if not, why not?

  27. Am I in the right vocation, and if not, why not?

  28. What is my present rating on the fundamental principles of success? (Make this rating fairly, and frankly, and have it checked by someone who is courageous enough to do it accurately.)”

This is the exact self-analysis questionnaire we use at our house! It’s the first thing we do to close out the year and plan for the new year. And you most certainly can go through this at any point throughout the year.