Spoiler Alert: This morning brew review might change your life in ways you wouldn’t expect! (Okay, maybe not life-changing in a “I’ve left everything to become a street performer” kind of way, but more like “I’m as educated and up-to-date as someone who reads the Wall Street Journal cover-to-cover every morning” kind of way.)
And what if this life-changing daily newsletter only took 5 minutes to read every morning?
And what if it was hilarious too?
I know it sounds too good to be true, but that’s the morning brew newsletter.
I’ve been getting it for a year now, and I love it so much I want to write about it.
Morning Brew Review: TL;DR
I recommend the morning brew for a pile of reasons.
You can keep reading all the reasons why, or you can sign up here (it’s 100% free – no catch – make sure you confirm the subscription!) and save yourself the five minutes.
(Although, the last bit is the life-changing part.)
So. What has it done for me? Why a Morning Brew Review?
I don’t throw this claim around lightly, but the reason I’m writing this morning brew review is that the morning brew news actually improved my life a lot.
I don’t hide the fact that I think the news has a lot of downsides, and this little newsletter helped me cut the cords. I’m saving so much time now, that I can fit in an extra book a month in the time I created. A BOOK A MONTH!
Okay, so maybe you think that the problem wasn’t the news but my own poor time management skills. Who allows themselves to get sucked in like that?
EVERYBODY!
You might think you’re smart enough to avoid hours of TV, but those news headlines pop up all over the place and just suck you in. (More on that later.) It may seem like you just read one quick story on your phone, but the time adds up more than you realize.
But now, I feel up-to-date enough that I’m not tempted to give up my precious time just to find out what’s behind the headline. And that led to some serious knowledge gains.
One of my friends is a news-o-holic and I can even keep up with him!
The reason is simple. The morning brew newsletter is concise, but it’s well-curated to give important information and ramifications quickly. So I know the big points and what’s important for watercooler talks.
Have a look. That’s the whole story:
Sure, Mr.Hours-a-day news guy knows some extra tidbits, but you know what. They weren’t important, AND now I know them too because he told me! LIFE HACK! And this takes me to the core function of the morning brew newsletter.
Morning Brew Review: Their core selling feature (even though it’s free)
The goal of the morning brew is to quickly get you up-to-date on the important news. They literally aim for a read-time of under 5 minutes. That’s about how long it takes to cook perogies. (They’re usually burned though… Shoutout to my upcoming cookbook, “How to burn perogies in 5 minutes flat!”)
But there’s an even bigger benefit
It’s positive.
The news is negative on purpose (to trigger your dopamine response which sucks you in), and positive news basically doesn’t exist. (Meanwhile, the brew is positive, and the fact that it’s concise too is life-changing.)
Seriously, negative news is horrible for you. It ruins your mood, it makes you argumentative, and it makes everything seem excessively urgent. No wonder people have health issues!
The morning brew though, is kind of funny. It’s a huge reason as to why I’m writing this Morning Brew review.
Imagine waking up to these emails:
I wouldn’t call it “laugh-out-loud”, but it’s definitely 1000x better than your nightly homicide reports.
So. Uplifting, educational, curated daily news in 5 minutes. What else?
Smarter in just 5 minutes?
One of the morning brew’s claims is that you will get smarter in 5 minutes. Naturally, I had to break it down to see it through.
I logged my reading time (because I am a nerd), and this is what it looks like:
Is logging my time and making a graph excessive? Oh yes. But I’m obsessed with time-efficiency, so knowing the real numbers is 100% worth it for me.
So under 5 minutes on average. Check.
Does morning brew really make you smarter?
This is a little harder to quantify, but with 100% certainty, yes!
First of all. Now that I can read an extra book a month, I must be smarter. But going back to the brew – most people in my life entrench themselves in the news for hours a day. And I can keep up with them.
And if we nerd out again, I know 90% of what my 3-hours of news friend knows in just 5 minutes. It takes him 3600% longer to learn just 10% more. Brutal. To be honest I feel bad for him.
The news sucks anyway.
So it was a little hard for me to write this morning brew review because I hate the news. I’ve written extensively about it here (and why it’s bad for your financial independence) but the bullet points are:
- News doesn’t really make you smart. Most information is useless.
- News is negative on purpose as a way to keep you paying attention.
- Negativity hurts your mood and in turn hurts your body.
- It wastes your time in epic ways.
And I do mean epic ways. Just think about how much time an average person dedicates to the news:
- 1 hour on the commute to work
- 1 hour (minimum) on nightly news
- 1 hour (minimum) on random tidbits like late night comedy, checking your phone, clicking on Facebook, or looking over someone’s shoulder to see the headlines.
So conservatively, 3 hours per day, 21 hours per week, 1000+ hours per year.
I don’t blame them either. Newspapers, cable news, and websites all need you to stick around for as long as possible for the ad revenue. (More on that later.) But a thousand hours?!?!
And somehow the brew newsletter doesn’t do that, and that’s why I love them. I can be happier, know everything I need to know, AND have time to listen to podcasts, read books, and blog.
But here’s the deal
When you start getting the brew, you HAVE TO commit to cutting the rest of the news out of your life. (You’d basically be looking at the same thing anyway.) This will make you an even better person than you can imagine.
Normal news is full of ads
Whenever I visit my parents and walk in on them… watching the news, I’m usually witnessing a commercial. Essentially, you’re spending 20% of your time learning about paper towels.
Newspapers are no better. The whole car section – which must weigh a pound – is an ad.
And don’t get me started on websites, where you have to be careful not to scroll too fast in case you accidentally tap on an ad that won’t go away.
“Oh, Naive Mr.FIREescape… you think your beloved newsletter doesn’t have ads too?”
Well. I know it does. But they make it pretty obvious by a big “sponsored” sign, and quite frankly, they make it fun to read so I don’t mind.
Let’s get into the nitty gritty about the Morning Brew Newsletter
Morning Brew History
Where did they come from? I dunno. I’m sure it’s Googleable.
Morning Brew Cost
It’s literally ZERO DOLLARS. They don’t even want your name. I’ve had this newsletter for over a year, and there has never been any secret upgrades or hidden tricks.
Free as in FREE BEER! I actually don’t get it. If anything, morning brew pays you with constant giveaways for vacations, and MacBooks if you refer a friend.
I would argue that it’s completely free as in free speech too. They do have sponsors, but they don’t seem to pander to anyone. FREEDOM!
Morning Brew Target Audience
If you like my articles in any way, you’ll love the Morning Brew. It’s targeted at millennials and younger who are interested in finance and tech and world news. I fit that bill and I’m interested in everything they write. They cover the highlights of everything else too. International politics anyone?
How often is the Morning Brew newsletter sent out?
Daily! It’s the news!
If it was weekly, it would be too delayed to pretend you are up-to-date. Sunday’s special though. You have to be “in the morning brew club” by referring a few friends to get the Sunday one, but it’s more of a deep dive into some interesting topic. (Still 5 minutes though.)
What content does the Morning Brew cover?
There’s a bit more depending on what’s going on in the world, but here’s what you can expect regularly:
Intro – the market and a brief brief brief overview.
You know I’m an index fund investor who barely wants to see market updates, but this is palatable.
Finance
International News
Books
This is usually my favorite of everything on the morning brew. I never knew I needed this but I’m always putting these on my list. Which is great, since I have extra time to read!
Politics
Seems about as unbiased as it can be:
Sports
Tech News
Rapid Fire Section (and other daily business)
And if you’re really into a topic, you can sign up for an off-shoot newsletter or even the morning brew podcast.
I’m tempted, but then I wouldn’t be able to say I’m up-to-date in less than 5 minutes per day.
- They have Retail brew for people especially interested in the retail industry. It is fascinating over there!
- They have emerging tech brew in case you are into startup culture.
- Marketing brew. For…marketing I guess?
- Business Casual. It’s a podcast! It’s on random business topics but it has the same feel as reading the brew so it’s on my list :). They even have some impressive guests like mega-billionaire Ray Dalio.
Okay, you’ve sold me. How do I sign up?
1 – Follow my link.
As I mentioned, it’s literally just an email address for something that literally might change your life.
By the way – the morning brew will buy me a coffee for every person who signs up (and confirms their subscription!) using my link. I still don’t get why they do it.
(And if you’re thinking, why should I support you, Mr.FIREescape – just know that my wife REALLY likes coffee. In fact, it’s a point of contention in our money talks. Plus, you are really just paying for server fees since this blog actually loses money 😛 Oh well.)
Also, I checked (By subscribing and unsubscribing). They leave you alone if you’re not into it. There’s no catch. They don’t add you on any secret newsletter list or anything like that.
2 – That’s it. Just one step.
(Just remember to confirm so I my wife gets the coffee!)
Is the Morning Brew biased?
I’m no journalism major, but I’ve never noticed any bias in the morning brew. Each topic is covered on all sides – which is really impressive when a section only has 100 words.
Is there a catch to getting the Morning Brew?
Okay, so I think this is great. What’s the catch? There isn’t one! I wouldn’t write this morning brew review if I thought otherwise.
They do have sponsored sections which are basically ads, but it’s not a trick. They have a big “Sponsored” mark on them so that you don’t accidentally think that vegan footwear bears the same level of importance as something like US-China relations. Plus the ads are still amusing.
They’ll often have a plug about referring it to friends, but then they enter you into a raffle to win something, so it’s win-win.
Morning Brew Review – Pros and Cons:
Pros:
- Free – if anything they give you money via raffles and giveaways
- Quick – Literally 5 minutes. If you drop the rest of the news from your life, you will gain HOURS!
- Well-curated – So you actually learn something in 5 minutes
- Positive news – Something that doesn’t exist anywhere else.
Cons:
- Reading – But they have a podcast for the audio-inclined.
- It’s still news – I dislike news, but reading the brew cuts out 99% of the bad and keeps 100% of the good.
- They have ads – but it’s not intrusive or tricky.
