H) Money

Warren Buffet bet a hedge fund manager over 10 years any stocks against the SnP 500. The SnP 500 won. The SnP 500 is a collection of the 500 largest companies in the US.

2) ACTION: 3-6 months of living expenses in savings

From Vanguards Website

“I have no gd money anyways, why the hell would i do that?”
“Where the hell would 15% come from, that’s impossible”

> Book Rec (4 hrs) Richest Man in Babylon

3) Compound Interest

$500/month ($6000/yr) for 40 years = $1.3 million

(compound interest calculator here)

100% SnP 500 average, adjusted for inflation is ~7.44%.

More Numbers:

$100/month for 10 years = $17,000
$500/month for 10 years = $83,000
$100/month for 34 years = $160,000
$500/month for 34 years = ~$800,000

LESSON: Time in market (40 yrs) matters far more than return rate

start early.

“All the returns in life, whether in wealth, relationships, or knowledge, come from compound interest.”
Naval Ravikant

Enjoy Making Money

1) Ikigai

“Our ikigai is different for all of us, but one thing we have in common is that we are all searching for meaning.”
— Hector Garcia, Ikigai

What the fuck are you naturally good at?
What do you enjoy doing?
Somebody somewhere needs that.
Figure out how to give it to them and they’ll pay you.

2) What would you do if money was no object?

Alan Watts is a beautiful human

Money scares me. Not having enough scares the shit outta me. I’ve been hustling for years: Selling items on eBay, garage sales, flipping couches, refrigerators, cars, you name it. I explored photography and videography and shoveled driveways.

But after all these ventures I started to realize I wouldn’t want to do them for the rest of my life… they weren’t sustainable. I enjoyed dabbling and seeing what I could sell and learned a lot but then I started to ask myself: What type of work could I see myself doing for the rest of my life?

3) If you could have any job in the world, do any job for the rest of your life what would it be?

If we want food and water and shelter, we’ve got to provide value to society somehow. If you could do it any way you wanted, what talents and passions do you have that would help other people?

4) “Anytime you expand your perspective, your ability to earn money goes up”

Colin Douglas

At the time of this writing, Jan 2025, I haven’t made it per se. I haven’t done all that much and I might not know all that much… But I’m pretty fucking sure every time we expand our horizons our ability to earn and more importantly our potential for quality of life goes up.

5) What would you do if success was guaranteed?

I’ve got some big dreams. They make me nervous. They’re scary. But I think that’s what makes it nervous. Do I truly not want it or am I just avoiding my fears. What would I do if success was guaranteed? Helps me see courage.

>> More Resources on Finding Your Purpose

6) What’s an activity that brings value (or joy!) to other people that you’ll still be doing in 5 years?

Our worldview is our greatest strength as well as our greatest weakness. Everyone is good at something. We’ve each got unique talents and passions, the trick is figuring out a pocket of society that our brain thrives in. I found that if I suck at a thing and I’m unhappy… I’m probably doing the wrong thing.

7) What are your hobbies?

“We need:
1 hobby to stay fit.
1 hobby to make money.
1 hobby to connect to people.”

– Some BiggerPockets episode. It seems like doing things we enjoy and doing them around other people are wildly underrated ways to not only make money, but just spend our time. Happiness studies all seem to show our quality of life is dependent on the quality of our relationships.

…and 1 hobby to sharpen the mind!

Retirement

1) “Retirement isn’t an age, it’s a dollar amount”

Reddit: FIRE – Financial Independence, Retire Early

What does your dream life cost? How much does your life cost right now? There’s a dollar amount we can place on well-being. More isn’t the answer. Do the math and figure out how much your groceries, rent, guilty pleasures, and joy cost. Retirement is a dollar amount, the cheaper your life, the sooner it is.

Money Moustache

Source Mr. Money Moustache, Calculator here

If you save 10%, you’ll have to work ~51 more years
If you save 15%, you’ll have to work ~43 more years
If you want to retire in 10 years, you’ve got to save 65%

2) Retire to something.

I’ve heard too many stories of people with plenty of money to retire but nothing to do with their lives. You’ve got to have this dream life your working towards – wood working, painting, gardening, surfing… doesn’t matter. What is your hard earned money for? I’ve got a close relative, plenty wealthy, retired, and now just sits around doesn’t know what to do with himself. We need a purpose.

Even once we retire we’re still… alive. What the hell will we do with our time.

Sad early retirement stories here and here.

> Book: How to Live on 24 Hours a Day
Audiobook (1.5 hrs) Available free

3) PRACTICE: How much does your dream life cost?
Write that number down.

The mortgage. The groceries, family, vacations, concerts… What does it cost?

Monthly

Rent: $1500
Utilities: $150
Cell Phone: $75
Groceries: $400
Health Care: $400
Gas: $150
Car Maintanence: $100
Guilt Free Spending: $300
Subscriptions: $15
Misc: $100
Total: $3190/mo

Annuals

Big Trips: $2200/12
Gifts $300/12
Concerts: $400/12
Ski Pass: $1000/12
Hobbies: $600/12
Clothes: $360/12
Boujie Expenditures: $2400
Total: $605/mo

Monthly= $3190+$605 = $3795
Annual= $3795*12 = $45,540

Actual Cost of Living: $43,140

4) PRACTICE: What does wealthy mean? How will you know when you’ve made it?

Is it buying appetizers? Flying first class? Charmin ultra-soft? Lifestyle creep is real. How will we know when we’ve made ‘wealthy’? Specific, measurable end goals help.

5) MINDSET: You’re after status not money (Dan Koe)

Biologically we are designed to pursue status. Money can be a proxy for status. So we spend beaucoup bucks on frivilous things… meanwhile our status isn’t really actually changing, just our external appearance. I’ve found that pursuing providing genuine value feels way better than spending money to appear higher status.

Delicious article by infamous Fighter Pilot John Boyd:

> (5 mins) To Do or To Be by John Boyd

6) CONCEPT: 4% Rule – Withdraw 4% of investments every year of retirement (infinite retirement)

ie $1,500,000 * 0.04 = $60,000
You can safely withdraw ~$60,000 every year for retirement

Source: Charles Schwab
Source: Mr. Money Moustache
Source: Reddit

Spending Money

1) “The best investment you can make is in yourself”
Warren Buffet (10th wealthiest in the world)

2) Q: 3 years from now will I regret not spending money on this experience?

I had a buddy tell me about how he’d wanted a boat. He’d been wanting a boat, and saving up for years. But when it came time to actually pull the trigger the money figure was daunting. 6 months later he proceeded to tell me he had the best summer of his life.

For me it’s travelling. These things cost a tremendous amount of money, but if it’s something you truly care about… that’s what the money is for.

3) “Once you start to make more money, spend it on higher quality food. Your health matters more than any object you could buy”

A good buddy hit me with this one about a year ago. It totally shifted my outlook. It’s spurred me investing more in higher quality food, vitamins, supplements, quality sleep, etc. I’d been so damn frugal for so long but he made me wonder why. What am I willing to spend money on? Feeling good?

>> More on Health

4) “Travel and education, really learning, might be the single greatest investments in my life”
Colin Douglas

I’ve justified expensive trips: Ireland, Iceland, Panama, Dubai as an ‘investment in myself’. For some reason it’s so hard to spend hard earned money on plane tickets: its so much money.

But the times I’ve travelled, taken the time to understand, truly soaked in culture and appreciated country’s way of life exponentially improved my quality of life… and ironically likely my ability to earn more money with expanded horizons.

4) The ROI (Return on Investment) on a $15 book by Seneca is immeasurable.
Colin Douglas

I used to be terrified of spending money. I still am. But I’ve found the 100s of dollars I’ve spent of books astronomically improved my quality of life and day to day joy. That’s worth more than any salary I could earn… because I earn money to feel at peace.

5) “If you haven’t read hundreds of books, learning from others who went before you, you are functionally illiterate – you can’t coach and you can’t lead”
Jim Mattis, marine General

Money is a proxy for status. But we’re no longer a bunch of lobsters fighting for territory. The human mind can glimpse into the future as well as change behaviors of the past. We can retrain ourselves. Enhancing the mind and my interests has been exponentially more useful that seeking ways to earn money.

6) Who are your idols

“Your idols give you insights to your values”

This practice seriously helped me… not just in figuring out what I cared about, but in making money too. George Carlin. Malcom X. Steve Jobs. Writing these and the dozens of people I look up to helped me draw patterns and figure out what the hell I cared about.

1. Make money so that you can spend it on things you value
2. Save money so that you can spend it on things you value
3. What do you value?

7) (5 hrs) Book Rec: Die With Zero

Totally altered my relationship with money. Helped me be less stress and use it as more of a tool to get what the hell I want than a hindrance from what I don’t.

8) Money v Happiness

US has the highest GDP/capita but doesn’t rank in top 10 happiest countries

In the West, it feels like we’ve strayed far from celebrating genuine happiness. Instead we prioritize on money. We may have the highest GDP, but not happiness. Our life expectancy is also subpar.

But what if we sacrificed our enjoyment and happiness to get there? What if we get to the end of our life and wonder “Is this really what I did it all for?”

We’ve got access to books, knowledge, ways of life of the happiest countries in the world. The beautiful part of America is our freedom. You can live virtual any life you want and nobody bats an eye (ever been to NY?). Japan has the highest life expectancy in the world and the cool part is we can adopt their principles into our culture.

Random Tidbits

1) Can money buy happiness?

STUDY: In 2008 Princeton University professors Daniel Kahneman and Angus Deaton published a study that found that income increases people’s well-being up to a point of about $75,000 per year

*Note: People’s life satisfaction went well above $120,000, but their day to day happiness didn’t.
Article here

STUDY: A follow-up study by researcher Matthew Killingsworth released another similar study. After teaming up, the 3 authors came up with this conclusion:

“This income threshold may represent the point beyond which the miseries that remain are not alleviated by high income. Heartbreak, bereavement, and clinical depression may be examples of such miseries.”
Princeton Article here

CONCLUSION: “Money can keep buying happiness for already happy people, but among the most unhappy, the money helps stave off unhappiness only to a point”

In all the research I’ve done, it seems like money is merely a tool. It’s a tool that can be used for morality or for evil. In some peoples’ hand the value of money can be squandered. In the hands of others, it can be a tool to provide even more good to the world. Money in the hands of MLK would probably do a lot more good for the world than in the hands of Stalin.

It can be used to create habits and environments that make us happy, or destroy nature and pollute air to lower our quality of life. What would you choose to do with billions of dollars if you had it?

“If you want to test a man’s character, give him power”
Lincoln

2) “If you want to make more money, change the context”
Terry Rice

If you are an Olympic level swim coach but teaching Middle schoolers, you may be winning the state championships but the ceiling is still middle schoolers. This struck me because we’ve all got inherent talents. There are things we’re good at, ways we can give that we already enjoy. The right people will pay for that.

3) “If my twenties told me anything,
It’s stay away from people who put money over everything”
Russ, Utah Freestyle

4) More Retirement Math

Investing $500/mo from age 22-59 (conservative numbers) – $912,000

Using 4% rule – $36,000/year at retirement

5) For Nerds: Callahan’s Periodic Table of Investments

Last 20 years the returns of a bunch of different types of investments.

Top Resources

“You are your habits”

Unknown

Best Shizz

“You’re paid in direct proportion to the problems you solve” Elon Musk
(15 min article) How to Make Wealth by Paul Graham
Incredible article that is foundational in my understanding of money, value, business, wealth, etc. Cannot recommend enough for understanding how to earn more money
(10 min article) Shockingly Simple Math Behind Early Retirement
“If you want to make more money be more useful” Unknown
(10 min) 4% Rule: Easy Answer “How Much Do I Need for Early Retirement”
Another Article by Mr. Money Moustache. Tangible math.
(4 hr book) Richest Man in Babylon – short, easy read, helped me quite a bit. The book Richest Man in Babylon likens to throwing stones in a pond on your morning walk. 1 pebble every single day. If you forget, you don’t throw 2 the next day, you go back and throw in your one pebble. You never pay preemptively and you never pay retroactively. 1 pebble every day.
(5 hr book) Die With Zero – After understanding how to earn money, this book does a phenomenal job with the mindset shift arguing a case for spending more money on the things we care about. “You retire on your memories”. Money for experience and quality of life.

ACTION: Minimum 10% of your income invested. Every single paycheck (51 yrs to retire, see below)

Shallow Dive (<20 mins)

1) 5 Money Questions to Ask Your Partner

5 Money Questions to Ask Your Partner by Two Cents. 5 mins

(youtube, 10 mins ) 2 Cents – A married couple that makes easily digestible cartoons. I’ve gotten some good nuggets perusing their vids

2) “Begin with the end in mind”
Stephen Covey, 7 Habits Highly Effective People

Most powerful aspect of being a human (ie make more money)

Pretty sure that applies to literally all aspects of life not just money – relationships, career, retirement, vacations… where are you trying to go.

>> More on Goals

3) Warren Buffet “invest in the S&P 500”

Over time, betting on the S&P 500 is a far better bet than trying to pick companies

“Be fearful when others are greedy and to be greedy only when others are fearful”
Warren Buffet

4) “When I started to be useful instead of brilliant, my career took off.”
– Julia Cameron

We want that cold hard cash. We want the end. Unfortunately, we don’t just skip to the money piece. That money comes from someone somewhere. Why are they paying you? What are they paying you for? What have you done to earn that money? Somebody has to find what you are doing valuable enough to give you money for it. Perhaps the best article on money/business I’ve read is by Paul Graham. Found here

My Articles

(article, 10 min) Advice from an African Man – Advice from a good friend of mine on happiness without money: Life in Niger the ‘6th poorest country’ in the world they somehow are still enjoying life

My Weekly Wanderings

Deep Dive (1+ hrs)

(book, 6hrs) Rich Dad, Poor Dad or (book) Think and Grow Rich
Will Teach You to Be Rich, (podcast, 1 hr) – Different situations, singles, couples, wealthy, lifestyle creep, marriage, etc and he offers advice. Good podcast on Spotify.
Dave Ramsey (youtube, 1.5 hr) – People call in with different financial struggles and Dave answers them live with his financial advice
How to Be a Rainmaker: The Rules for Getting and Keeping Customers and Clients by Jeffrey Fox – Helpful read but a bit more entrepreneur oriented
2 Sides of FI (youtube, 1 hr) – One guy who has retired early and another who is planning for it. They dissect different topics and explore the journey recommending things they’ve done to retire early and live a better life.
Best Blog– This dudes blog is incredible. As far as money mgt I can’t recommend better. One of the first seriously beneficial rabbit holes I found when starting my entrepreneurship journey – got me seeing there really is a better way than the rat race we all seem to be stuck in.

>> More Book Recs

Songs

Weird, I know. Probably not what you’d expect on a sit of education. These songs genuinely helped me though. You have to believe it in your heart of hearts, and it takes time to get good.

Since I Was Broke, Russ

“It’s a state of mind, you gotta know
That it’s gonna happen fo’ sho
Had to take my time, take it slow
I been sayin’ I was rich since I was broke”

Munny Right, Jon Bellion

Make the Money, Macklemore

“Make the money, don’t let the money make you”

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