Saturday Success: 'Why not?', the simplest budget & making TV work for you
Making life & money work for you.
Welcome back to the Saturday Success Series email!
This week we have:
Master Yourself: The power of ‘why not’
Master Your Money: Simple budget
And of course…
The Weekly Special: 4 ways to make TV work for you
The goal here is maximum value, so let’s get to it.
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Master Yourself
Good questions can change your entire life.
And there are a lot of good questions out there to ask yourself (and others).
But today we’ll talk about a specific, quick hitting question.
Why not?
There’s a lot of power in asking “why not?”. It can be sort of a f*ck it attitude, or it can be meta.
Somebody else: “That probably won’t work.”
You: “Why not? Let’s try it anyway.”
TikTok: “There are kids here making a milly a year, ya know…”
You to you: “Huh, well why not me?”
You see how this can be a powerful question? So many people ask “why?”, but not nearly enough ask “why not?”.
Some say “life doesn’t work the way you want it to.”
To that I say, why not?
Master Your Money
Many smart people will tell you: you don’t rise to your financial goals, you fall to your financial systems.
So, do yourself a favor…put a simple system in place.
The first 50% of our monthly income
This is earmarked for bills, including credit cards.
This money covers the obvious bills- our rent, food, utilities, cars and phones.
And then we pay off our credit cards in full every month. We use our credit cards for pretty much everything. We like the points because then we use them for discounted gift cards that pay for (or at least offset) nights out.
To be clear though, we’re always looking for free or low cost fun. Walks around the neighborhood, movie nights, pizza making night at home, etc. We like to keep that credit card utilization as low as possible.
The next 25% of our income
This goes straight to savings.
We consider it a stockpile reserve, used as a buffer for the inevitable punches to the mouth that life delivers. We like cushions. Cushions are comfortable and comfort let’s you sleep easy.
So yes, this account “loses” money to inflation. But the bottom line is that this account helps us sleep easier at night. That’s worth a lot to us.
The final 25% of our income
The rest goes to investing. And any bonus money we come across goes here too. We don’t inflate our lifestyle, we add it to the growth pot.
The focus here is to build our long term wealth. My girlfriend and I are looking to “retire” in peace in our 50s. I may edge this percentage up to 30 and move savings to 20 soon.
Currently we invest in the stock market and Fundrise (real estate). And crypto (ugh, right now).
I also have some decent collections- mainly toys (Marvel, Star Wars & Harry Potter) and sneakers- that I plan to hold over the coming years. I like that diversification.
Your own version of this may need to be 70–15–15. Or, shit, maybe you’re truly set and yours is 10–40–50.
Whatever your situation, I recommend you try hitting some version of this. And keep it simple. It’s much easier to follow a good process than to try and wing it.
Weekly Special
4 Ways to Make TV Work for You
You know how every successful person tells you TV is a waste of time? Like, every, single one. They’re right.
But also, it doesn’t have to be a waste. If you want to watch TV, great! Life is short, do it.
But do it actively. Do it with intent. Here are my 4 tips for engaged television viewing.
Tip 1: Pay attention
As in, actually watch. Don’t do that thing where you’re on your phone too.
Enjoy and prepare to engage with this content.
Tip 2: Take notes
Like pen and paper style.
Great quotes, psychology tips, etc. Jot ‘em down.
I picked up a rooibos tea drinking habit because of a TV show. I’ve learned some marketing tips from TV. I could go on.
Tip 3: Apply your notes
Review your notes and find ways to incorporate them into your life.
See above- rooibos tea (so healthy) and marketing tips and business tips and romance tips.
Tip 4: Make sure you learn something
If you finish an episode and you didn’t learn a single thing, you’re done with that show. It truly is a waste of your time.
Unless you laughed, in which case, that was the goal.
Consider TV watching edu-tainment and make it work for you while you’re relaxing. We’re living in the greatest television period in history. The shows are smart and engaging. You can use that.
It’s content amiright? Of course I am. And think about it…you consume content all of the time. All those gurus? They’re putting out content!
And then I think about shows like Mad Men and The Wire and I’m like wow…more business lessons in those TV series than in most schools.
So yeah, don’t feel guilty about catching up on your favorites. Just feel guilty if you don’t use that time wisely.
Thanks for reading! If you found this valuable, please share with someone who could use it. See you next Saturday!
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