Month: February 2020

Posted on by — Leave a comment

The Power Of Your Mind Far Exceeds What You Believe

Before jumping into some of my thoughts, watch the video below. If you want to skip straight to the experiment, go to 3 minutes and 18 second mark. Enjoy!

What did you think? Did you get “hypnotised” like I did? Did your fingers end up touching while you were looking at them?
 
Before the experiment, I thought whatever this guy is going to say won’t actually happen to me. I had no idea where the experiment was going.
 
I clasped my hands together, separated my fingers, listened to the guys voice, and I was amazed. My fingers started getting closer and closer together. I wasn’t trying to do it. The combination of his voice and my mind thinking about this brought them closer and closer together until they touched. To say I was amazed is an understatement.
 
The True Power Of The Mind
This begs the question then of why and how did this happen. I don’t know the science behind it, but we have all heard our minds are much more powerful than we think. I believe this is a clear example of that exact thing.
 
The power of thought, and thought alone, brought your fingers together.
 
This then leads to what to do with this power. If you watch the entire video, the guy asks you to do one thing. It is fairly simple and extremely effective.
 
When you lay your head down to go to sleep, spend 5ish minutes to think about where you want to be, accomplishing the things you want to do, and being a badass. Just think about it. You don’t actually have to do anything. Simply think about it, truly believe what you are feeling is true.
 
Since watching the video, I decided what the heck do I have to lose. Might as well give it a shot.
 
For now on, I plan to think about the below before going to sleep:
  • The feeling of being a full time investor. No more W2. Having my investments making me enough money to fund my lifestyle.
  • All the amazing connections and people I am friends with that are helping pull me to the next level
  • A healthy body that has no aches or pains from arthritis.
  • Being a professional golfer traveling the world golfing for fun.
I am sure this is going to evolve over time, but this is a great start and I am interested to see what comes of it.
 
The guy describes the power of this exercise. He mentions the goal is to begin training your subconscious mind that these things have already happened. When your subconscious mind believes these things have happened already, you will be amazed around what will happen. Your beliefs before sleep will begin to be programmed into your mind. Your body will begin to start taking action towards those beliefs.
 
So what the heck, why not give it a shot. I think it is worth trying. There is nothing bad that could come out of it.
 
Key Takeaways:
  • Our minds are much more powerful than even we believe. We are limitless in our thoughts, so why not think big.
  • Before going to bed each night, think of your future self and where you want to be.
  • You have to truly believe what you are thinking for this to be the most effective exercise. If you tell yourself things that you don’t think will ever come true, nothing will materialize. This has to be a fundamental belief deep down inside you.

Don’t forget @TheYoungRetireeBy33’s 3 Core Principles:

1 – Your money should make money for you⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2 – Start early to realize the power of compound interest⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
3 – Eliminate your largest expense by house hacking

Posted on by — Leave a comment

3 Reason Why Your Surroundings Shape Your Life

I continue coming back to the importance of mindset and how your thoughts shape your life circumstances. You have roughly 50,000 thoughts that go through your mind every day. Many of these thoughts go through your subconscious mind. This begs the question, how can it be possible to think that many thoughts in one day. Great question, so let’s do some exploring.
 
What Shapes Your Thoughts?
This is a complex question and pretty loaded. I am by no means an expert in this field, but I can add my two sense to the question. The people you surround yourself with, the content you consume through social media, and your foundational beliefs are all things that shape your thoughts.
 
How The People You Surround Yourself With Impact You
Have you ever heard the saying, you are the average of the 5 people you surround yourself with? This is exactly why that statement is so true. The people you surround yourself with have an incredible impact on your mindset. When you surround yourself with positive people striving to become better, you will naturally be pulled up by them. When you surround yourself with people who are negative and the victim, you will begin to also be the victim.
 
I continue hearing more and more that you need to surround yourself with people who pull you upwards. One of the biggest gaps I currently have in my life is a true mentor. Someone who is where I want to be in 5 years. I haven’t spent enough time trying to seek out individuals like this. The more I try to seek out and surround myself with individuals with similar mindsets, the easier it will be to stay in a positive growth mindset.
 
My goal is to always be challenging myself to get to the next level of achievement in many aspects of my life. The goal isn’t to solely achieve financially. I have other categories of my life I want to strive in. These include but are not limited to relationships, giving back, and health.
 
How Content You Consume Impacts Your Mindset
First, let’s define content. Content have a very broad context. This includes but is not limited to: social media, what you watch on TV, what commercials or advertisements you consume, who you text daily.
 
Think about it this way. If you consume content that has negative connotation, do you think you will have positive thoughts? My guess would be you wouldn’t. If you follow and consume social media of people who are victims, do you think you will not try to find reasons why you have complete ownership of your life? My guess again would be probably not.
 
What you consume on a daily basis has a great impact on your conscious and subconscious thoughts.
 
Why Foundational Beliefs Impact Your Mindset
Whether you want to believe it or not, you have foundational beliefs that impact your mindset. Foundational beliefs are usually developed when you are young. This doesn’t mean you can’t change your foundational beliefs over time. This only means they exist and you should work to determine what they are.
 
For me, these are a few foundational beliefs I have. Some I am trying to get rid of, and others I am trying to tweak:
  • I worry too much about things I have no control over. I think this comes from my mom and how she has always been high strung on a few things.
  • I am frugal. Again, I think this comes from my Jewish mom.
  • I have a deep work ethic. I believe this comes from both my parents. My dad would always tell me growing up “If you aren’t going to do it right the first time, you might as well not do it at all.”
  • I am overly competitive. This was developed through sports I played as a kid. I was competitive and always wanted to compete at the highest levels as a kid. This has translated into my drive in the professional world to want to be better and work my way up the ranks.
Closing, take a close look and audit your life to understand how these three things impact your mindset. You might be amazed when you start to look around and see what you find.
 
Key Takeaways:
  • You have roughly 50,000 thoughts each day. There is no way for all these thoughts you be conscious. Your subconscious is where most of your thoughts will happen.
  • You are the average of the 5 people you spend the most time around. Find people to look up to and who lift you higher.
  • Be careful about what type of content you are consuming through social media and streaming services. This also has a great impact on your subconscious thoughts.

Don’t forget @TheYoungRetireeBy33’s 3 Core Principles:

1 – Your money should make money for you⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2 – Start early to realize the power of compound interest⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
3 – Eliminate your largest expense by house hacking

Posted on by — Leave a comment

4 Things I Did To Hit Over $100,000 In My Brokerage Account At 27

It feels amazing to see my Vanguard brokerage account hit over $100k at such a young age. I have worked hard in both the earning and expense side in my investing journey. It feels great to see the progress and growth to hit over $100k in such a short amount of time. Here are four things that were critical for me to hit this major milestone!
 
The first and most important thing I have done is ensuring my money is also making money for me. This is my first of three core principles that are fundamental to my values.
 
If you are keeping your money in a savings account earning less than .03%, your money isn’t working as hard for you as you are working for it. If you are keeping your money in cash stashed under your bed, again, your money isn’t working hard enough for you. Keep your money invested in assets so it can work as hard for you as you work for it.
 
The earlier you begin, the better off you will be in the long run. The main driver here is compound interest and how powerful it is.
 
A key to having a lot of money to invest is by saving. The largest expense for 99.9% of American’s is housing. If you house hack, there are a few things you are doing. First, you are eliminating your largest expense. This allows you to automatically save that money, if you are smart. Next, if you buy a home, you are building equity in the home by having your tenants pay your mortgage for you. Finally, there are tax advantages to owning real estate. I won’t bore you with all the details on the advantages here, but you can read this article to understand a little more on the tax advantages of investing in real estate. 
 
Item #4: I Focused On Both Sides Of The Equation
Too often, I hear people talking about cutting the small expenses. What they sometimes forget is the fact that there are two sides of the equation. The first side is expenses and the second is expenses. I have put a heavy focus on both increasing my overall income as well as decreasing my living expenses. This focus on both sides of the equation has been a critical part of being able to get to $100,000 in my Vanguard brokerage account.
 
Sometimes it is good to take a step back and celebrate how far you have come. I am often very hard on myself that I am not doing enough and need to do more. I am often slow to celebrate the amazing progress I have made in trying to do big things with my life.
 
To fully grasp this accomplishment, if I were to not touch this account for 30 years, let’s see what it could look like. If we were to use a 7% interest rate compounded yearly, in 30 years, my $101,000 would look like this.
 
What My Vanguard Account Will Look Like In 30 years
 
That’s right, if I were to not touch this account (no adding money and no removing money), it would be worth $774,000 in 30 years. Now, I don’t plan to stop here. I am going to continue automating my investments every week. At least, until I hit a number where I feel financially independent.
 
So for a very short period of time, it is time to celebrate! $100,000 let’s get it! Time to get to $200,000 and on!
Key Takeaways:
  • Ensure your money is always working as hard for you as you work for it. 
  • Invest early to realize the power of compound interest
  • House hack to eliminate your largest expense
  • Focus on both increasing your income and decreasing your overall expenses. It isn’t enough to focus on only one or the other. 

Don’t forget @TheYoungRetireeBy33’s 3 Core Principles:

1 – Your money should make money for you⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
2 – Start early to realize the power of compound interest⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
3 – Eliminate your largest expense by house hacking