Too often, people get stuck in the fixed mindset. It is important to begin asking yourself ‘How can I afford it?’ The most common feedback people have is telling themselves they can’t afford it. This mindset is fundamentally true if you tell yourself it. Begin reframing your mind to ask the question ‘How Can I Afford It?’ instead. This fundamental shift in mindset is transformational.
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$13.70 Per Day Costs You $5,000 Per Year
I continue seeing more and more posts from people about the importance of not spending money on coffee. The importance of not spending money going out to eat for lunch or other things daily. A common thing people share is the ‘Want to learn how to blow $5k a year? Spend $13.70 on lunch every day!’
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Does $13.70 per day equate to $5,000 per year? Yeah, the math checks out. Now, let’s look at this problem from a different perspective. What if I asked you, hey, how can we make an additional $5,000 in income a year? Well, you need to make $13.70 per day for 365 days. That will equate to $5,000 of additional income in a year.
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A very simple refrain in the question makes you think in a completely different way.
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Ways To Make $13.70 Per Day
There are many side hustles you can take on that would earn you $13.70 per day. Here are a few side hustles you can do:
Flip items from facebook marketplace that people are giving away for free. Make sure to equate gas and car mileage in this. Typically it “costs” $0.50 per mile driven in gas, maintenance, etc.
Deliver food on Uber of Lyft
Drive passengers for Uber or Lyft
Rent out your spare bedroom on Airbnb – house hacking at its finest, find out how I house hack at this link!Â
Sell crap you have accumulated in your home that you don’t need
These are just a few of the side hustles you could pick up to make some extra cash.
How Investments Can Pay For Things
Think of it in this way. Let’s say you wanted a new car because the car you have is about dead and at this point it is a need in your life. Okay, cool. Let’s follow this mindset.
Ask yourself, ‘How can I afford a new car?’. The first thing that is important to note is you don’t need a new car. You need a used car that is as good as new. Let’s say a new car would cost you $220 a month in payments for a certain amount of time. Cool.
Ask a more specific question now. ‘How can I afford $200 per month for a car payment?’. I will use one solution for this example. Let’s say you live by yourself or have an extra room in your home. How about renting it out for a few nights a month on Airbnb? Depending on your area/market, you could rent the room out for $30-50 per night. This would take you 5-6 nights per month to rent out to pay for your car.
Just like that, you can now afford a new car by asking yourself one simple question and solving the problem!
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So What’s The Point?
The point is simple. Stop saying you can’t afford things in your life. Ask how you can afford them. Be creative with your thought process and how to solve the problem. There are many ways to make more money in this world. We live in a day and age of incredible technology.
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The power of your cell phone has enabled hundreds of thousands of people to make a better life for themselves. Begin to reframe the question in your mind. It is simple, yet powerful.
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Key Takeaways:
Start asking yourself how you can afford something versus saying you can’t afford it
Understand there are hundreds of ways to make extra income. Figure out what could work well for your life situation.
Use technology to your advantage! We live in an incredible age where we have so much power in the palm of our hand.
Most people wait for something bad to happen before taking action. Why? Something bad happening in your life reminds you of how precious life is. This reminder is what helps you to remember to take action.
This past Sunday, 1/26/20, will go down as a historic day in history. We lost one of the greatest athletes of all time, Kobe Bryant. There were also 8 other victims in this horrible helicopter crash.
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I was on a flight from MCO to San Francisco when the news broke. I landed in San Francisco to a text from a friend saying “RIP Kobe”. Naturally, the first thing that comes to mind was Kobe was probably in the news for losing a 1v1 in basketball or something to that extent. I got curious, so I went to google and put in his name. I was devastated at the news I saw. I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. There was no way the news could be real. To say I was shocked is an understatement.
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We are all on different parts of our journey. No two people are alike. No two people will agree on everything. Don’t let any of this make you miss out on living every day with purpose. You never know what could happen. The world isn’t always fair.
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Here is one thing I would love for people to take away from this tragic event. Stop waiting.
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Stop waiting for something bad to happen in your life before you want to change.
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Stop waiting for a New Year to come around where you will then magically change.
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Stop waiting to tell the people you care about that you care about them.
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Stop waiting to repair that relationship that is long overdue.
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Stop waiting to take control of your life and your path to financial independence.
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Stop waiting for your actions to match your words. Talk the talk and walk the walk.
Have you ever wondered why people talk about investing early in your life? The simple reason is the power of compound interest. If you start investing early in your life you will realize the power of compound interest and will greatly speed up your path to FI. This is an incredible way to build wealth at a young age.
Want to see what the power of compounding can do? You can see a simplified compound interest calculator here, you can input a few numbers to see what the power of compound interest looks like. Let’s take the below example over a 30 year timespan:
You started with an investment of $500
You add $100 to this investment every month
Let’s assume this investment earns you a 7% return
What Does Compound Interest Look LikeIn the above example, here is what your money would look like after 30 years!
What are we looking at? The y-axis indicates the dollar value. The x-axis indicates the number of years. The blue/green line shows the amount you contributed over time and the red line shows the future value of the money after compounding.
Here is what I find most interesting about compound interest. Early on in the investment, you won’t see much difference between the red and blue/green lines. For example, in the graph above, you don’t see much difference in the two lines until year 14. This would make most believe the strategy isn’t working. Some would quit. Some would think they wasted a bunch of time. But wait, there is more.
It is the later years where you begin to truly see the separation. Beginning around year 14 we begin to see exponential growth take place. Growth compounded on more growth will only speed up this curve faster as you look further out.
Don’t believe me, let’s look at what a 50 year time horizon would look like:
But What If I Didn’t Start Early?
This is a very common question I get. Many believe if they don’t start early then they should not start at all. This is part of the challenge of having a Fixed vs Growth mindset. If you want to read more about what the difference of theses mindsets, click here.
Don’t let the fact that you didn’t start young stop you from starting! You learn new information every day. Take the new information you learn each day and figure out how to apply what is relevant. Investing in your future self and the ability to become financially independent will always be relevant.
Key Takeaways:
The power of compound interest is real. Be patient and start early!
If you haven’t started yet and you aren’t young, SO WHAT! Start now. Don’t let this be the excuse to never get started.
The longer you look out on a compound interest timeline, the more compounding you see. This is true for any scenario you plug into the calculator.
As always, don’t forget the first core principle: Your money should make money for you.