Do you have “enough” money? A study found that the ideal income for a typical American family to have “emotional well-being” is around $60,000 to $75,000 annually.1Source: Nature Journal of Human Behaviour
In an interview, Warren Buffett said he would be “very happy” with $100,000 a year, despite his billionaire net worth.2Source: CNBC Meanwhile, John Bogle, the pioneer of modern index investing and founder of the Vanguard Index Fund, says “enough” is “one dollar more than you need.” Which I think is also a good definition.
The truth is that “enough” depends on our personal circumstances.
Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday and every other Thursday.
One way to avoid mistakes is by taking action early on in the process. For example, it’s much easier for a business to pull the plug on a new product on the first sign of failure, than to do it after a few years.
The famous investor and thinker Charlie Munger says:
“The difference between a good business and a bad business is that good businesses throw up one easy decision after another. The bad businesses throw up painful decisions time after time.”
When you make small decisions early, before they become big — it’s easy. When you put off decisions, they become big — and painful.
This is also true for our personal lives.
Decide to get on a diet when you gain a few pounds
Decide to focus on yourself when you’re putting too much emphasis on other people’s opinions
Decide to get a different job when your current one has no perspective
Decide to move to a different city when yours is deteriorating
Creative outlet — painting, writing a book, making music
Then ask yourself: What are my Top 2 Needs?
Choosing only two on the list forces you to think about whether you really want something over another. When you know what you really need, you can prioritize those over the things that matter less.
Once you take care of the top needs, you can do everything else as a bonus.
“It never ceases to amaze me: we all love ourselves more than other people, but care more about their opinion than our own.”
Remember that what you think of yourself matters more than what others think.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this edition of Wise & Wealthy useful.
All the best,
Darius
Join the 7-day Stay Centered challenge
I’ve created a one-week email course that you can do together with a group. It’s called Stay Centered, and it will help you to reclaim focus and live a meaningful life.
When you’re centered, nothing can hurt you. You will have inner peace no matter what happens.
How to unlock Stay Centered
You can join the challenge for free. Every day, you’ll receive a short email with a small challenge that inspires you to live better.
I highly recommend sharing it with your friends so you can go through the program together. I did it with my team, which was a lot of fun.
Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday and every other Thursday.
A big misconception about productivity and high achievement is that one must be productive every hour of the day.
A lot of ambitious people even feel guilty if they do “nothing” for a day. That’s not healthy.
In fact, it’s helpful to do nothing sometimes. Charlie Munger once said that Warren Buffett “is sitting on his ass and reading” half of the time!
Now, there are good and bad ways to do nothing. Putting off important tasks and not doing work because you don’t feel like it is obviously not helpful.
However, sometimes you just need to “waste” a few hours to remain in balance.
That type of time wasting is not a real waste because it serves a purpose. When you occasionally kill time and just enjoy doing nothing, you remain energetic.
If you’re always working, working, working, you risk burning out or getting depressed. Now, that’s a real waste of time. Some people burn out and remain that way for years.
To make the above easier, we also need some financial security. I would love to tell you it’s okay to take off any day of the week and do nothing, but we all have our responsibilities.
Life is hard. And we must stay practical.
Sometimes we just have too many obligations to do nothing. Now, there’s also a solution for that.
By reminding yourself that life is about time, not about money, you will optimize for the former.
However, that doesn’t mean you neglect the latter. We all need money to live.
If you use that money to buy more free time, that means you’re winning in life.
Many of us are facing financial challenges. During these moments we want to throw in the towel and give up on our goals to become more financially free.
But remember: The foundation of financial success is forged during economic downturns.
If you’re able to keep living simple and keep on investing (in yourself and in assets), you will get out on the other side stronger.
“For modern money to work—to have banks, and a stock market, and a central bank—there needs to be tension. Investors and bankers and activists and government officials all need to be arguing over who gets to do what, and when.”
There’s a lot of arguing right now. Fortunately, that will only make our system stronger.
Thanks for reading! I hope you found this edition of Wise & Wealthy useful.
All the best,
Darius
Join the 7-day Stay Centered challenge
I’ve created a one-week email course that you can do together with a group. It’s called Stay Centered, and it will help you to reclaim focus and live a meaningful life.
When you’re centered, nothing can hurt you. You will have inner peace no matter what happens.
How to unlock Stay Centered
You can join the challenge for free. Every day, you’ll receive a short email with a small challenge that inspires you to live better.
I highly recommend sharing it with your friends so you can go through the program together. I did it with my team, which was a lot of fun.
Being productive doesn’t mean utilizing every waking minute to do productive things. That’s why I don’t like “hustle culture.” I don’t need to be busy every minute.
Sometimes, spending a day doing various things around the house, maybe taking walk or doing some reading, can actually be more useful. These moments help us examine our lives.
But high achievers and ambitious people often have a problem with doing nothing. They feel like they need to be productive every single minute. So they get busy with minor things.
For example, when highly productive entrepreneurs have spare time, it’s not unusual to see them making minor improvements to their business. They optimize their websites, clean up their brick-and-mortar shops, do more research on their industry, and so forth.
It’s great to have the desire to improve yourself and your career. But you also don’t want to be too extreme with busywork.
