Don't Break The Chain ⛓
Quote Of The Week 🖋
We all want to have control over our futures. We want to live the life we want, spend time doing what we enjoy and have enough money to never worry about bills or buying things that we like.
There’s often a disconnect between this utopian future that we imagine for ourselves and what we are doing TODAY to make it happen.
“The future belongs to those who prepare for it today.” - Malcom X
The brutal truth is that if you want the future you desire, you have to prepare for it today.
You have to spend time working on your business / side hustle on the weekend over going out. You have to learn how to cook and eat in most days over ordering take out. You have to learn new skills and increase your income so that you’re not just working to pay bills.
Stop waiting and start preparing. Your future self will be grateful for it.
Market Overview 📉
Another week, another bloodbath in the markets. This week closed off three consective weeks of losses for the US markets with April being a month to forget for investors.
Inflationary pressures and interest rate rises are spooking short term investors for sure. However, for those with a longer term mindset, Warren Buffet’s famous quote of “Be greedy when others are fearful” springs to mind.
It never seems a great time to buy whilst markets are dropping hard and fast like they have been all year, but if you zoom out and look five or ten years ahead, foregoing the opportunity to invest at current prices could prove more costly.
What does all this mean for your portfolio? I often got asked over the last few years “when’s the best time to invest?”. The best time to invest was ten years ago, the second best time is today.
No one has a crystal ball to know which directions the markets will go in the short term but a consistent action plan to invest* weekly / monthly is often the best route to building a strong portfolio over the long term.
*Start investing from as little as £10 at eToro, one of the easiest to use investment platforms.
Don’t Break The Chain ⛓
If you want to stop procrastinating and start gettings done, use the Seinfeld Method.
It is named after Jerry Seinfeld, a famous American comedian credited for originally presenting his advice to a fellow comedian who wanted to make it big.
Consistency is the bedrock of success and the Seinfeld Method is a useful framework to establish it on any given task.
How does it work?
Get a big calendar and stick it on a wall in your bedroom / living room / office. A place that is in close proximity to where you work on the habit / skill / progress you’re trying to achieve.
Get a red marker.
For each day that you complete your task, put a big red X on the calendar.
After a few days, you have a chain and the chain will grow longer each day.
After a few weeks, you will feel a sense of accomplishment and will like seeing that chain.
Don’t break the chain.
Whilst it may seem simple in theory, it can be a very effective method to increase producitivity. We are more inclined to continue with tasks if we can view the progress that we’re making front and center of our minds.
Start with 30 days. Spend 30 minutes each day working on something that you’ve been putting off. The quality of what you do in those 30 minutes doesn’t matter. Just make sure you carve out the time to focus on the task every single day.
30 minutes may not seem like much in isolation, but by showing up every day for a month, you will be 900 minutes ahead compared to Day 1.
We can all do a lot in 900 minutes.
Investing 101 🏦
I’ve been sharing key investment terms, background on cryptocurrencies and some of my largest investments in the newsletter.
Today, I’ll cover an investment srategy favoured by many long term investors.
Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA)
DCA is an effective method that allows you to manage risk. How does it work?
You have a lump $1,200 and want to invest in Company A. The share price is $10 in April. You can either invest all at once or invest regularly every month.
Lump Sum Method: Buy 120 shares of Company A for $10 in April.
DCA Method: Buy $200 worth of shares in Company monthly for 6 months.
By spreading your investment over time in the above example*, you will own 5.8 more shares of company A for the same $!
No one can predict the future in terms of what direction the markets may move and this is why DCA is a favoured strategy amongst many investors.
*Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. I am sharing an investment strategy that many investors employ to manage risk. Please do your own research before making investing decisions.
What I’m Listening To 🎙
How I Built This is a great podcast where the host, Guy Raz, interviews innovators and entrepreneurs on how they built some of the best companies in the world.
One of my favourites is the Airbnb episode with co-founder Joe Gebbia, who talks through how the idea for the company literally came from him and his roommate being unable to afford rent.
With a major design conference coming to their city and hotels being fully booked, they devised an ingenius way of making some extra money. Creating a simple booking website, they charged guests $80 to sleep on air mattresses in their loft!
You can find all episodes on Apple Podcasts or Google Podcasts.
Did You Know? 🕰
In the 1800’s, trade around the world was growing at a rapid pace and inventions such as trains in the middle of the 19th century led to established trade routes across many parts of the world.
There was one issue that led to headahes for many businessman, train operators and passengers alike. It became impossible to know what time it was.
This was because much of the world had no time standard. Each city woutl keep a record of its own solar time, with the clocks set at noon when the sun was directly overhead.
If you never left town, this was unlikely to cause you any problems. However, for travellers who were going across the country at speeds of up to 80mph, it complicated matters. There were just too many references for time.
With over 56 time standards of time in the US alone, train officals could not set reliable timetables. So in 1883, they got together and declared that there would be four US time zones in total.
This allowed travellers to make plans in advance knowing what time it would be at their destinations and for consistency in businesses arranging transport of goods. The rest of the world followed this methodology soon after and that is why we measure time through the use of time zones to this day.
Question For You 💭
What can you do today that your future self will be grateful for?
Thank You 😊
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