☕️ saturday mornings #17
☕️ saturday mornings #17
satisfaction, top podcasts & principles for financial freedom
Good morning all,
I hope you’re having a lovely Saturday.
Below is your edition of “saturday mornings”, a weekly recap of what I’ve been testing, learning and exploring over the past few days.
✍️Quote I’ve been thinking about:
“He who is not satisfied with a little is satisfied with nothing. Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not.”
― Epicurus
🎙️Love it and List it:
Top 5 Podcasts of 2021 (so far)
1) Tim Ferriss #466: Richard Koch on Mastering 80/20 Principle
3) Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History: Show 60 - The Celtic Holocaust
I’ve tried a lot of different podcasts over the past few years, but in my humble opinion Tim Ferriss asks some of the best questions and has some of the best guests out of any podcast on the interwebs. If you haven’t checked it out, as long as you skip the first 5 minutes of ads (pro-tip), I’d highly recommend it.
I’ve also recently experimented with being more focused with my consumption of content or ideas. My goal is to try to create a deeper understanding of a specific topic and become more of an “expert”.
Over time, building a working knowledge set and developing some level of competency can then help to generate my own thoughts or ideas about the topic. In short, going narrow and deep instead of taking in a lot of content at a surface level.
🎨Artwork I discovered:
💰Article I’ve been pondering:
Ramit Sethi is a personal finance advisor and entrepreneur as well as the author of the 2009 New York Times best seller I Will Teach You To Be Rich (4.1/5.0 on Goodreads, 93% on Google).
He’s one of the most interesting thinkers I’ve come across in the realm of personal finance.
Ramit Sethi publicly posted his personal “10 Money Rules” that he’s developed over the past 20 years and uses as guiding principles to make decisions around his money and personal finances.
These rules are specific to him, and are not designed to be adopted 100%.
However, the list contains some gems that I have been pondering and testing in my own life, and wanted to share with you all.
Ramit’s Money Rules
Always have one year of emergency fund available in cash.
Save 10% and invest 20% of gross income, minimum.
Pay cash for large expenses. 20% down, minimum, on a house.
Never question spending money on books, appetizers, health, or donating to a friend’s charity fundraiser.
Business class on flights over 4 hours.
No limit on spending for health (personal trainer) or education (courses, events, etc.)
Buy the best and keep it for as long as possible. Everything cheap comes out expensive.
Earn enough to work only with people I respect and like.
Marry the right person.
Prioritize time outside the spreadsheet.
Ramit also talks a lot about focusing on big financial decisions and letting the small stuff slide. In other words, to “stop asking $3 questions and start asking $30,000 questions.”
This mental model is another embodiment of the 80/20 principle, but applied to the lens of finance. Focus on the 20% of personal finance decisions that drive 80% of achieving your financial freedom.
For example, think carefully about buying a $50,000 car, but don’t sweat buying a $5 latte (especially if you love lattes). A $5 purchase has such little impact on your financial future in comparison.
If you’re curious to learn more about personal finance and developing money habits, I’d start with reading the article linked above and checking out Ramit’s two podcast episodes on the Tim Ferriss Show (Tim Ferriss #371 and Tim Ferriss #524). Both are quite good.
That’s all for this week’s edition of “saturday mornings”.
And, as always, please give me feedback by replying to this email or give me a shout on Twitter. Which topic above is your favourite? What do you want more or less of? Other suggestions? Please let me know.
Just send a tweet to @tommy_dixon_ and put #saturdaymornings at the end.
Thank you for reading. Have a great weekend.
Much love to you and yours,
Thomas