15 Micro Ideas About Money to Help You Rewrite Your Financial History
They’re insanely simple, tiny seeds of financial freedom.
1. Find a who, not a how
I have always struggled to increase my income because I want to control every part of the process. Benjamin Hardy and Dan Sullivan convinced me in their book “Who Not How” to reconsider this way of life.
For years I thought I needed to learn more skills or try to fall in love with building websites. Turns out this was flawed thinking. Looking for “how” is an excuse that can be overcome with a Who.
As a result I got a business partner after six years. This has doubled my output. I realized my range of skills is limited. When you stack your skills with another person’s you can make a lot more money. Imagine what could happen if you partnered with five people.
2. You can start with $0
You used to need a bank loan to start a side hustle. Not anymore. The internet changed the game completely.
All you need to do to start earning money is utilize free social media platforms. Social media platforms are full of people who will pay you for your skills. You need to show how you can help by creating free content.
3. Don’t measure the success of your investments in dollars
Dollars are worth less over time, making you think you’re getting richer. If you measure your net-worth or success with investing in dollars, then you might mistakenly think you’re getting wealthier when you’re not.
A dollar is an IOU from the government. It’s not tied to anything other than a promise.
You can take the radical approach of measuring your wealth in a different form of money like gold. You will be shocked when you do.
4. Understand purchasing power
For years I saved away my money. I put my money in the bank and got paid interest on it. Meanwhile, the hidden tax of inflation and the temptation of the government to print money to pay for stuff that would get them elected stole my purchasing power.
- Learn about money printing.
- Understand inflation vs. deflation so you can explain it to a 6-year-old.
- Understand how money is created.
- Relearn what debt is and why a lot of it will never be paid back.
5. Become a content creator
Those who produce content make a lot more money. Here’s the crazy thing: you already produce content every day.
The key is to become conscious of the fact you are producing content already without even trying. Every day you write emails, tell stories, go to work, possibly post something on social media (like a photo or video), and consume content that you respond to in the form of a comment.
All you have to do is start being aware of all this content and publishing it on one platform. The biggest mistake is people think they have to be on lots of social media platforms — Youtube, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter. This strategy of being everywhere only leads to overwhelm.
Start with one piece of content per day on one platform.
If it takes you more than ten minutes to produce (we’re talking micro content not feature-length films) then you’re overthinking it. Watch how much money this strategy attracts into your life after six months.
6. All investing is, is asset allocation
This idea blew my mind when I read the book “Money Master The Game.”
Quite simply, the main difference between you and a successful investor like Warren Buffett is asset allocation. Let me break this ambiguous phrase down for you.
Asset allocation is the percentage split between assets. The assets you can choose from are: stocks, bonds, real estate, gold/silver, digital currencies, and cash. So the primary difference between you and a sophisticated investor is your asset allocation.
The best part about asset allocations is you can search other people’s online. For example here is billionaire investor, Ray Dalio’s, asset allocation.
You can see how he’s invested his money and even the exact financial products he used. Once you understand this simple concept of asset allocation you can start to ask different people you admire what theirs is and learn from it. Some will have high amounts of stocks in their portfolio and others with be obsessed with gold or digital currencies because they are uneasy about the global financial system.
Figure out what percentage of your money you want to put where.
7. Go from one to two income streams
Making money from one place is a huge risk. Especially in a recession.
Use online channels to find a way to make an extra source of income. It’s not about making $100K per month either. It’s about making a few dollars online so your mind opens up to the possibility of it. From there, you can go far and end up making a lot more than that if you stick at it.
When I tell people they can make $100 a month from writing, without hardly any effort, they think I’m joking. Once they achieve that goal they end up making over $1000 a month and can’t believe it. I couldn’t believe it either until I banked my first $20.
Two sources of money help you stress less.
8. Launch a digital product
Everybody has the capacity to be a teacher. You don’t need to be an expert. You just need to be 10%-20% better than the person you’re teaching.
A digital product is a fancy way of saying you can sell an online course, eBook, premium content (video, audio, illustrations, photographs, writing) or online coaching using the internet.
A digital product is a way to teach something you know. And you know something. However bizarre the thing is that you know, somebody else online wants to know how to do it.
You can forget about building a website, too, and just use a one-page website known as a landing page to sell what you have to offer.
Teach a skill you know using a digital product.
9. Stalk a person who you can mimic
I stalk Tom Kuegler after dinner. The guy has figured out how to earn a little extra money the ethical way. No hype or flashy sales tactics.
You can find somebody who is slightly better at making money than you and follow what they do. I’ll give you a tip: sign up to their email list.
An email list is where you see how somebody makes a living online.
10. Work for free
I did this for many years. I wrote for free on a person’s website who taught me some of what they knew about writing.
It’s easy to see working for free as “being taken advantage of.”
Flip that story on its head. If someone can change how you think about money and the work you do, wouldn’t you want to know sooner rather than later? You can get up close and personal — intimate even — when you offer to work for free.
Here’s the thing: once you’ve shown the value you can produce, you can always find a way to start making money. You can ask for a revenue share or you can ask to be paid for your time. I think of my time spent working for free as “try now and buy later.”
Working for free taught me way more than a $100K+ university education would have ever taught me.
Theory is nice. Learning from someone who has successfully taken action and getting a look behind the scenes is far more powerful.
11. Schedule money-producing work
The work that produces me the most money is writing. I don’t wait for it to happen occasionally. Instead, I schedule the act of writing and therefore, schedule work that produces money.
Once you find a type of work you enjoy, that makes you money, don’t wait for chance. Schedule the work in your calendar.
12. Five years can take you far
A tiny, micro idea about money is that if you plant a seed, in five years it will grow into a bamboo forest. The problem is we want things too quickly. We want to make extra money or change our financial future in a few weeks.
In reality, it doesn’t work like that. I found when I committed to a five year goal, while things started slowly, after five years the results and financial freedom were far beyond anything I could have ever imagined.
I tried earning a living from making electronic music. I tried earning money as a DJ. I tried earning money by joining a rock band. I never stayed at any of these ideas long enough to ever earn any real money from them. If I had just committed to giving it a shot for five years I’m confident one of them would have become my full-time way to earn a living.
If you feel like you’ve tried everything when it comes to improving your financial future, try sticking at one thing for five years. You need long enough in the field you choose, to earn a living from it.
Five years is a good start. Ten years will make you unstoppable.
13. Diversify to de-risk
All in when it comes to money is a giant, unnecessary risk.
I see people go all in all the time. It scares me. All it takes is a once-in-a-lifetime event like a mystery global health crisis that is highly infectious to wipe you out.
Diversification is the easiest way to think about money.
You place your money in different places in case something changes that you couldn’t see. For example you can own risk-averse assets like gold for recessions and stocks for when times are good and the economy is healthy. In other words, you can have your cake and eat it too when you diversify. You can get the benefits of multiple investment strategies with diversification.
Having no diversification when it comes to money is like standing on one leg on the side of a cliff and hoping a gust of wind doesn’t come by and blow you over the edge. A storm will come. Stand on more than one leg so you don’t get blown over.
14. Dare to invest
I never invested my money because I was too afraid of the risk. By being risk-averse I never grew the money I earned. This led me to work long hours at work rather than letting the money I’d already earned do some — not all — of the work for me.
Money can work for you when you invest some of it.
15. Give some money away to be happy
If you keep all of your money for yourself, it’s going to be a pretty miserable life. The best thing about money is you can use it to help other people.
And when you do, you open your mind to the idea that money can buy stuff, but helping others can give you meaning and fulfillment which transcends your own life.
This is why I want to offer scholarships for my future online course. It’s a way for me to back an underdog and give some money away to someone who will make good use of it.
3 things you may not know about money
- Money can be printed out of thin air
- Banks create money out of thin air by issuing debt.
- Stocks can be printed out of thin air just like money.
When mental illness struck me down a few years ago and I nearly gave up on life, I believed for a long time that I’d be working for the rest of my life on the minimum wage.
There was one point where things got so dark that I thought I’d have to quit working forever and live with my aunty for free so I could survive. The thought of getting out of bed and even earning a salary scared the crap out of me. Slowly, I read my way out of the darkness and started to believe again.
I spent a considerable amount of time outside of my job in a call center working on myself and investing in a psychologist. One of the best investments I ever made was spending $1000 on a seminar.
This seminar felt like a scam when it began. By the end, I was convinced that the way my mind worked was completely up to me. The $1000 investment was a drop in the ocean. I have made at least 100X off attending that event, that at the time, felt like a downpayment on a new house.
Now that story I just described seems like a distant memory. It doesn’t even feel like that story was ever part of my life.
When you change your story, you rewrite your financial future.
You can literally tell yourself whatever story you want to turn your life around and make however much money you need to live the lifestyle you choose for yourself. Your story is a tiny seed you can grow towards financial freedom.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered Financial or Legal Advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.