Making more money has nothing to do with happiness.
But without enough money you’ll be too distracted to ever find happiness. That’s why in 2023 it’s time to finally master your money and buy your time back. Here are some hard-hitter money habits you’ve got to drop.
The #1 way to stay broke
Start tomorrow.
Make excuses. Say “I should do…” and should-all-over-yourself. That’s how you stay a brokie for eternity.
Critics: “It’s so hard, dontcha know.”
I get it. But the more hard things you do the easier everything else feels. This isn’t a made-up Timmy Boy platitude either. The Japanese call it “The Misogi Challenge.”
It’s the idea you do something so brutally hard for a single day that it makes the next 364 days feel like a piece of piss.
So don’t wait until tomorrow and keep these excuses circling around in your head. Take action with your finances right now. It should feel hard. It should make you want to do a crap. Nice.
Believe your income is fixed
“I’m on a pension. I can’t afford….”
Pensions and salaries are fixed incomes that come from fixed mindsets.
If you have an internet connection then your income is never fixed.
You can always write an eBook, plug some affiliate links, learn Etsy/eBay, or do some freelance coaching in the same skill area as your career. Stop thinking incomes are fixed.
Growth mindsets can watch Youtube videos and learn new skills. New skills equal more money.
Generational wealth is transferred through education not assets — Alex Hormozi
Fall in love with an investment
This one’s dangerous.
I’ve seen it with Tesla lovers. They went all in and put all their spare cash into the stock. Then Elon made a few errors and the stock dropped more than 50%.
I’m a bit like this with the crypto, Ethereum. I’d marry and make babies with her if she were a human. But I don’t chuck all my cash into it in case I’m wrong and another technology beats Ethereum long term.
It’s okay to like an investment but never invest all your cash into it. Diversification keeps the shirt on your back.
Lose the mental game thus becoming a loser
Making more money is a mental game.
In fact the whole topic of money is a psychology game. It’s why the book “The Psychology of Money” is the most sold book on the topic of the last few years.
How you think about money determines how much money you have.
Oddly, it works in both directions. If you make a lot of money and don’t feel psychologically rich, then you’ll keep working harder to make more money you don’t actually need.
It’s one reason the phrase “die with zero” has become so popular.
If you make too much money it steals away your time. Now some will say that the money can be left to kids. But we all know trust fund babies are an absolute nightmare and will probably lose the lot — so why give the next generation the burden?
Upgrade your money psychology.
Get financial advice from broke people
A friend the other day pissed me off.
Every time I chat to them about stocks or property, they have some doomer outlook on what will happen to the economy.
“Ch!na is finished. Electric cars won’t last. The property market will crash. Gold will replace the US dollar.”
They do zero research.
They can’t back up their claims with data. And they always mention some unrelated dumb-dumb who knows nothing about money.
- Their neighbor who drives a Tesla says the company will go broke.
- Their butcher thinks the American stock market is past its heyday.
- Their personal trainer thinks crypto is one giant scam.
- Their parents think real estate is doomed. Apparently a friend of a friend had a rural property that sold for $200k below list price. “See, Sonny Jim, it’s a sign I tell ya.”
Knick off.
I don’t listen to non-experts about money. I learn from wealthy people. I get advice from people in the money game who do it as their full-time career.
Stop listening to idiots about money. They’re broke for a reason.
Blame your race, sexuality, or employer for your money problems
Victimhood and money are joined at the hip.
How do I know? I was a victim. I don’t come from a rich family or have a college degree. When grandparents or relatives die I always get nothing.
This made me angry for the first part of my life. All my friends, even if they were poor, always got some sort of glorious inheritance.
Not Timbob.
Later in life I learned to take responsibility for my situation and grab life by the curly ones — because all the complaining got me nowhere.
People feel sympathy for your money problems for about 2.5 seconds, then they go back to thinking about themselves. Their 4000 year old ape brain hardcoded them to think that way.
For example, in America I have a few friends that came from the hood and got out. Writer Ayodeji Awosika is one case study. Genius Turner is another.
Anyone from any country with an internet connection can make money.
Hope the government will save you
Whatever inflation relief package or energy reduction bill they propose, it’s a dog and pony show.
Even if you get a deposit to your bank account from the government to help with bills, know they’re just using it to buy votes. They will never do it long-term. So maybe they threw you a bone, but slumdogs can never exist on handouts forever. Expect to get zero.
Anything the government gives is a piss-ant bonus.
Live on 100% of your monthly income
Living paycheck to paycheck is real.
You know who is surprisingly the most guilty? People with 6-figure incomes. They’ve snorted so much luxury-life coca!ne content that they have to compete with everyone else using material possessions.
It goes without saying: a portion of every dollar of income should be put aside for the future. How? You ain’t gonna like it…
- Discipline
- Impulse control
Number two is so powerful that it’s become my 2023 mantra. If I don’t get my impulses under control, I’m never going to reach true success.
The same applies to you. Every temptation you resist makes your money brain stronger, and that same brain makes financial decisions.
Now you see where smarter money decisions come from.
Live on the same income you made last year
There are many slow-cooked frogs living in our society.
Their goal in 2023 is to keep their head above water. To make the same income they made last year. So they enter the year in a pot of cold water. As the year progresses, the heat from government/central bank money printing and inflation increases the temperature.
By the end of the year the same income they got last year buys even less stuff than the year before. It’s hard to see though. So they scratch their head and wonder what the heck happened.
Don’t be a slow-cooked froggy.
Raise your income at least more than current inflation levels plus a bit more (because the official inflation numbers are lower than reality).
Work hard because the system told you to
You’ll probably never be free if you work hard.
Brute force and hard labor don’t scale long term. It only leads to burnout and health problems. The solution is to work smart.
“Nice one Tim. Back with the platitudes.”
Hear me out: working smarter equals accessing the magic of leverage. You put in the same effort but the output is increased. How?
You add systems to your work with tools like Notion. You hire a virtual assistant to help take away some of the admin donkey work, to free your brain up to do the more profitable stuff.
Or you build a community of like-minded people and then collaborate with them on projects to produce bigger results.
Use digital leverage in 2023.
Stay stuck in indecision
Decisions move money-making goals forward.
Just decide. Do something. Lift a finger. Experiment. See what happens. You’ll never predict where the next opportunity is going to come from, so put yourself out there to increase your luck surface area.
Say “old guys have no clue about tech”
Maybe.
But older generations who are less familiar with tech can teach you a heck of a lot about risk. Too many people take unnecessary risks and lose their money. The one concept you want to learn is asymmetric risk.
All the hedge funds and billionaires tap into this superpower.
Asymmetric risk simply means a risk that produces a bigger return than the original risk taken. The upside is far greater than the downside.
This technique is being deployed like wildfire right now in Web3, especially with Ethereum.
No risk, no reward.
Master risk to master money.
Operate on 0% creativity for the rest of your life
Creativity in the modern career is low.
Many positions are nothing more than email jobs. Go to work, Zoom, chillax, look at emails.
When there’s zero creativity in the work you do it gets boring. That’s when energy levels plummet and those around you, who could give you new opportunities, see you’ve given up.
A high-paying income is based on creativity. Because creativity is how you create new things. And what you build determines how much money you take home.
If you don’t get any creativity from a job, it’s best to create more creativity when you get home (hobbies, side hustles).
Watch people win big and try to replicate them
The path to true wealth is known by many.
Be responsible. Diversify. Start a business. Own stocks. Invest a little in crypto. So why the heck do we deviate from what works?
Why can’t people dollar-cost average into the S&P 500 stock market index like billionaire Warren Buffett recommends? Writer Jack Raines made me realize: distractions.
No matter what happens some lucky person is gonna YOLO their life savings into Bitcoin. Or a broke dude is gonna become the Dogecoin millionaire. Or a guy on Twitter is gonna time the market perfectly and buy Apple stock and sell it a year later for a huge profit.
It was worst during 2021 when crypto prices exploded higher.
Everyone (even me) had FOMO. So the temptation to deviate off the path and chase the easy wins became hard to resist.
The only solution is to accept some people will get lucky but it won’t be you. Stick to a smart financial plan in 2023.
Work for someone else forever
This one is controversial.
There’s no problem working for a boss or employer. I did it for most of my career. But true wealth is highly unlikely to come from this path. The goal of a job is to learn and then get the heck out of there.
A job is designed to pay you the least amount possible so the company can make the largest profit and reward the shareholders (owners).
Jobs trade away your most precious resource: time.
So if you want to make real money someday then build a plan that doesn’t rely on a job forever. Maybe use side hustles as a way to test different escape paths. Just don’t ever expect to have loads of free time or wealth working for a boss until you’re 65 and 10 years away from death.
This article is for informational purposes only, it should not be considered financial, tax or legal advice. Consult a financial professional before making any major financial decisions.