The Manual #17 - Focus on Growth

There’s only so much money you can save from your income. You should instead be focusing on growing your income.

I realised a few years ago that saving my money could only get me so far. We’re constantly told to save money and be careful with our money. Save it for that next big purchase.

But I realised that focusing all of your time on saving is just a waste. Bills won’t ever get smaller. Sure you could maybe get a better deal on your utility bill, but that utility bill will always be there. And with inflation, it will naturally get more expensive.

So stop spending all of your time on trying to get the best out of every penny. I’m not saying you should be careless. You should still live below your means and only spend what you can afford, avoiding debt for things that don’t bring value.

What you should be spending more time on is growing your income. Your income is technically infinite. Your savings are finite.

This mentality shift made me stop sweating the small stuff. As an example: There’s an office chair I want. I can buy the chair online for $500 and have it delivered tomorrow. Or I could buy the chair from a shop 50 miles away for $400. But I would need to drive to go and get it and also maybe even hire a van to transport it. It also means half my day gone just to get a chair. Is it really worth spending the time, energy and mental effort, for only $100 saving? That half day would have been much better spent on my business.

At the same time I know not everyone is in the same position as myself. The point I’m trying to get across is that if you want to be financially free, it’s not about much you save, it’s about how much money you can make.

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Deep Dive Podcast Episode with Ali Abdaal

I had the pleasure of being one of the first guests on Ali’s new Deep Dive podcast. If you’d like to hear more about my businesses and life experiences, I’d recommend checking it out. Also check out his other episodes. It’s great to hear experiences from all different types of people.

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New MacBook Pros

I uploaded a video going through the two new MacBook Pros. Super excited for these. I’ve ordered my own custom 14” with M1 Max, 32GB RAM and 2TB SSD. Looking forward to rendering videos even quicker whilst also handling anything creative at it.

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Link Lowdown

A collection of links to stuff I think are worth sharing.

Computer 1 — An awesome looking ITX case.

OneSwitch — An app that lets you quickly toggle stuff in MacOS.

DJI Ronin 4D — One of the coolest cameras I’ve ever seen. It doesn’t even look real. Looks like something out of a sci-fi movie.

The companies that help people vanish — Really interesting article from the BBC going through how there are companies in Japan that help people disappear.

Netflix Thumbnail Art — A super interesting thread on how Netflix does a lot of testing for their thumbnail art.