The Manual #8

Long term games for long term gains.

Long term games for long term gains.

I tweeted this headline but due to the current times, I think a lot of people thought I was talking about the stock market. Yes, it does apply but it also applies to so many other things in life.

We’re constantly barraged with messages to reward ourselves for the littlest things, by people and companies.

“Oh it’s the weekend, have a drink!”

“It’s payday, let’s buy that new designer top.”

“I earn more money, let’s buy a new car!”

These things feel great at first, but then the feeling disappears quite quickly after.

I learned in my late teens how important delayed gratification was. I was lucky because some people never do.

I knew at 20 I wanted to move out and have my own place. I knew I could afford to as well. I could rent a small flat and get by fine. But I also knew that if I stayed at home, paid a lower rent to my parents, saved my cash for a few years, I’d have enough for a deposit to own my own place. That’s exactly what I did. And I didn’t just buy a flat, I bought a whole 4-bedroom detached house. The house has shot up in value by 25% in 3 years and I own the damn thing. I pay a mortgage knowing that I have a bit more equity every month. Instead of paying rent where my money pretty much disappears, my money is actually in something going up in value.

This has applied to so many things in my life. All because I was patient and played the long game.

Another great example is my Twitter, Instagram, YouTube and anywhere else I put myself online. I actually started sharing in 2010 and 11 years later I have a nice following online which has opened up so many opportunities for me. I could have got a job and earned a great salary right after school but I knew if I stuck it out that the rewards would be greater than any job could offer me.

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Quick Design Tips for Everyone

NEW class on quick design tips for everyone. These are mainly aimed at beginner designers but I think there could be one or two things that even experienced designers could learn. Check it out.

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My 8 Income Streams

I uploaded a new video on the new channel going through my current income streams. It was well received and I’m glad I shared it. Watch it here.

M1 Mac - Two Months Later

I uploaded a new video on the main channel sharing my experience with the M1 MacBook Pro two months later. TLDW: It’s been a fantastic experience and handles my workflow incredibly well, which consists of video editing in FCP, photo editing in Lightroom, designing in Sketch and Figma, coding in Atom and compiling with CodeKit. Watch it here.

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Using Your Portfolio as Collateral

Finance Twitter can teach you something interesting everyday. I saw this tweet by Nikita about how you can use your stock portfolio as a sort of down payment for a property. Absolutely blew my mind and I didn’t even know this was possible.

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Link Lowdown

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

Numbr — A useful calculator web app.

Mona — Sell your time quickly and easily. Set your own rates and what someone should hire you for.

Removal.ai — A background removal service. Works pretty well, not perfect, but it really depends on the image.

Blot.im — A blogging platform that turns a Dropbox folder into its own blog. There’s also no interface, you just write your blog posts in a word doc or using markdown.

Mimestream — A native email app for Gmail. I personally still use Spark but this is cool if you’re looking to try something new.

Keith Gill (aka DeepFuckingValue) the investor who went from 5 figures to 9 — Really good piece on the person who may or may not have been the catalyst for the GME mayhem.

Pika — Color picker for Mac.