Before I enlighten you on what helped me boost my confidence, I’ll tell you how my days look.
My average day
I get out of bed whenever I want. And I visit various coffee places. I surf the internet for information that looks interesting. And, of course, I do some work.
My actual workload is somewhat around 1 hour a day. I can complete 95% of tasks on my phone. For the rest, I need my laptop. When I know I need it I bring it along for the ride.
About 2 times a week I meet with a friend who finds himself in a similar position. We hit up and talk about almost anything you could think of. He lives life on his own terms, yet different from me. The reason that I’m telling you this, is because the investment I’m about to share can create any life you want. Even if you don’t like to drink coffee all day long.
Before I tell you what changed my life, I’ll share with you a big misconception people have.
The big misconception
People who find themselves stuck in their current position. Be it a job, a study or peer pressure. Think that making more money solves all their problems.
‘If only I made 10k a month I could live life on my own terms.’
The problem with this mindset is that it reflects our wants or desires. Not our true needs.
Does this sound familiar?
Well, in most cases, 10k would solve your money problems. But it does not mean that it makes you a happier person perse. Besides that, a goal like this is a very difficult one to reach. Especially if you have nothing to start with.
Now, the investment I am about to share with you costs you exactly 0$. It does cost you a bit of time and effort tho. I got addicted to it, so I keep doing it over and over again.
The upside I’ve experienced is that I’m very confident these days. I’m currently living off the income from 4 different side hustles. But even if all 4 hustles and my savings would vanish tomorrow, I wouldn’t stress a minute.
I would get upset for sure. And it would annoy the hell out of me. But my single most important investment has got me covered for the rest of my life. I’m talking about the one investment no one could ever take away from you.
You’re gonna think of this article as clickbait when I reveal it. But take a second to let it sink in before you discard everything You’ve read until now.
My single most important investment is in education.
If tomorrow everything turns dark, I can still rely on my knowledge and start over. I know how to replicate the successes I’ve had so far. I would crush it even faster than it took me the first time.
My craving for knowledge resulted in a broad skillset. If I encountered a problem in the past I learned how to fix it. I learned about marketing and web design out of frustration. Only because the companies I paid for didn’t deliver. I learned how to invest in stocks because I wanted my earnings to work for me.
Without my investments in education, I would still be working a job. Only to end the month without any money to spend.
It’s this misconception. The discarding of this easy concept I described. That leads people toward failure. It’s impatience and laziness that opens the door for scammers. People promise you 10k in a month. When you pay them and end up another 27$ closer to bankruptcy it’s only you who is to blame.
Now. To make this piece a bit more resourceful. I’ll share a list of resources you could check out. Assuming you want to start investing in knowledge as well.
These are the main platforms I use/used to learn the skills that gave me the freedom I’m experiencing these days.
Marketing & Advertising Resources
Google AdWords:
Google offers courses to help you master the skill. It’s pretty obvious since the more people who know how to do it, the more they spend on ads, thus the more Google earns.
Learning this skill alone could set you up as a marketeer for local businesses.
Learn how to advertise on the Google network.
LinkedIn learning:
You can find not only advertising but pretty much any digital skill on this platform. They offer a 30-day trial, so you can dive in and digest the ‘F’ out of the most appealing courses. Even if you decide to hang on a bit longer the costs ($30 a month) are far lower than any MBA.
Check out LinkedIn Learning here.
Webdesign
I’ve mentioned LinkedIn learning in the previous paragraph. They also offer courses on a broad range of platforms used to design websites.
Complementary to these courses is www.themeforest.net.
This website sells you pre-made websites for 50–70$ each. They often come with demo content. So all you need to do is import the website demo and change the placeholders with your own content.
Master this skill and you could be selling your local coffee bar a new website for 500$. (Add some free Google AdWords magic to it and you’d be selling them traffic as well).
Business Process Optimisation
There are 2 books that cover this topic:
1. Jay Abraham — Getting Everything You Can Out of All You’ve Got
Click here for a free copy of the book via Jay’s website.
This book is THE go-to source if you are looking to grow a business. Without extra investments. Learn to work with what you’ve got and max it out to the fullest. This is by far the best Side-Hustle and Marketing book available.
2. Sean Ellis & Morgan Brown — Hacking Growth.
Hacking growth is my favourite book when it comes to idea testing. The frameworks Sean Ellis provides are essential for any start-up. But they apply for pretty much any business model.
Are you generating 100 good ideas but don’t know where to start? Read this paperback and your testing results will skyrocket.
You can buy it on Amazon right here.
or you can download it for free right here. (www.z-lib.org)
Investing (stocks & crypto)
@fullauto11 a.k.a. Gerald Peters
I love the content Gerald Peters releases. I’ve bought his ebook, Bootcamp and joined his Discord channel. I place all my trades using his money flow strategy. It’s simple but effective.
He does a live stream on Youtube and Instagram every Sunday where he covers a lot of what’s happened in the market.
I laughed my ass off when I first read his stuff. Not because he is so very funny, but because he exactly described what I was doing wrong.
Using this strategy paid for my 2020 taxes. I used all the profits from my trading that year to pay my taxes. You could say I paid 0% tax (and it was my best year to date).
You can find his products right here.
Spotting Trends (and ways to leverage them)
I’ve grouped these resources together because they are all from the same creators. Trends is a paid subscription of $300 a year. But you could start off with their free newsletter and the awesome podcast they create. Funny and very informative.
Money
- “How to Worry Less About Money” by John Armstrong
- Or if you want a great 8-minute summary of this book:
A great book and a great summary about the right questions to ask if it comes to money.
All the above
A little self-promotion. If you found this article valuable, sign up for my newsletter.
Of all the content I digest I create a weekly newsletter highlighting the gems. It gives you a brief overview of the valuable stuff out there. It’s up to you if you want to go down the rabbit hole.
Keep learning
Stay curious and keep learning. You’ll soon find yourself living life on your own terms.
The more you learn, the more connections between different concepts you’re able to make. This opens up a broad range of new opportunities.
If you don’t know what to do. If you feel stuck. Go find something new to learn.