Something that intrigued me lately as I was watching a short story on Youtube about the process of someone who is building wealth.
They are building up their assets in the background and their life can look pretty much the same.
Now I’m a millennial that grew up on 2000’s hip hop and in the music it was always talking frequently about how much money you got, showing off expensive cars and jewelry.
For the ordinary person that has building wealth for a long time, one day out of no where, they cutback on work or maybe even take a couple of months off.
People close to this individual may ask, how you able to do that??
By the time someone sees that decision, they miss the boring process of that person taking a portion of their pay check, transferring it to their brokerage account, and buying investments for an extended period of time.
A Year That Looks The Same
Let’s say someone invest’s $500 a month. After a year, they’ve contributed $6,000 a year.
At $1000 a month, they’ve contributed $12,000 a year.
Picture seeing that person at the start of the year and then again at the end.
Same coat. Same car in the driveway. They might even be working the same hours.
You could know them well and still have no idea they’ve put away twelve grand.
It’s quite easy for someone to miss the progress.
When you buy something you’ve wanted for a while, you can tangibly touch and have something you see that you paid for.
With investing, there are months when you make a contribution, close the app, and go back to whatever you were doing. There is no physical object to obtain
I believe that’s why it’s hard to stick with it.
You can get immediate feedback on something you bought.
Meanwhile, you might be six months into a habit that matters to you and the only person who knows is you.
What People Can See
I’ve talked about my S2000 before because it’s one of the things I genuinely enjoy spending money on.
I bought it back in 2019 and still enjoy driving it.
And if you see me out in the S2000, you get one little snapshot of my life.
You probably don’t see me in the Civic on a regular day.
You don’t see me sitting down with a spreadsheet looking at what I spent that month.
And unless I tell you, you have no idea how much I’m investing, what I’m working towards and how much I have in my investment account.
It goes the other way, too. I can see somebody in a new SUV and have no clue what it took for them to buy it or what else they’ve got going on.
Maybe they’ve wanted that vehicle for years and saved for it.
Maybe the payment takes up a big part of their income.
From where I’m standing, I can tell you the colour of the SUV.
I call the S2000 one of my money dials because it’s an area where spending actually adds something to my life.
I’ve had it long enough to know that the enjoyment lasts after the excitement of buying it wears off.
The part I care about now is keeping room in my budget for the things I want down the road.
When I feel the itch to upgrade something, I can ask myself how often I’d enjoy the upgrade.
I can also ask what else I want that money to do.
Sometimes I’ll decide the upgrade is worth it. Sometimes I’ll think about it for a week and realize I’m already happy with what I’ve got.
When The Money Shows Up
Years ago, when I wanted to take DJing more seriously, I was working a labour job and DJing about three times a month.
The labor job I had was consistent but it took up a lot of my time
I wouldn’t say I was making great money but I was working a lot of hours
I was so exhausted from working the labor job that something had to change.
I remember having a talking and processing this with one my friends who gave me direction on what to do.
I had savings, so I could cut back at work and spend more time reaching out for gigs. In about two months, I was DJing around three times a week.
I remember what that savings gave me.
I could spend time on something that hadn’t paid me yet. I could reach out, get ignored, try again, and give the whole thing a chance to work.
That’s a taste of what I want more of.
When I talk about financial independence, I’m aiming for a point where my finances can support my living expenses and paid work becomes a choice.
I’m still working towards that.
