Lvl 24: ProcrastiN8 Money Rules to Gain Profit in Investing

t’s good to have a nice cozy sack of extra change in your savings, but... ..there’s only so much wealth you can build with your savings. As a matter of fact, with savings, you won’t really be building any wealth, you’ll just kind of have a chunk of change sitting there. You can ditch any crazy shopping habits you may have and begin live frugally, adapting an easy, lazy lifestyle, then put that extra money in a piggy bank or bank account. But after all is said done, that money is just sitting there. Waiting. It’s not growing; it’s not making you richer. You want your money to work for you though. You want it to make you richer, not just be an idle pig oinking on the shelf. See, cash depreciates in value due to inflation and the interest you gain in a savings account doesn’t even let you break even, yet alone gain wealth. It’s not about how much money you have per se, but it’s about how much wealth you have, how much buying power you have. You can only gain wealth, upgrade your buying power, if your money grows at a faster rate than the inflation rate. Otherwise, you’re at a loss. That’s where investing comes in. And on today’s episode, we’re gonna look at the ProcrastiN8 Money Rules to Gain Profit in Investing It’s good to have some savings before you start investing, which is why we covered Rules of savings last week. We also looked at ways on How to Start Investing With Little Money The Lazy Way in Lvl 22 before. Today, we’re gonna take those savings and keep those investment methods in mind as we go into the ProcrastiN8 Money Rules to Gain Profit in Investing 8. Calculate Your Goals on the COUCH You have to know where headed, so you can stick to it. Take your time to get to it though, of course. Procrastinate with purpose. As a procrastinator, we may wait ‘til the last minute, we may take our time, but it still gets done. We do have to know what to get done though, so we know what we’re procrastinating on, what we’re putting off. Calculate is part of the acronym of something I like call C.O.U.C.H ambition, which is basically the lazy way to attain your goals. I’ll have a link in the show notes for a blog article where I talk about this: http://bit.ly/2T0LFUf Instead of rushing into the arena, and this case, slamming down money into the bank or an investment account as quickly as possible… ...we’re first going to sit on back on our comfy COUCH and Calculate the best course of action and the details of what our end goal looks like before moving forward. Knowing our end goal and making realistic, instead of impossible dream that will never happen makes easier to move forward and attain it. Minimize the amount of years spend working and maximize the amount of years on your own Lazy Island in retirement You can even gamify your progress and turn this boring finance stuff into an RPG adventure, like a DnD campaign but...real life. Gain the loot IRL and build your own cozy castle. Check out “Lvl 10: Level Up Your Productivity with these ProcrastiN8 Gamification Apps” for more on These productivity apps can definitely be used to level up your personal finance (eg. gain xp for saving a certain amount of money, for not buying coffee or something, buying a stock, etc) ...but we can talk about how to do that perhaps in a later episode, a later quest. Here we’ll dive into ways to Calculate your end goal in finances -- your retirement goal Multiply By 25 Rule

Take your desired income and multiply it by 25 to get your retirement savings goal
That’s how much you need, total, to lay on the couch all day and not worry about how to keep the lights on
the number should be HIGHER than your current amount of expenses to account for inflation

Rule of 72:

the time it takes to double your money is 72 divided by your rate of return
7% is the average yearly return in the stock market
so it takes about 10 years to double your money
think of it like a really slow cash doubling machine. you put in the money and whatever amount you put in comes out twice as much a decade later.
It takes a while to “cook” but the machine runs itself.

7. Diversify Don’t put all your eggs in one basket -- Don’t sleep on just one pillow Make a comfortable bed with plenty of cushions If one pillow falls off, you still have plenty to keep you at rest If one stock plummets, you have a nice cozy place to sleep. Buy stocks from multiple sector (categories): Energy, Materials, Industrial, Consumer Discretionary, Consumer Staples, Healthcare, Financials Information Technology Telecommunication Services Utilities, Real Estate, Bonds, Cryptocurrency, Commodities (oil, silver, gold), and ForEx (Foreign Exchange Market/International currencies) Mutual Fund - traded at end of day ETF (exchange traded fund) - traded during the day Equity Investing - crowdfunding that pays (Kickfurther, Slice Capital) It’s like building a giant blanket fort - more pillows, more blankets = more defense 6. Relax and take it easy, man Don’t make emotional decisions. Don’t get worked up or upset. I mean c’mon, you don’t wanna work or get worked up. You’re lazy and relaxed. Remain in control of your emotions. Stay level headed and cool. Don’t panic sell or buy on the hype (Facebook after Cambridge Analytica, Equifax data breach, Nintendo released PokemonGo) It’ll go up and it’ll go down, just ride the waves of the stock market ocean It’ll be smooth sailing the less you worry about it. Also, don’t obsessively check your account. This may also make it easy to get emotionally tied up in the stock market “drama” Detach yourself from your stocks emotionally. You’re dating your stocks, not in a married lifelong marriage commitment to them. 5. If it’s too complicated, don’t even bother Stick to industries and companies you actually understand. If you’re not interested, don’t bother. It takes a lot of effort to research a company : look at their profits, goals, analyze their financial, ethical, and legal history, understand the strengths of its employees, have insight on the CEO’s ability to make good decisions and inspire a team, track data of their ability to bring ideas to life. It’s a time consuming and effortful task. Take a hobby and look at the products you purchase, the brands you use. You’re already aware of what some of your favorite brands are doing (new game releases, new devices coming out) ...as well as the trends within your niche (eg. games going digital, so GameStop is becoming irrelevant) ... so it doesn’t take much research or effort to know where they’re going and if they’re going to be profitable in the future. 4. Invest whenever you feel like it Don’t try to time the market Even experts get it wrong, so as a procrastinator, don’t sweat it if you do too. Procrastinate and put it off. Don’t kick yourself if you miss a “golden opportunity” to buy low and sell high. No big deal. You invest when you want. You know the price will go up, eventually. You don’t bog yourself down with numbers. Numbers are arbitrary. Things go up and they come back down. That’s the very nature of the stock market and you accept that. You’re calm about it and even when you time it “wrong” that’s okay, you know it’ll come back up again. I mean heck, the stock market not only recovered from the Great Depression but has far exceeded the prices pre-depression era. Deadlines don’t matter, nor does stock market timing. If you worry about it, you’re putting unnecessary pressure on yourself, putting yourself in the DESK trap. http://bit.ly/2ASJVWh 3. Patience. There’s no rush Have realistic expectations, You ain’t gonna get rich quick. Very few people do. Patience is not only a virtue, it’s a lifestyle. It’s the heart of what makes a procrastinator, well, a procrastinator. Be patient. Set it and forget it. Let your money grow and don’t try to force it to move any faster. It’ll get there, in due time. Don’t worry about maximizing profits as quickly as possible, just focus on building wealth, nice and slow You’ll get rich, eventually. Have patience and persistently invest. Slow n’ steady wins the race. Use the turtle as your spirit animal guide to get where you want financially. 2. Be a Cheap skate Eliminate fees as much as possible. They add up quickly. You don’t like to pay extra for things. You’re cheap when it comes to your money, so just embrace it. Any fee you pay cuts directly into your potential profits and that’s no good Annual fees, monthly maintenance fees, trading fees, deposit fees, all sorts of fees Choose an investment company with minimal fees (Charles Schwab, Fidelity, Betterment, ...or no fees at all (Robinhood, WeBull, Metador, Wise Banyan) The more fees you pay, the less money you’ll make. Period. Even small fees can chip away at your wealth if you’re not careful. 1. Make It Easy on Yourself Play it safe. Buy “boring” stocks (Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, Wal-Mart, 3M, Procter & Gamble) Don’t stretch yourself thin trying to find the “next big thing” There are millions of start ups and most of them won’t be around in 5 years. Don’t spend your time or money or energy trying to strike it rich. You’ll make it hard on yourself. Just take it easy and make your investment decisions easy. You don’t have to make it a full time job to follow the stock market. As a matter of fact, you don’t even have to check it often at all. I mean you can if you want to, again, if that’s something you enjoy doing. Do what you enjoy. But if you don’t enjoy following the stock market, don’t do it. You’ve already Calculated your end goal, and how much you need to save each month to meet it, so just stick to that plan, and don’t get distracted. Don’t get up when something startles or excites you… Relax. Lay on back down in bed instead and let your money do all the work for you. You don’t even have to lift a finger, or your head off the pillow.