#133 The Swiss Don't Miss, But I Sure Do

Welcoming you back with August’s Money Edition.

The goal, as always, is to give you something that helps you make more money. Period.

But I don’t possess the secrets to accessing untapped millions. If I did…well, I’d still be writing this, but from a villa balcony overlooking the Mediterranean. So anything you get from this week’s OTF, I’m learning right alongside you.

Let’s get better together, shall we?

These Highlights Are SURE to Earn Interest…

• The Dumbest Purchase I’ve Made in Making Cents 💰️🚀

• Investing in OTF Trivia 💰️📈

• The Swiss Don’t Miss in Expert Advice 💰️

• Patience, Flexibility…Lumberjacks? An Eclectic Hustle Hub 💰️📈🚀 

• An Above Average Did You Know 💰️📈

MAKING CENTS💰️ 

The Dumbest Purchase I’ve Ever Made & The Lesson That Came With It

I’m about to tell you something I’ve never told anyone besides my future wife. The reason I’ve never told anyone is because of just how embarrassing and regrettable it is.

August 2023. I was living in California, high on life, bathing in sunshine, surrounded by palm trees. OTF had launched eight months prior, and I was super-excited about what we’d accomplished and where we were going. Even though growth was slow, my mind was moving fast. I already wanted to expand. I decided I should make a second-newsletter, one that was industry-specific to one of the sexiest industries on the planet - the insurance industry.

(Take a minute to calm down if that was too exciting for you.)

I’d had maybe one or two conversations about the idea with colleagues; I hadn’t yet written a single sentence in terms of planning; and yet I chose to go ahead and just buy the domain: thebiscuit.co

Price: $1,450.

This is, by far, is the dumbest purchase I’ve ever made, and it was driven by pure emotion. I was so fixated on newsletters and the potential I saw in this particular idea that I felt like if I didn’t buy it, I’d miss out on a golden opportunity.

In case you’re wondering, I never launched the publication (for a number of reasons I won’t get into right now.) I paid my four monthly installments of $375, and by the time I was done, my mental energy had been reallocated elsewhere. (I do still think The Biscuit idea has potential, but not the right time and place for me.)

Had I been thinking logically instead of emotionally, I could’ve just invested that $1450. Maybe in, say, Bitcoin.

The lesson is obvious: prioritize reason over emotion when making important financial decisions, and when you do mess up, make sure you learn from it so it doesn’t happen again.

(For what it’s worth, the domain for OTF was $11.99. Sure as hell don’t regret that one.)

💰️OTF-MONEY-TRIVIA 💰️ 

When it comes to investing, sometimes timing makes all the difference. If you got in on Bitcoin in the beginning, you’re probably sitting pretty right now. But those sorts of opportunities don’t come along often. What you can control, however, is your own consistency.

This investing method involves putting money into particular assets on a regular schedule, reducing the impact of market swings because you’re always buying whether the cost is low, high, or in-between…

Click your choice, and the correct answer will be revealed in a new tab!

EXPERT ADVICE 💭

Learn from the Swiss

An interesting post recently came across one of my social feeds with a fact that just had to be false: 1 in 7 adults in Switzerland are millionaires?!? Really??

I planned to link directly to that social account, but then I realized it had plagiarized the entire post from this Business Today article from a year ago. While that makes the post kinda old by today’s standards, there’s still plenty we can learn from the Swiss inside.

Business Today is a website that received 8.12 million unique visitors last month, according to SemRush. They cover all things business.

HUSTLE HUB 📈

YOUR SUCCESS:

Be a Lumberjack? - Find new clients quickly with “way less effort” by using the lumberjack strategy.

THEIR SUCCESS:

Be Flexible - This guy pivoted his career to focus on AI, and it’s certainly paid off!

YOUR SUCCESS:

Be Patient - People don’t invest like Warren Buffett because “no one wants to get rich slow” - I don’t know about you, but that sounds pretty damn good to me!

DID YOU KNOW… 💸 

• The percentage of 401(k) participants who use some form of automatic Dollar-Cost Averaging is nearly 60%. 

• The first time the term “Dollar Cost Averaging” was popularized was in 1949, in Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor.

“Dollar Cost Averaging (DCA) is an investment strategy where you invest a fixed amount at regular intervals, regardless of market conditions. The goal is to reduce the impact of volatility by spreading out purchases. For example, instead of investing $12,000 all at once, an investor might put in $1,000 per month. Over time, this can lead to buying more shares when prices are low and fewer when prices are high, balancing the cost basis.

While DCA doesn’t guarantee profits, it removes the pressure of trying to time the market and encourages long-term consistency, a key driver of wealth building.”

• Nearly half of crypto investors say DCA is the best hedge against Bitcoin’s notorious volatility. In a recent survey, 46% of respondents cited volatility protection as the main advantage of DCA when investing in crypto, particularly Bitcoin.

Sources — Investopedia, Vanguard, Kraken, and Benjamin Graham’s The Intelligent Investor.

Before You Go!

Thank you again for joining us for another edition of OTF!

Next week, we’ll be back with our 4th Behind the Grind Interview Edition, featuring another small business owner. If you love a good sandwich and live in NY, I’ve got a great deli for you!

See you next Tuesday.

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