#81 Doing Less, But Better and Diving Into a High-Yield Savings Account

Welcome back!

I am opening this edition with one of the best books I’ve read in a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooong (yes, that long) time.

It’s called Essentialism.

The intent of it?

Well, taken directly from the book itself: “Essentialism is a systematic discipline for discerning what is absolutely essential, then eliminating everything that is not, so we can make the highest possible contribution towards the things that really matter.”

To continue: “By forcing us to apply more selective criteria for what is Essential, the disciplined pursuit of less empowers us to reclaim control of our own choices about where to spend our precious time and energy — instead of giving others the implicit permission to choose for us.”

In sum: It’s about doing less, but better.

Now, let’s dive in.

Here Are The Highlights This Week:

Fattening The Wallet 💰️ 

• Making Cents Of a High Yield Savings Account

Elevating Your Brand 🤝 

• Expert Advice On Not Thinking, But Doing

• Did You Know To Ignite Conversations This Week

Boosting Your Productivity 📊 

• Hustle Hub: Learning From Warren Buffet AND How To Make $10K+ Writing Online

• A Search Bar Made for Summer, Health, and The Election.

Expert Advice 🤝 

Who is Ryan Holiday?

• He is a NYT Bestselling Author of The Obstacle Is The Way, which offers individuals a framework to flip obstacles into opportunities. He’s also probably the most outspoken person on Stoicism. With a casual, 650k+ following on X, the dude’s philosophy is on another level.

Who is Polina Pompliano?

• She shares an inspirational tweet occasionally. More impressively, she is the author of Hidden Genius, which is a book that teaches you how the most successful people use mental frameworks that fundamentally change the way they see the world.

Making Cents 💰️ 

What The Heck Is a High Yield Savings Account?

Short and Sweet: A high-yield savings account is like your regular savings account's more generous cousin because it pays a higher interest rate -meaning your money grows faster than a traditional savings account!

Why It Matters: Because you make more money long-term compared to a standard savings account. It’s as simple as that and it’s easy to take advantage of.

Breaking Down: A High Yield Savings Account

The interest rate that these accounts offer is known as the Annual Percentage Yield or APY. The higher the APY, the faster your money grows.

So let’s say you’ve got $5,000 chilling in a regular savings account where the interest rate is a snooze-worthy 0.39% APY. Over a year, that’s gonna net you a whopping $19.50 earned for keeping your money in that account, which is barely enough for a decent pizza pie, right?

Now, imagine sliding that same $5,000 into a high-yield savings account at a juicy 4.5% APY. Suddenly, you’re looking at $225 in interest earned. That’s not just pizza money anymore now is it?

Or another scenario: You’re planning to get married in the next 12-24 months, it could make sense for you and your spouse to open up a high-yield savings account.

Now, think about contributing a lump sum together of $5,000 to open the account. But then you also set a specific amount each month (within your budget) to put in addition to the $5k into your high-yield savings account. That way, you can earn even more interest as you head towards the big day.

O.T.F
O.F.T: One Final Thought

This isn’t financial advice, this is a suggestion.

I opened up a high-yield savings account earlier this year as cough, cough, I am getting married next year! Yep, time to buckle down.

By setting up the high-yield savings account, it’s also a great way for me and my spouse to stay committed to our monthly savings goal.

We know our money is going to grow at a faster rate compared to a standard savings account.

So if this interests you, go to check out the best high-yield savings account from Bankrate, right here 🤝 

Hustle Hub 📈 

• YOUR SUCCESS: Learn from the best - how Warren Buffet made his billions. A story worth reading.

• THEIR SUCCESS: This successful financial planner shares their most important book recommendation for anyone “who wants to live their best financial life and build wealth.”

• YOUR SUCCESS: 🚨VIDEO CONTENT Learn how to make $10,000/month writing online from someone who has over 5.7M subs on YouTube.

The Search Bar 📊 

As of 6:00 PM on Monday, 8/19:

SUMMER SUNSCREEN SAFETY SEARCH ☀️ Does sunscreen expire? With summer weekends winding down and everyone competing for that list bit of sun, find out from a Dermatologist if that lotion you had from last year is worth keeping.

GLOBAL HEALTH SEARCH 🐒 Americans are searching about the spread of Monkey Pox - WHO (The World Health Organization) announced an uptick in Mpox in Africa and considers it a global health emergency. Read more about that here.

THE ELECTION SEARCH 🇺🇸 As we all know, it’s election year, so here are the election issues that millions of Americans are googling.

Did You Know? 👀 

Self-Interest: Did you know these 15 “Proven Tips to Sleep Better at Night.”

Human Interest: Did you know the average American has 4 Credit Cards? Find out if that’s not enough or too many.

Artificial Interest: Did you know California’s AI SB 1047 Bill is intended to prevent large AI models in causing “critical harms” to humans.

Before You Go

I’ve been thinking a lot about risk lately and part of me wants to take more and more of it head on as I progress in my young youth at 31.

For anyone who is about to take a risk, this one is for you.

I come back to this piece of content from time to time.

I thought it was a timely reminder.

I hope you enjoyed this week’s edition!

Next week, OTF will be back with a Cool Communicator to help you at work, Working with AI to help you do less, but better and so much more.

See you then!

You are now On The Fly and In The Know