Got some good responses on my last newsletter where I was just free writing my thoughts without necessarily coming to any conclusions.
This time I am writing about time, money, happiness, freedom and the trade-off between them. A theme I am always coming back to as it is something I am thinking about a lot.
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Thoughts about time, money, happiness and freedom
There is a time for everything. There was a time in my life when I saved a lot of money. I was extremely frugal. Now is the time to live more like I want. To live and don't think about the consequences. I mean, what's the point of saving for so long if you can't enjoy what life has to offer? This became very clear to me in June last year when the bear market was at its deepest. At this point, I was more or less only in stablecoins, and I remember a Saturday night I was with friends and saw $ETH going to $880. It felt so over. All yield in DeFi was gone. Trading was hard (unless you were max shorting), which I wasnโt doing at that time. What hit me that night was that it all felt so meaningless. To spend all those hours in front of the screen. Like why was I spending so much time indoors, giving up my health, friends, and the beauty of life for more money?
Itโs natural though. Itโs all fun and games in a bull market aka. easy mode when you make a lot of money, but when the music stops and conditions are getting harder you have to face the truth in your eyes. It makes you think. And it really made me think. I wonโt say I became depressed, but a clear lack of motivation was absolutely there. Some months went by and you start adapting to the new reality. Then FTX went under and things got from shitty to even worse. Crypto Twitter was dead. Some of the biggest players lost all of their money. Twitter accounts you used to talk to daily suddenly donโt answer anymore. Then Binance FUD on top of it.
A small dose of optimism came back in January this year. The price of $BTC doubled, altcoins did 3-10x, and people started talking about the new bull market. Then back in April and now May it all feels โoverโ again. Itโs like entering a new bear market, although it has been here all the time.
The hope is that weโre getting some flywheel effect from the China coin narrative (Hong Kong opens up for reatil trading on June 1st). We all remember GCR saying: "I believe China, (and Asia in general) will fuel the next bull runโ. Personally I donโt have high hopes that this will start in June this year. But what if? I am accumulating $CFX, $PHB and $COCOS (soon rebranded to $COMBO) before June 1st as a bet on the China narrative.
Anyway, Iโm planning to enjoy-maxxing as much as possible going forward before the next bull sets in. Mac described it perfectly in the tweet below:
Youโve probably seen Iโve been posting less on Twitter in the last year. And this is simply because there has been less opportunities for profits, and instead Iโve tried to wait on the sidelines. Iโm still spending a lot of time talking to people in crypto though, so I am not dead. Just saving my energy for the bull run really.
If you want to stay in this arena for a long time you better pick the right battles. No point in watching the screen all day when $BTC is up/down a maximum of 0.5%. Easy to get burnt out.
Which makes me move over to my next point. After all. You are getting older. We are getting older. I am getting older. My family is getting older. My friends are getting older. Their priorities have changed. They're not what they used to be. But neither am I. And neither are you. Tbh, I definitely feel I am the same, but obviously, I have changed too. Life is short, and if youโre in a phase that youโre really trying to make it it may be worth spending all time in front of the computer all day, every day. But this has an opportunity cost. Your time.
The biggest bullshit I hear is people who say they need $10M+ in the bank in order to retire from their 9-5. Unless you spend $50k or more per month you would need an amount like that relying on the 4% rule (a rule that states that you can withdraw 4% of your portfolio every year without the risk of going bankrupt, eg. your money lasts forever). If you spend $50k per month it means that youโre raking in $600k or more every year. If thatโs you and you earn this much in a normal job and youโre not able to invest anything per month, send me a DM and I help you for free. No one should be able to have a zero net worth with this income. My point here was that Iโm hearing: โOh, I need $10M in order to pursue my dreamsโ. I counter them with: โSo youโre spending more than $50k per month?โ. Usually they say something like $5-7k per month which means they would need a lot less in order to retire from passive income. But letโs face it, most people wonโt retire to do nothing.
Life is getting boring if you donโt do anything. But having the freedom to pursue exactly what you want and to spend your time doing things you love is just beautiful. It takes away the pressure on earning money just to pay the bills.
Letโs talk some more about time.
They say time is money. But how much is your time worth?
Everyone has 24 hours per day. Since everyone is having the same amount of time, it's a fair resource. The difference lies in how people use their time. Why is it so important to find out the value of your time?
Because if you know what your time is worth, then you can take smart and, hopefully, good decisions that improve your life. Earlier on I had a relatively laid-back relationship to time, but the year I became 30 years old, that's when I started to think about how "little" time I really had left.
One day in 2018 when I was in my 9-5 cubicle, I thought to myself while I stared out of the window: How could I continue waking up every morning and be totally unexcited about everything I was going to do day after day? This led me to Google: โHow to quit my job foreverโ
I found the FIRE movement (a group of people who shared their journey online of what they called Financial Independence Retirement Early aka. FIRE). What fascinated me about FIRE was that here there was a group of people who all wanted to save up enough money so that they didn't have to work their boring office jobs. It was like finding my life purpose.
Originally I made a goal about retiring before I was 40 years old, but a combination of luck, grit, spending too much time in rabbit holes on the Internet, and working hard made me being able to walk away from the rat race at 33 years old. Now I'm at that point again where I have to set some new goals for myself. The first priority is health. I'm not going to lie, the last couple of years have been draining in terms of always being "on" in the markets 24/7. Crypto never sleeps. And that leads us to the relationship with money, time, and health.
When you're young, you have good health and lots of time. When you're an adult you have money and health, but less time. And when you're old, you have everything except for time.
I realized I didn't want to trade that much time for money anymore, because I only have 45 years left (given that I die at 80 years old).
It's not necessarily about who has the fattest wallet Buffett has over $100B. But he's 91 years old.
Would you switch places with him for his $100B?
In the US you get an average of 2-3 weeks of vacation every year. The western world teaches us that more is good. So we end up chasing more. Bigger houses, several cars, more things. Nothing wrong with that. But unless you're wealthy, this has a price on your time.
That's why I advocate for others to find out how much money is enough and to aim for that. You don't have to quit your job, but money gives you opportunities. It allows you to switch careers, take a sabbatical, or take care of your father if he gets sick.
Ask yourself what's the most important thing for you? Time, money, or health? Unless you're already financially free, you can only choose two of them.
f you find yourself unhappy, not having the time or money to live the life you desire, start asking yourself, why? What are you missing in your life? Iโll bet youโre spending too much time working, and not enough time on the things you love.
How much is your time worth? Everyone has an implicit value for their time, though they may not think in those terms. Even a billionaire will volunteer to do an extra hour of work if he or she is offered enough money in return (say, $10 million).
Likewise, even a desperately poor person will refuse an extra hour of work if the compensation is too small (say, $1). The value of time can also change dramatically depending on how much of it you have available. You will likely value your free time much more highly if you're very busy than if your schedule is completely clear. It's extremely useful to know how you value your own time. If you can figure out how much money each extra hour is worth to you, it'll help you make smarter decisions about many subjects, including:
-Whether to take on additional part-time work and at what rate
-Whether you should try to scale down your hours at your current job
-How long you should wait in line for a free item
-Whether taking a cab is worth the extra cost
Money is something you trade your life energy for. You pay for money with your time. Use this calculator to see your real hourly rate: https://yourmoneyoryourlife.com/life-energy-calculator/
Time is finite, while money is infinite.
Win the money game to buy your time back.
Memento Mori.
Thatโs it for today.
Enjoy your weekend, and see you next week!
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Thoughts about time, money, happiness and freedom
time..money...energy and the balance between those as we age - a good review
I appreciate the discussion that embraces & values more than just money
Amazing post๐ฏ