Get Rich With Laziness!
Updated: Feb 22, 2019
Sometimes, even reading about how hard people work leaves me exhausted! This could be the full time working mom who comes home and takes care of the kids and household chores, or the entrepreneur who has 5 different businesses running at once. Both are maximizing their productivity in awe-inspiring, soul-sucking ways.
Not soul-sucking to them, they're probably very fulfilled, but to me, the casual onlooker. The not-so-motivated, likes-my-free-time, slightly-lazy-in-a-comfortable-way kind of person. I look at how busy they are and I wish I had that sort of energy. I imagine how incredibly successful I could be if I was.
Take, for example, Millennial Money Man (M$M, as the kids know him) This guy, who used to be a teacher, publishes how much he makes from his online businesses every month, and it's usually between $75,000-$150,000 PER MONTH. He has all sort of suggestions, including paid courses, for how YOU TOO can set up a similarly income producing life. But you know what? Not a single one of his suggestions for how to make tons of money and build businesses make me want to do anything but make me wave my hands in front of my chest and make a face like I just ate half a lemon in one bite.
Building Ads for small businesses: PASS!
Making and selling unit plans to other teachers: NOPE! (but if you ask me, I'll send mine along for free! Solidarity)
Tutoring English Language Learners on the computer: Meh, done it, don't really wanna do it again.
Transcribing documents: NO WAY!
Does this mean those of us who don't want 4 jobs are doomed to work forever? That those of us with more human energy levels can't reach our goals?
NO!
And I don't want everyone to get the idea that the only way to get to Financial Independence is through working so much you're super stressed out all the time and miserable. You can let your laziness help you reach your financial goals.
Yes, folks, LAZINESS can get you rich. Let me break down the 5 main ways this can happen.
The laziest investors outperform ones who spend time and effort actively investing! Fidelity recently released a study of who, out of all the people who have accounts with them, had the best returns. And I'll give you a hint, the winners were not the guys who were constantly pouring over financial data of every hot company. It was the people who forgot they had accounts at Fidelity and just let their money do its thing. Other studies have confirmed this fact, including this Dalbar study that showed that people, because they trade with emotion and buy when things are high, and sell when low (the opposite of how you should), they even under-perform their own funds THAT THEY OWN! So, automatically purchase the low cost index funds, adjust your stock/bond mix quarterly or yearly, and that's it! Don't check the market, or follow the news, just set it and forget it. Allow your money to work for you, as you sit back and take a nap!
Shopping takes effort! Putting on "outside" clothes, driving to the mall, parking, walking through vast hordes of fellow shoppers, finding the right product, paying for it, finding your car, fighting traffic on the way home, UGH! Even online shopping takes time to compare products, watch reviews, hope its the right size and not defective, wait for the delivery guy so you can sign for the package, fight with the packaging that will just end up killing a dolphin. It's so much easier to just not buy stuff. We have WAYYYY too much stuff anyway, and it's really easy to save money that you don't spend on stuff that won't make you happy in the long run anyway. So, let your laziness protect your wallet, don't go through the effort it takes to shop.
Learn to appreciate a good book, movie, video game or TV show! All of these low cost individual activities are AWESOME! If you belong to a library, they can be FREE! YouTube is also a thing! There are great shows on YouTube, like "Hot Ones" where they interview celebrities with insightful questions as they eat incredibly spicy wings, here's an amazing Terry Crews, and an incredibly eloquent Russel Brand on the show. You can cut your entertainment budget into tiny fractions if you avail yourself of these options.
Use free facilities you already have access to! In my apartment building, there is a pool, a sauna, and a gym! All for free! Only 5 floors above where I live! I know lots of people who have access to these sorts of things, either at their home or work, and yet still pay hundreds of dollars a month getting memberships to gyms and pools instead of using the free alternative where they live. Again, you have to fight traffic, find (or pay for) a parking space, go past the snooty sign-in guy who judges you. NOPE! Almost half of the people don't even use their own gym memberships they DO pay for, so why not fake-use the free option?
Hang out with your friends at your apartment! Even if everyone brings a bottle and something to munch on, this is SOOOO much cheaper and easier than getting all dressed up to go out to pay far too much for drinks; if you can even get the bar tender's attention, and then shout at one another over the terrible music! Have a game night! Play cards! Have themed pot-luck dinners! Put your phones away and just enjoy each other's company!
All 5 of these will either make you money or save you money. And we're not talking about small amounts, either! The first tip alone can be a difference of hundreds of thousands of dollars over the course of a career. The other 4 can make big differences in your bottom line and your savings rate as well.
What are you waiting for? Go be lazy!
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Disclaimer: The views expressed is provided as a general source of information only and should not be considered to be personal investment advice or solicitation to buy or sell securities. Investors considering any investment should consult with their investment advisor to ensure that it is suitable for the investor’s circumstances and risk tolerance before making any investment decisions. The information contained in this blog was obtained from sources believed to be reliable, however, we cannot represent that it is accurate or complete.