2950: The Power of Doing Just ONE Thing by J. Money of Budgets Are Sexy on Financial Habits

[00:00:00] [SPEAKER_00]: This is Optimal Finance Daily, The Power of Doing Just One Thing by J. Money of BudgetsAreSexy.com

[00:00:09] [SPEAKER_00]: As a financial blogger, my job is to share a billion ways to pay off your debt, save your money, maintain a budget, invest your money, make more money, reach financial freedom, and on and on.

[00:00:22] [SPEAKER_00]: I've probably shared over 3,000 ideas with you since starting this blog, and I'm sure I'll spout another 3,000 ideas.

[00:00:31] [SPEAKER_00]: But here's the thing. You could choose to do only one thing consistently and still make a huge difference. It just has to be one of the biggies.

[00:00:41] [SPEAKER_00]: You do any of these things listed, just one of them, and you'll become a millionaire in no time, even if you don't do anything else.

[00:00:50] [SPEAKER_00]: Five simple ways to become a millionaire.

[00:00:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Max out your Roth IRA every year.

[00:00:57] [SPEAKER_00]: Max out your 401k every year.

[00:01:00] [SPEAKER_00]: Max out both your IRA and your 401k every year.

[00:01:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Pay off your entire mortgage and save the future payments.

[00:01:09] [SPEAKER_00]: And win the lottery.

[00:01:12] [SPEAKER_00]: Yes, it's an order of difficulty there.

[00:01:14] [SPEAKER_00]: But still, quite simple.

[00:01:16] [SPEAKER_00]: You do any of those on rotation year in and year out, and I guarantee that you'll reach financial freedom in 20, 30, or 40 years from now.

[00:01:27] [SPEAKER_00]: All depending on your expenses and lifestyle, yada, yada, yada.

[00:01:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And if you're not in a position to invest large amounts of money every month or year, at least start with something.

[00:01:39] [SPEAKER_00]: Even just $100 or $200 a month can do enough to snowball you towards your goals faster.

[00:01:46] [SPEAKER_00]: And notice I said simple there and not easy.

[00:01:51] [SPEAKER_00]: Everyone knows how to become a millionaire over time.

[00:01:54] [SPEAKER_00]: Spend less than you make and save or invest the difference.

[00:01:58] [SPEAKER_00]: But just like trying to lose weight or stop smoking, it takes more than just knowing what to do to make it happen.

[00:02:04] [SPEAKER_00]: If that wasn't the case, we'd all be healthy billionaires walking around this planet.

[00:02:10] [SPEAKER_00]: We'll have to save the how for another day.

[00:02:13] [SPEAKER_00]: It basically comes down to figuring out how to motivate your ass.

[00:02:17] [SPEAKER_00]: But for today, just concentrate on the simplicity of it all.

[00:02:21] [SPEAKER_00]: Again, you do any of those things from earlier and you're golden.

[00:02:26] [SPEAKER_00]: Even if you never do anything else at all.

[00:02:29] [SPEAKER_00]: Which of course you'll always do anyway throughout your life.

[00:02:32] [SPEAKER_00]: But this is good to keep in mind when you're down on yourself or wondering what secrets you're missing out on.

[00:02:39] [SPEAKER_00]: There are no secrets.

[00:02:40] [SPEAKER_00]: You already know what you have to do.

[00:02:43] [SPEAKER_00]: Let's reference back to my net worth tracker again.

[00:02:46] [SPEAKER_00]: When I was going through all the articles and linking back to the page there, I noticed a pretty consistent and amazing thing.

[00:02:54] [SPEAKER_00]: All I was pretty much doing was maxing out my retirement accounts every year.

[00:02:58] [SPEAKER_00]: Sure, I was hustling my ass off and trying to pay down my mortgage and other stuff too.

[00:03:03] [SPEAKER_00]: But this single driving force to growing our worth from $58,769 to $447,240 in six years was simply following bullet point number two.

[00:03:19] [SPEAKER_00]: And then later on, number three, maxing out both my retirement accounts.

[00:03:24] [SPEAKER_00]: That's it.

[00:03:25] [SPEAKER_00]: I knew that I was doing that throughout these 70 plus months.

[00:03:29] [SPEAKER_00]: But seeing it all laid out there on the graph like that really stopped me in my tracks.

[00:03:34] [SPEAKER_00]: Could that really be it?

[00:03:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Can you imagine what this number will look like in another 70 months or even 140 months?

[00:03:42] [SPEAKER_00]: I'm still taking it all in.

[00:03:44] [SPEAKER_00]: But it's a nice reinforcer seeing it all laid out in one simple graph.

[00:03:49] [SPEAKER_00]: Sometimes you have to hit pause every now and then and take a look back through time.

[00:03:53] [SPEAKER_00]: Not to be a broken record, but I really do encourage you to track your own finances and then take reoccurring snapshots so you can have a journey to soak in as well.

[00:04:04] [SPEAKER_00]: Even if you're starting at the bottom or below that, it'll make your graph look even sexier down the line.

[00:04:10] [SPEAKER_00]: And more importantly, recognize that you can be pretty successful by just focusing and rocking a couple smart moves.

[00:04:20] [SPEAKER_00]: The beauty is that you only need to figure it out once and then you're good to go.

[00:04:25] [SPEAKER_00]: That knowledge sticks with you for the rest of your life.

[00:04:28] [SPEAKER_00]: So the point?

[00:04:29] [SPEAKER_00]: It doesn't take grand wizardry to figure out how to grow your money.

[00:04:34] [SPEAKER_00]: There's a ton of things you can do to kill it, like paying off all your debt, protecting yourself through insurance, becoming a side hustle maven, having an emergency fund, and so on.

[00:04:44] [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, we'll continue pimping these things as well.

[00:04:48] [SPEAKER_00]: But committing to just the one or two huge goals from the list earlier can get you to your dreams fast too.

[00:04:56] [SPEAKER_00]: You have to find the motivation to pull the triggers, of course.

[00:04:59] [SPEAKER_00]: It's not easy, but I promise you your future self will thank you handsomely for doing so.

[00:05:05] [SPEAKER_00]: Now to just figure out how to win that dang lottery and speed it up even more.

[00:05:14] [SPEAKER_00]: You just listened to the post titled, The Power of Doing Just One Thing, by Jay Money of BudgetsAreSexy.com.

[00:05:22] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll be right back with my commentary.

[00:05:25] [SPEAKER_00]: While there isn't one guaranteed way to get rich for everyone, I agree that there are simple ways to build wealth.

[00:05:32] [SPEAKER_00]: And focusing on just one thing is a great strategy.

[00:05:36] [SPEAKER_00]: Only you can determine the one thing that's going to work best for you.

[00:05:40] [SPEAKER_00]: Because only you can see your full picture and all the nuances of your situation.

[00:05:45] [SPEAKER_00]: That's why it's important to expose yourself to different strategies and pay attention to how other people are building wealth.

[00:05:51] [SPEAKER_00]: You're not guaranteed success if you copy them.

[00:05:55] [SPEAKER_00]: But you can get ideas of things to try as you chart your own course.

[00:06:00] [SPEAKER_00]: The basic crux of personal finance is all about increasing your income, reducing your expenses, and investing the gap.

[00:06:07] [SPEAKER_00]: And of course, there are endless ways to do these three things.

[00:06:11] [SPEAKER_00]: Which is why we're quickly approaching 3,000 episodes of this show.

[00:06:15] [SPEAKER_00]: The basics of personal finance and building wealth are pretty easy to understand.

[00:06:20] [SPEAKER_00]: But embracing them and implementing them consistently is the hard part.

[00:06:25] [SPEAKER_00]: But that should do it for today.

[00:06:27] [SPEAKER_00]: Have a happy rest of your day.

[00:06:29] [SPEAKER_00]: And I'll see you on the Thursday show tomorrow, where your optimal life awaits.