Outcomes > Activities
I haven’t posted for a while. In truth, I write, a lot, but it’s often for my company. Yesterday I wrote something to try to get myself aligned in the morning and posted it because for some reason the vulnerability of publishing my thoughts is useful to me. I got such nice feedback from my 3.25 subscribers, and, had such a productive day, I’m swinging again.
Inbox Zero & Buddhism.
Every day in the morning I review what needs to be done for the day along with what I want to get done. I set a goal of “one thing” I want to accomplish that would make the day truly successful and usually have two things behind it. For those that aren’t gifted mathematicians that’s three things. Each day. Most days I get 1-2 done and procrastinate around a lingering third while collecting completed activities as temporary souvenirs, sliding them to the “Completed” column on my Kanban-style Notion board. Sometimes I’m lazy and I put “inbox zero” as a goal. That’s not a goal. It’s an activity. Like brushing your teeth. Today I will have a zen-like focus on accomplishing my three things. For those that know me, you know that zen-like anything is neither likely nor innately characteristic of me. It’s hard. So that will be my first outcome that I will aim for. That I did everything like a (semi-intense), Jewish, Buddhist monk.
The $288,000 Latte
A quick meditation on investing and spending… Warren Buffet is arguably the greatest investor of our generation (Arguably because there are definitely a few like Jim Simons and others that could claim that spot). I’m not going to delve Warren’s (yea, first name basis) Grahamian investing style, later iterated upon by the great Charlie Munger. I just want to share how this brilliant investor and most frugal man on the planet thought. His principles are something in the vein of:
Spend less than you make (in his case, spend almost nothing).
Don’t lose money.
Don’t go into debt.
Invest everything (as tax-efficiently as possible) .
What’s interesting is the lens he used to save money. He knew that he had a sound investment strategy (initially very deep value on net-nets, or “cigar butts” and later very good companies at fair prices). So he looked at everything as what the opportunity cost was considering he could compound his money at ridiculous rates of return over time. He would look at, for example, a $30 haircut, not as a $30 expense but as a $3,000 expense, because if he invested it over the next 30 years, that’s what it would be worth. “Do I really want to pay $3,000 for this haircut?”
Do you really want to pay $7 a day for that latte? That’s $212 per month. If you start at $0 and add $212 per month to an account that compounds once annually at 8% per year that’s $288,000. That’s the power of compounding.