076 • Do hammers and saws build houses?
Figuring out the utility of money, spending and earning...
A book that’s come to my attention recently is Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. It’s all about how to best use your money throughout your life to maximise what Bill thinks the most valuable currency is - memories and experiences.
After all, memories are what you carry with you all your life, and as you lie in old age, your memories will be what you have with you. Here’s what Bill said about creating a highlight reel for his grandfather from his sporting days…
“Too old to acquire significant new experiences, he could still derive great enjoyment from the highlight video. In fact, he thought it was the best gift ever. That was when I realized that you retire on your memories. When you’re too frail to do much of anything else, you can still look back on the life you’ve lived and experience immense pride, joy, and the bittersweet feeling of nostalgia.”
But the ideas from this book have been somewhat of a reinforcement for me, and somewhat bittersweet.
I’m not that good at spending money on what I want. There are things that I spend money on that I find out I don’t need later on.
And I don’t earn much either. What’s fair enough is that I’m a student, still struggling with obtaining a degree, without much time to work. But what little comes in sometimes isn’t spent in the best way possible.
What’s a little different about me compared to others is how I’ve earned money throughout my life. Rather than going through a string of jobs trading time for money when I was younger (aside from putting papers through peoples’ doors when I turned old enough to be allowed to do so), I’ve ended up spending more time doing my own thing, whether photography, writing or something else).
This has made me good at recognising that time and money are not always a linked exchange, one for the other, and it’s made me default to spending my time doing what I enjoy, which is very fulfilling.
But the disadvantage is that I still don’t really respect or value my money enough to chorale it all together to make a more significant purchase or investment into my experiences. I did visit Europe during the summer though, and have some amazing memories from the trip, luckily allowing me a window into what Perkins means about the value of experiences and how they accrue value best if you have them at the right time in life.
It’s something I’m going to have to learn to strike a balance with. Perhaps I could just use very artificial limits on myself for a couple of months, just to prove that I can get by with a lot less than what I’m spending right now. I’ve started a savings account that lets me put a little bit of money away into stocks every week, which is a start. Maybe I’m going to have to go back to Psychology of Money by Morgan Housel again. From observing my actions (again, see last week) I definitely have a better grasp on the ‘Die With Zero’ philosophy if we’re basing this on my past actions.
Sorry for not writing about things I understand again (something I fell for last week), but I feel as though sharing thoughts around these things helps my mind be more coherent.
There are a few other things that I want to share with you this week too, so keep reading below.
Talk soon,
— Theo
Last week’s issue (extended cut)…
Went a bit far down the stream-of-thought rabbit hole in this one but I understood and felt good about what I was saying so I hope it resonates with you too.
What I’ve created this week…
Coming up to halfway through my last year of uni, I thought that I’d get posting back onto the rhythm of sharing my photos on Instagram. One of the things I’d like to be able to do after university is freelance photography and this isn’t going to happen without a portfolio or a means to reach out and market my work to others.
None of this work is more recent than the Italy and Portugal photography taken back in the summer, but they’re images that nobody has seen before so I thought it would be worthwhile sharing them.
Starting videos for business…
Inspired by recording regularly for these newsletters and also because of how much easier it is to demonstrate things rather than writing instructions, I’ve begun posting on my business YouTube channel too. Here are the first two videos, coming out yesterday and on the 25th. You can watch them below…