Automate Your Life to a Million: The Five-Step Process.
The secret to becoming rich is simple. Everyone wants to overcomplicate the process but overcomplicated processes are purely-ego driven. Keep the process simple and you will never lose. Take advantage of simple opportunities.
“Earn more, spend less, and automate it. “ – Tony Robbins
Automating is a crucial step. When you automate your life toward saving, it opens up new opportunities for you. When you have more opportunities, you have more time to create even more opportunities. Once you get the ball rolling, this is a beautiful cycle that you can exploit. Let’s take about the five simple ways you can automate your life to take full advantage.
Step 1: Automate Your Investments
Never trust yourself to save money. Set everything to automatic and have it taken out of your paycheck directly. So, when payday comes your money is automatically saved. Set it up properly and you will never even think about it. That is the goal. Keep it simple.
There is a psychological advantage to never seeing the money in the first place. When you see less money going into your bank account, you will learn to adjust your spending and expenses. It is much easier to adjust your habits when you never see the money in the first place.
My wife and I work as public school teachers. Even though we are already financially secure we continue to save 50% of our income. What do we invest in? Our 457s and 401Ks. All of it is directly pulled from our paycheck. We never see the money and we keep it simple. We invest in low expense Vanguard funds.
Note: You can even automate your emergency fund. Our 457 is our emergency fund. If you do not have one, just use a simple bank account. Aim for 3 to 6 months of expenses.
Step 2: Automate Paying Your Bills
Never trust yourself to pay off your credit cards and utility bills. Automate this entire process as well.
Make sure your credit cards automatically pay themselves at the end of the month. Credit cards can be very nasty. Often your APR will increase if you miss a payment. Or if you miss a payment you may not be eligible for rewards. Credit cards exploit those who cannot pay on-time. That is how they make money. Never miss a credit card payment. Ever.
TIP: Only sign up for cards that offer cash back rewards. Cash back cards are guaranteed wins and TAX-FREE income (for now). You can keep the miles.
“Collecting airline miles is coupon-clipping for the middle class.” - Naval Ravikant
Step 3: Automate the Mind with Stoicism
Embrace the stoic mindset. To spend less money avoid buying “new” things. Avoid buying the fanciest new cars, or new shiny gadgets. They are all a trap. See things for what they truly are.
Also, be grateful for what you already own in life. If you are reading this blog you already have food, shelter, clothing, internet access, and even a computer. Most of the world does not have this. You already own all the basics in life.
Why do you need more?
Well, you don’t really need more than the basics. Everything else is a want. And wants are fueled by desire.
Step 4: Automate Savings
Savings are what you can control. This is where you start. Every time you cut costs it is an automatic win for your pocketbook and an automatic win for your cash flow.
When you are shopping for something do not get played by clever marketing and advertising. Ignore the brand name. Judge a product for what it really is. Ask yourself, “What does it really do for you?”
Challenge your values concerning physical goods. Then you will desire them less. Then you will save even more money.
Step 5: Take Action: Earn More
Remember, the whole point of automating is to create more possibilities for yourself. You can focus on larger projects because your main assets require zero attention.
Now, if you have enough money, spend time with your family. If you do not, then earn more money. If you want to earn more money, this is the trick, you need to figure out how you can create more value. Your time is freed-up for a reason. Money buys you opportunities. Take advantage of it. It's not difficult. Let me give you some ideas.
Launch Your Own Business:
Start a side hustle. There are many options available. You can flip items (I did this but it takes work) or you can secure rental properties. But one of the easiest side hustles is starting your own Ad Agency. The whole process is laid out in Matthew Paik’s course. Clients are literally earning $1000’s per month. You can run this business from the comfort of your home. The easier the side hustle, the better.
Once you have a business learn Cold Email tactics. You will want to learn how to write cold emails that will generate clients. Turn the clients into paying customers. There is a process. If you are interested, I personally recommend Cold Email Mastery.
Becoming a minor-internet celebrity has been by far my favorite side hustle. You don’t need to be the next celebrity but if you want to promote your business you need to learn how to create engaging content on Social Media. The process is easy, simple, and fun. Social media is in its infancy stage. It just getting started. Establish your foothold in the digital world. If you want to learn the basics take my course: Create 24/7 - The Blueprint to Unlimited Content Creation. This course is the most comprehensive guide to creating content.
Parting Thought: Use automation as a way to take things one step further. Try not to get focused and bogged down on the details. Once you know the basics of investing you will get higher ROI’s elsewhere.
