š Your Path To Financial Freedom
Mr. Money Mustache, Regulating Stimuli, Space Travel, & The New Jim Crow
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Todayās estimated read time: 4 minutes & 57 seconds.
This is written by the brother with chronic ankle sprains, Luke
One Cool Website
Explore the coolest thing humans have ever builtā¦the internet!
BY FAR, the #1 reason people want to make money is to have the freedom to live the life they truly want. Everyone wants to be financially free. I bet you do too!
But, getting to financial freedom is so elusive. We all want to get to the beautiful life of leisure & happiness, but none of us have a map to lead us there.
Well, I found the perfect map. Itās completely free and 10,000s of people have used it to reach financial freedom.
The map is called Mr. Money Mustache.
The author behind MMM was a normal 9-5 office cubicle guy with a wife who somehow managed to retire at just 30 years old!! He did so without winning the lottery or selling a big company. Rather, he worked a normal ass job, treated money like the tool it is, & optimized for happiness.
The MMM blog is not so much a financial nuts-and-bolts blog as it is a story about lifestyle andĀ attitude transformation. It is by far one of the best blogs I have found on the internet.
If you are young & want to start down the path of financial freedom, READ THIS BLOG.
- Luke
One Thing Iām Working On
Practice makes progress.
Wake up. Phone. Stretch. Shower. Class. Work. Eat. Meetings. More work. Eat again. Work out. More meetings. Go home. Hangout. Go to bed.
This is my daily routine in a nutshell. Since Iām working on a lot of things, these days pass by way too fast and my clarity of thought goes with it. Obviously, this is an issue.
But, I still want to pursue all of the things I am pursuing. Since most of you reading this are ambitious, this problem may sound familiar. After struggling for a while, I think Iāve found a key variable.
Regulating my stimuli.
Put simply, these struggles arise because my brain is over-stimulated. For a few weeks, I decided to observe my daily routine. I soon realized that I stimulate my brain from A LOT of random things. Hereās what Iām changing:
Music/Podcasts
I used to listen to music or podcasts during my 10-15 minute breaks in between class/meetings. I thought it was productive & stress relieving. Wrong! It left me with no time to process what I just did (which made me more stressed). Instead, Iāve replaced those songs & podcasts with instrumental music or nothing at all.
Phone
With more tasks on my plate, I started to check my phone first thing in the morning & last thing at night to stay on top of things. I quickly became a slave to my task list & a lot more stressed. Instead, I now try to keep my phone away from me 30 minutes after waking up and 30 minutes before going to bed.
As with most behavior changes. adopting these habits is not all dandelions & roses. Iām still inconsistent. But, Iāve noticed a direct correlation between these habits & my happiness & creativity.
This means these new habits actually work! Now, itās a matter of calibrating my expectations and reducing friction, so I can do them consistently.
It will take time. But, I know that these systems will help guide me towards a more effective & less stressed life.
- Luke
One Prediction For The Future
Life is changing fast.
I think I will see the Earth from outer space one day. I think you will too. In fact, I think space travel will be accessible to the vast majority of reasonably wealthy Americans. Hereās why:
In 1903, Wilbur and Orville Wright rode the first successful airplane for a 17 second flight. Only 68 years later, Neil Armstrong & Buzz Aldrin landed on the moon!
Not long after, the USA stopped heavily funding our space travel initiatives. With it, most space innovation plateauād. That was until space innovation expanded to private companies. The 3 biggest private space companies - SpaceX, Blue Origin, & Virgin Galactic - were founded in 2002, 2000 & 2004. In the last 20 years, those companies have cut launch costs by over 97%, landed their own rockets, & put normal civilians into outer space.
If you zoom out, you see just how ridiculously good humans are at space innovation. And if you extrapolate that innovation to the next 25 years, youāll realize my prediction is pretty modest. If you want to dive deeper, check out this blog post.
- Luke
Bread Believer Of The Week!!
You da realest
The Bread Believer of the week is ā¦..drum roll please š„ā¦ Shalin Kadakia!!! Shalin is a kind soul and a curious mind. Heās opened every email weāve sent and has one of the most contagious laughs I know. If you ever need some fantasy football tips, Shalin is your guy.
Shalin, treat yourself to a wonderful bagel during this beautiful Sunday in Champaign. Hope you have a great week! Cheers to you š„
- Luke
1 Great Book
There is no better bargain than a great book.
The New Jim Crow was one of the most shocking books Iāve ever read. Michelle Alexander (a Stanford-educated civil rights lawyer) details the harsh reality of Americaās colorblind version of Jim Crow laws - aka being a felon.
She zooms out to explain how we got to here and then zooms in to highlight specific laws that enable a caste society in America. In my opinion, this book should be a must read for any American history class. Itās THAT eye opening & educational. No surprise it spent nearly 250 weeks onĀ The New YorkĀ Times bestsellerās list.
- Luke
Photo of the Week
This is a selfie of most of the Illini Blockchain team from a meeting earlier today. We are now 30 people strong and have grown A LOT since our inception a year ago. Itās pretty awesome what you happens when you show up every day and put in effort.
- Luke
Thatās it for this week. See yāall next Sunday. Remember to keep yo bread up šÆ
- Paul & Luke