7 Golden Nuggets to Help You Build Wealth and Crush Your Goals

Read time: 7 minutes

I’m going to cut to the chase - I used to be real dumb.

Slowly, over the years, I’ve become slightly less dumb.

And some of the things I’ve learned have been very useful for building my wealth and reaching my dreams.

Today, I’ve compiled 7 golden lessons that have made a huge impact in my life, so hopefully you can be a little less dumb too.

In today’s issue:

• The greatest investment in the world

• Why you should maximize your JPD

• The advantage of oddballs

• The fallacy that keeps you stuck in place

• and more

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1. The greatest return on investment is in yourself

I’m a HUGE fan of investing. Stocks, businesses, real estate, you name it. I love it all.

But the one investment that outperforms all of them is your own personal growth.

If you can add a skill that makes you significantly more valuable to others, say goodbye to those paltry 5% raises. Your income can double or triple in only a few years.

I used to be a miserable public speaker.

During my high school graduation, I had to give a speech. I had never spoken to a crowd before.

I spent weeks writing and perfecting it. I paced my bedroom for hours rehearsing it. I visualized walking up to the stage. I even practiced pausing for the laughter that would follow my hilarious jokes.

I was ready.

Then the day of the speech came. I walked up to the podium, turned around, and froze like icicles on a Canadian beard.

I stood there, eyes wide, staring at the audience.

After several awkward moments of silence, I buried my head in my notes and read my speech word-for-word in a monotone, flat voice. 

At the end, I decided to get spicy and close with, “Thank you.”

My lips moved, but no sound came out. 

Let’s try again. 

Nope, still no sound. Time to get off this stage.

It was horrible. 

But the ability to speak well is a powerful skill.  It’s hard to look competent if you can’t express yourself clearly. 

I knew if I wanted to be taken seriously, I had to improve.

So I’ve invested thousands of dollars in learning how to speak.

And at my last company meeting, I had people go out of their way to tell me how much they enjoyed my presentation.

We did it, kid.

As part of my investment strategy, I now set aside a portion of my budget every month to invest in new books, courses, and coaching to keep improving as a human.

Here are a few super-powered skills that can unlock massive pay increases no matter what you do for work.

• Writing - Often it’s not the best ideas that win, it’s the person that best communicates their idea. The better you can write, the better your ideas will be perceived.

• Speaking - Same idea as above. Watch the leadership in your company. I guarantee that almost all of them are capable speakers. It’s one of the most highly-compensated skills in the world.

• Curiosity - Curious people tend to have the best ideas, and they also are great at building relationships because of their genuine interest in others. Start asking questions and see what doors open up to you.

• Storytelling - The ability to tell a good story will make you more charismatic, engaging, and memorable. It also makes both your writing and speaking more impactful.

2. Optimize your Joy Per Dollar factor

Every dollar you spend represents a tradeoff. 

$1 spent on a light bill is $1 you can’t spend on tacos. $1 spent on tacos is $1 you can’t spend on Chicago Bulls tickets.

Every time you swipe your card to buy something you are actively deciding NOT to buy anything else.

But not all spending is made equal.

Certain things we spend money on give us 10X the joy other things do.

However, most of our spending is chasing fleeting happiness (like a candy bar), over our big giant joy levers (like joining an expensive fitness club).

Your goal when using your money should be figuring out how to maximize the joy each dollar gives you.

That means cutting back hard on expenses that don’t bring you much joy (even if it’s what everyone else is spending their money on), and spending ridiculously on the things that you truly love.

Examples: If you stopped eating out, could you instead take a trip to New York with your parents?

If you got a roommate, could you now spend $500 per month on designer clothes?

Decide what you love, and cut back as hard as you can elsewhere so you can go all-in on that.

3. Systems over goals

Every runner in a race has the same goal - to win. 

The winner isn’t decided then by the goals they set, but rather by the systems they set up to achieve them.

The runner who will win that race is the one who never skipped a workout, never slept in, never cheated on their meal plan.

No one gets into shape with one intense workout. But 100 small workouts can do it.

Consistency beats intensity all day, every day.

Set up world-class systems in your life, and you’ll be the one with the gold medal around your neck.

Here’s one of my favorite stories from Kobe Bryant to illustrate the point:

4. Dare to be strange

Thinking 5% outside the box will get you 500% greater returns.

Whether you realize it or not, most of the decisions we make are limited by how we see others behaving.

“Everyone else is going to college, so I should too.”

“She has a brand new car, I should get one. I don’t want to be embarrassed.”

“Everyone else is buying a house. That’s smart. I don’t want to throw my money away on rent.”

These are all narratives that we believe just because we see others doing them.

But if you’re willing to be just slightly odd, you can massively improve your financial situation.

Examples from my own life:

• Riding a bike to work (yes, even in the winter) 

• Buying a two-flat instead of a single family house 

• Renting our house on AirBnb whenever we’re out of town for more than a few weeks (I even sometimes make a net profit while on vacation)

• Dumpster diving around apartment complexes to find furniture that’s been left behind when people move out (okay I only made a couple hundred bucks, but it only took a few hours to grab and sell the furniture)

All of those are slightly strange, uncomfortable things. But together they’ve helped me reach my financial goals years faster.

The actual things I did don’t matter. You probably read that list and said “Zach’s a nut! Why do I even read this crazy newsletter?”

The point is, by questioning the “comfortable status quo”, you can make insane wealth gains on your peers who don’t.

What slightly strange decision could you make to save thousands per year?

Here’s a few to get your creative juices flowing.

• Live in a tiny house

• Hang dry your clothes

• Get your coworkers to pay you to make them a sack lunch every day

• Move next to work and get rid of your car

• Invite you friends over for dinner instead of going out

5. The Sunk Cost Fallacy

When we’ve sunk a lot of time or money into something, we have a hard time cutting our losses and moving on, even when it’s obvious we made the wrong choice.

You’re sitting in a boring movie but you stay because you already paid for the ticket.

Your car loan is crushing your budget but you don’t want to sell it and take a loss.

Your workplace is miserable but you’ve already spent 5 years working your butt off, and you’re about to get a promotion.

The thinking goes, “I’ve already put so much in, I don’t want to ‘lose’ that.”

But the money/time is already spent. You can’t get that back just by doubling down on your mistake.

Instead, as you get new information, rethink each purchase or investment.

Would I buy this rental property again?

No?

Can I reasonably change things so it’s a good property for me?

No?

You should probably sell it.

Don’t double down on your bad decisions.

6. You’re one good decision away

Speaking of good/bad decisions, no matter what situation you are in right now, you are always only one good decision away from making positive progress in your life.

You ALWAYS can take one right step forward today.

Never forget that.

7. Ideas are cheap, execution is expensive

Admit it, you probably have 5 ideas for a business, 12 great ideas for an app, and at least a handful of ways you think we could fix the country.

Stand up, take a bow, and what are you doing sit back down you’re in public that’s weird.

Also, I don’t know if you know this, but EVERYBODY has lots of ideas.

Ideas are easy, action is hard.

How many articles have you read, nodded your head in agreement…. and then did nothing with the information?

For me? Probably millions.

All of that reading and research and thinking feels productive, but it’s useless without execution.

It’s better to take action on one great idea than think about 100.

Keep growing,

What’d you think of this week’s newsletter? Hit reply to let me know!

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