#23 - Finance Fridays - ADHD Hacks, Labour’s Landslide, Retirement Priorities

*This is not financial advice, just me brainstorming about things related to money. Stocks are extremely volatile - value can go down as well as up. All investments and income streams may be subject to tax.

Contents:

• 💷 Personal Finance Tip - How Labour will Impact my Personal Finance journey?

• 🧠Productivity - Best ADHD hacks from YouTube comments

• 🎒Useful Resource - Financial freedom…At what cost?

• 💸Entrepreneurship - Proof that you only need a 1000 fans

• 👔Career Advice - You can’t afford to stay indoors

💷 How a Labour Government will impact my Personal Finance journey?

So Labour unsurprisingly won the General Election so what does this mean for my personal finance?

Thankfully, Moneybox breaks down how Labour’s Manifesto will impact your Personal Finance. And these are the things that caught my eye:

• Ending fire and rehire practices - This means better Job Security for us 9-5ers given the backdrop of the recent years of layoffs especially in the tech industry.

• Take action on late payments to ensure small businesses and the self-employed are paid on time. - This would make contracting and entrepreneurship less stressful since freelancers can testify to the woes of clients paying them late.

• Increase investment from pension funds in UK markets. - This could actually mean worse returns if the UK market continues to lag behind the US. Any policies around this would actually make me want to be more active managing my pension funds. It’s not my patriotic duty to sacrifice my retirement funds for the sake of UK businesses.

💸Proof that you only need a 1000 fans

She Turned 5800 Followers Into $1 Million Per Year

The 1000 fans theory checks out again.

In this video, Alex talks about how someone made over a million dollars from only 5800 Instagram followers.

All she has going for her is a high-paying, super specific audience of reliable customers.

This is my dream. Why?

• It's low maintenance.

• No pressure to blast out endless content into the abyss.

• Barely any competitors since it’s so niche.

• Market saturation is a far gone myth.

So the key takeaway for me is to ask myself this question.

What is a service I can provide that's:

1. Super specific (think geographically local, industry-specific, serving a single demographic)

2. With high paying clientele

3. That I can do a better job serving than most other people.

You don’t have to answer now, just sleep on it.

🧠Best ADHD hacks from YouTube comments

1 in 10 people have ADHD which isn't great for getting things done. 

Being able to focus on your fitness, health, nutrition, career, personal finance, side hustle, home maintenance and relationships, all at the same time isn't easy. Looking through these YouTube comments, I chose these unconventional ADHD hacks that might tip the scales in your favour. Even if you don’t have a formal ADHD diagnosis. 

 @struthless - Best ADHD Hacks??

1. Understand things that overstimulate you and things that help you go back to a calm state.

2. If you feel like you just can’t do something - try changing the input, for example change the clothes you are in or put on your shoes (yes, really!)

3. Invite somebody round! You’ll have a deadline to clean up and suddenly it’s easier to keep your house tidy. 

4. Write down EVERYTHING! Such as keeping a notepad by the bed. Don’t trust your memory, you’ll just overwhelm yourself. Accountability is powerful.

5. NO SCREENS IN THE MORNING. (Word to Andrew Huberman.)

6. Do tasks immediately (hello, 2 minute rule)

7. Impulse hacking - Prepare everything needed for the next day. For example, I lay my yoga mat out in the evening so that I just have to do it in the morning.

8. ADHD Tax - Give yourself the room to account for a certain level of mistakes. Financially, schedule wise and in most areas of life you can build in little buffers.

9. If you feel too much friction/resistance to doing something, then you need to make your next actionable step even smaller. For example, need to clean the bathroom? Just aim to clean the sink first. Need to exercise? Aim to walk for 10 minutes.

10. Try getting things done outside of home. For example, libraries are free, coffee shops and co-working type spaces.

11. Listen to video game soundtracks. Personally, I listen to both anime OSTs and video game soundtracks. Want to know my favourites when I need to concentrate? Nier Automata, Bubble, Made in Abyss and Lion King.

12. Body doubling. This could be a study with me video, a live stream of someone else cleaning, or a video of someone else working on art. Personally, I’m obsessed with Follow Along stretching videos on YouTube like Fraser’s Mobility 10 min Routine, anything by THENX or Mady Morrison.

👔 You can’t afford to stay indoors

I went to an AI summit. An ex-worker gave me a free ticket so I accepted and went. My whole team also got theirs but I was the only one who went in the end.

I couldn't even tell why I needed to go but I do believe in the power of serendipity. And you're probably going to need it in this economic climate.

And in this case, it pretty much worked. 

A guy who I reached out to offered to refer any job application for his company (which is one of my dream companies). Also if he ever wants to work for mine, I'll do the same.

Don't just apply for jobs online. Intentionally network in places with people you are genuinely interested in.

Go outside.

🎒 Financial freedom…At what cost?

Retirement savings calculator | Boring Money 

I did this retirement quiz and it made me realise my priorities today will be much different in retirement. For example, nowadays I value holidays and leisure at the expense of owning a home whereas in retirement I will value my home above all else.

So I have a thinking challenge for you.

Divide £10 across these 6 categories in terms of importance today vs. retirement. Then ask yourself if you are truly aligned with your priorities financially.

For me, this is how I spend my money now vs how I hope to spend in retirement:

Taking a step back, does how you spend your disposable income reflect your priorities? Maybe we can manage our finances by focusing on our goals rather than our impulses.

✍🏿Quote of the Week 

"In every challenge or even tragedy, there is an opportunity.” - Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson