The self-improvement market is estimated to be worth more than $10 billion in the U.S. and $40 billion globally. Indeed, there’s no shortage of books, blogs, and online courses designed to boost your productivity and life satisfaction.
Hey, if morning routines, vision boards, and setting smart goals gets you motivated to make positive changes in your life then knock yourself out.
I like to set goals every year for my personal finances and for my business. But the truth is my life changed for the better when I thought more about what I didn’t want my life to look like. I’m talking about anti-goals.
Think about your worst day. Is it packed with useless meetings? A soul-sucking commute? A never-ending list of household chores? Stuck at the office until 7pm? Missing your kid’s after-school activities? No time to exercise?
Unfortunately, that’s what almost every day looks like for so many of us.
Then we read self-improvement books and life hack blogs to help us squeeze extra time out of these dreadful days. Wake up at 4:30am. Set up phone calls or dictate emails during your morning commute. Spend your evenings cleaning and doing chores. Spending your weekends driving around for your kids’ activities.
What if we flipped the script and designed our life to reduce the time we spend doing things we hate, or avoid doing those things altogether?
- Living within walking / cycling distance from work. Or, negotiating a remote working arrangement.
- Blocking out time in your work calendar to do your actual work.
- Paying for a house cleaner. Hiring a handyman. Arranging a grocery or meal delivery service.
I recognize that I live a very unusual lifestyle compared to the average person. I am self-employed and work from home. I set my own hours, working as much or as little as I want. I have a home gym. I travel 8-9 weeks per year. I eat a plant-based diet.
I’ve used the power of anti-goals to help design this lifestyle. Some of my anti-goals include:
- No daily commute
- No meetings before 9:30am
- No meetings / work after 12pm on Fridays
- No Disney / Vegas / Stampede
- No truck / trailer / boat / vacation home
- No scheduled weekend activities for the kids
- No clutter in the garage or spare bedroom
I started to design my ideal lifestyle with these anti-goals in mind. I quit my job to focus on my online business. I set up a home office and a gym. I work out for 60 minutes every weekday morning. I use Calendly to block off early mornings, Friday afternoons, and travel days. We aim to travel 8-9 weeks per year, with emphasis on the U.K. and Europe. We enrol our kids in after-school activities (two each) during the week. We regularly declutter by donating or selling unused stuff.
Anti-goals have worked well for us to help design our weird but wonderful lifestyle. Let me know if they work for you.
This Week’s Recap:
We’ve returned home from an incredible 24-day trip to the U.K. We visited London, the Lake District, Stirling, Fort William, Inverness, St. Andrews, and (our favourite city) Edinburgh.
“This is a city of shifting light, of changing skies, of sudden vistas. A city so beautiful it breaks the heart again and again.” pic.twitter.com/AcplArqJ93
— Robb Engen (@RobbEngen) July 28, 2022
I got out of my comfort zone and rented a car for our three-night stay in the Lake District and for nine days as we explored the Scottish Highlands. I’m pleased to report that no side-mirrors were harmed during the road trip.
I managed to publish two posts while we were away. A Weekend Reading: London Edition, and a post about mental accounting.
Now that I’m back home I hope to post a bit more regularly here. And, stay tuned for my DIY investing course to be launched shortly.
Promo of the Week:
Repeating this from a few weeks ago –
The most frequently asked question about our travels this year? How did you earn enough points to fly a family of four to Europe / U.K. three times in 2022?
My wife and I each have our own American Express Cobalt cards and make sure to charge $500 per month in groceries (not hard these days!) to the cards to earn 5x points on groceries plus a 2,500 point monthly bonus for the first 12 months.
That adds up to 30,000 points for regular spending, plus the 30,000 bonus points for hitting the monthly spending target. There’s 120,000 points combined, which we transfer to Aeroplan to use for flight rewards.
We also signed up for the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card, where right now you can earn up to 90,000 in bonus points when you spending $1,000 per month over six months ($3,000 in the first three months, and a total of six monthly billing cycles where you spend $1,000).
I know many people will balk at paying a $599 annual fee. But you need to look objectively at your net return after fees. You can earn up to $2,800 in travel rewards with the American Express Aeroplan Reserve Card in the first year of card membership. Subtract the annual fee and you’re still netting $2,200.
For me, as long as I can meet the spending requirements without making meaningful changes to my normal expenses, these cards can make good sense. For example, I just got our house insurance notice in the mail. It’s up 15% and will cost us about $2,600 this year. Fortunately, I can pay upfront with an Amex card.
Weekend Reading:
I should go away more often. After a brutal first half of the year for stocks and bonds, investors were treated to an exceptional month in July. The S&P 500 was up 9.1% for its best month since November 2020. Vanguard’s Balanced ETF (VBAL) was up 4.92%, while Vanguard’s All Equity ETF (VEQT) was up 5.96%.
It’s funny, I received several emails from clients and readers wondering if they should sell their balanced portfolio and buy a GIC at 4%. This is a reminder that the worst stock and bond returns are often quickly followed by strong performance.
Selling a balanced investment portfolio at a loss and locking in a 4% return may sound sensible if you expect your investments to continue losing money. But we don’t know when things will turn around, and the turnaround can often be lightning fast (see April 2020).
That’s why it makes sense to stick to your plan and ride out the temporary volatility. It’s the world’s best stock market tip.
Portfolio Manager Markus Muhs wrote an excellent primer on RRIFs – what they are, how they work, and how to convert your RRSP into one.
Millionaire Teacher Andrew Hallam explains how to retire early with less than you might think:
“Coupling a lower cost of living with lower taxes (or no taxes) can supercharge the buying power of the money you saved.
Not everyone will want to retire in a different country. Some might miss family and friends.
But in an age when adult children often scatter to different cities (even different countries) plenty of retirees in beautiful destinations report seeing their family more because they live abroad.”
Retirement ‘like winning the lottery’: How these retirees are enjoying the summer despite economic concerns.
Boomers are exiting the workforce in droves, leaving more job vacancies than there are people to fill them.
The hedonic treadmill of conspicuous consumption is difficult to escape. Ben Felix answers an important question on whether people with luxury vehicles actually enjoy their vehicles more:
Rob Carrick says it’s time to cancel the idea that a big mortgage is a noble burden because home prices will rise.
Finally, it’s an Andrew Hallam trifecta – here he explains why young ETF investors should be partying in the streets right now.
Have a great weekend, everyone!
