Financial Freedom Friday

TURNING KNOWLEDGE INTO WEALTH BY $MAXWELL

A buddy of mine was cleaning out his office last week. He mentioned to me that it had slowly turned into a hobby graveyard instead of an office.

All the stuff he's collected over the years... gear, tools, half-finished projects... were finally getting a new home and a new owner.

He's taking back his office and getting back some space basically cashing in on a decade of hobbies that didn't work out.

It got me thinking. I've done the same. I say yes to a lot. I've picked up and put down more hobbies than I can count.

Fishing and time on the lake have stuck around for more than 40 years.

I've consistently had some version of a garden, spending time volunteering, and almost every weekend I'm rucking/hiking.. It's probably not a coincidence I have 4 hobbies, I'll explain in a minute.

But countless other hobbies came and went.. And that's fine. That's how you find the keepers. I'm not stopping in my search either. I just signed up for scuba lessons last week!

So let's talk about the question this whole email is built on: can your hobbies make you rich?

It depends what you mean by rich. If you mean dollars???

Probably not. I tried metal detecting, I got tired of finding bottle tops.. Panning for gold? Good luck... Most hobbies cost money, they don't print it.

But if rich means a life you don't need a vacation from, or at least short periods of time on weekends, afternoons, or mornings that you actually look forward to, with people around you, a reason to get out of the office chair???

Then yeah!!!

Hobbies will make you richer than your portfolio ever will. And here's the kicker: that kind of rich is the only kind that makes the dollars worth having.

Which brings me to a number that stuck with me. Researchers looked at retirees and split them into happy and unhappy. The unhappy group averaged 1.9 hobbies. The happy group averaged 3.6.

Think about that... If you don't have things to do, that you don't enjoy, that don't get you out and about, that fill your cup.

That's the whole game. Not the size of the account. The number of things you actually like doing.

We've got it backwards. We think the money buys the life later. So we grind now and promise ourselves the good stuff comes after the number is big enough. Then the number gets big enough and nothing happens, because "enough to not work" was never a real goal. Money only means what you point it at.

I think of them core pursuits. A hobby is something you do. A core pursuit is something that pulls you forward. It's the reason the money exists. And here's the part nobody tells you: the people who are happiest in retirement didn't suddenly discover their pursuits at 65. Their calendars were already full of them decades before. They front-loaded the life.

So think of it like ROI. You spend hours optimizing a portfolio that might add a point or two a year. All the time the move with the biggest payoff (going from one core pursuit to three) costs you almost nothing and you're not even tracking it. That's the trade hiding in plain sight.

The ones that pay the most have two things in common: they're active, and they're social. Exercise plus people. Golf, hiking, a league, a class, volunteering. Volunteering ranks at the very top, by the way... Turns out feeling useful beats feeling comfortable.

Here's your assignment this weekend. Ten minutes, that's it.

Write down the 20 wildest things you've ever wanted to do or learn. Don't filter. Scuba diving, build a guitar, run a half marathon, learn Spanish, whatever. Then circle the top 5. Pick one. Find out what it actually costs to start... money and time. Put a real date on the calendar.

Then don't let anyone talk you out of it. Including the version of you that says "later."

Don't be the guy whose hobbies start when you have time... Once you hit some money goal, or live in boxes until (insert excuse). Be like my friend, build the hobby room now... Even if it's just one fishing rod, one weekend, one yes. And if it doesn't work out, it's fine to move on... Just keep finding new ways to fill your cup other than dollar signs.

That's rich. By the only definition that counts.

Trade smart. Live 'rich'. See you next Friday.

Turning knowledge into wealth,
$Maxwell

PS: Happy Father's day to all the Dads out there!! If your dad is still around give him a call and hopefully a hug for all of us whose dads aren't here anymore :)
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