Money is the easiest hobby
Everything you spend time on requires your constant input. Whether it's the gym, art, even relationships. They all take maintenance to grow or even just stay alive
Not money though.
You can walk away from invested money and it will grow indefinitely without any effort. Nothing else works like this.
I'm a dabbler
I've had a fair number of interests in my life. I'm a dabbler, a renaissance man, an explorer of the human experience, and a bit of an addict. I like to find new things, obsess about them, then move on to something else
I've deadlifted 600lbs. I've tried all the drugs. I've read hundreds of books about history, economics, philosophy. I'm a real estate investor, pretty heavy into it. I've traveled to most of the world, I'm a world class photographer. I might even call being a conference junkie a hobby since I've been to so many. I love my hobbies
and since I've gone so far down all of these roads I can say with resounding confidence that money is the easiest hobby of all
What is a hobby?
my definition of hobby meets 3 requirements:
- We do it on a regular basis
- It comes from a genuine interest rather than an economic need
- We enjoy the challenge of improving at
I go to the gym because I like to get stronger and better looking, or as I get older it's more of just trying to stay mobile.
I like photography to explore myself, to understand how I see the world better, to share my perception of people with them.
I like books because I like to learn, nothing more. I like to spend my time questioning what I think I know and curate a more accurate world view.
You can't really win at a hobby. You also don't do them because you want to win, you do them because you simply want to do them.
Money is a hobby for me. I spend a few hours a week learning and improving my competency around it. I don't try to win and I can't really lose. I just enjoy doing the hobby.
Money however, is different than every other hobby in an extremely important way.
Entropy versus compounding
When idle, money grows and everything else decays. This is what separates money and every other thing you spend your time on.
a single $500 investment into the S&P in the year 1950 (with the dividends reinvested) would be worth ~1.5MM today - with zero effort on your part.
Admittedly $500 in 1950 was a lot more than it is today, but imagine if your parents did this for you? Imagine if you did this for your kids?
What if you did more than $500? The compounding works even better when you put in more!
People muck this up in 2 ways
They don't do anything
Humans on all of planet earth do business through currency. Regardless of economic or political system, we are beholden to money, and most people struggle with money. I struggled with money for 31 years, until I made it a hobby.
The internet has made it easier than ever to get rich though. Information, digital tools, and digital brokerages have given everyone access to free economic compounding.
Yet most people consume zero money content, they spend 0 hours per week on learning, improving, or trying to fix this situation.
I understand that it's difficult, but all hobbies are difficult to get started.
They obsess about the outcome
This one is funny to me because it's usually people who do care about making money but they are so fixated on "winning' that they tinker too much, over-risk, or destroy their mental health trying to accumulate more money. I know lots of these folks, I think they would be happier if they made money a hobby rather than a competition.
The secret seems to be finding a balance of patience, ambition, and emotion. When done even somewhat correctly any average income person with an internet connection can create massive wealth - over time - without much effort. That's a fact.
How to win at money
Money is the easiest hobby, and it's mostly behavioral. The list below is all you have to do to, but you have to do ALL of them, and you will get rich:
- Pay yourself first, no matter what
- Track your finances diligently
- Learn something new about this hobby every week. Read a book, listen to a podcast, watch a video
- Invest in what you know, and if you don't know, buy the ETF
- Have friends and/or a community who you can talk about money with
- Spend the rest of your time on a more difficult hobby
You're welcome ;)
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