2 - Battling Weakness
Hello hello, welcome to blog number 2, coming waaaaaay later than I originally thought but we move. I created the first 3 blog titles back in January, so it’s ironic I really procrastinated writing this post, I couldn’t have chosen a more fitting name. I hope this post finds you healthy and safe and if you read the first one I hope you enjoyed it! In this post I’ll take you through how I learned to stop procrastinating by procrastinating and how I applied an approach to personal finance to (mostly) free me. Without further ado, let’s get to it :)
Part 1 - My Number 1 Weakness…
Arguably - many who know me may agree - my moustache! Or rather lack thereof :( How a 24-year-old with Punjabi blood flowing through his veins can’t grow a moustache but can grow a full beard is so peak, just search Sikh men and you’ll see what I mean (I joke but fr it’s definitely top 5). The main weakness that dominated most of my life up until recently has been procrastination. Unsurprisingly it was at its worst at uni, it brought my mood down significantly and kept me in a perpetual state of feeling shit. Usually I would watch YouTube and play PS4 to procrastinate, however during the last semester of my final year I thought if I read a non-fiction book instead (having never done so before) I was actually improving myself as a person and thus not really procrastinating (a big 200 IQ self-deception play). The book I read was a story to illustrate the issues found in many IT departments and how to solve them by changing your thinking. I’m ngl it was sick af especially having just done a yearlong internship within IT (don’t @ me, it’s called The Phoenix Project, check it out if you’re in IT - shukriya Oli).
This sparked my love of reading again with more of a focus on non-fiction so naturally after uni I did the complete opposite and read IT by Stephen King (an absolute banger), theeeen I decided I should read some books on personal finance before starting my job in September that year. I learned many things from those books that I’ll talk about in other posts, for now we will focus on the 80/20 rule, how it inadvertently freed me from the shackles of procrastination and indecision and hopefully can do the same for you to get you moving forward on your journey!
Part 2 - The 80/20 Rule
Though the 80/20 rule isn’t specific to finance its thicc roots lie within it. Created by your boy Vilfredo Paretoit, he saw how 80% of land was owned by 20% of the population in Italy and observed the same across several other countries. The rule states there is an unequal relationship between inputs and outputs (80% of the outputs come from 20% of inputs). Translated into simple Tally brain only a few steps are truly the most important, that is where you make the most gain and the biggest leaps forward, after that you only make marginal gains.
So applying this to personal finance, I was at the point where I’d never opened a savings account (at the big man age of 22) and was low key nervous because I had no idea how. I wasn’t sure how best to tackle a savings account like how to stay on top of it and maximise it as much as possible. Usually at this point my procrastination kicks in but I remembered the 80/20 rule, only a few things really matter, the rest are smaller marginal gains. So I had a think and decided the step that provides the most value was to open one with a good interest rate (my account at the time was trash) and just change it every once in a while (roughly once a year) to a better interest rate. And that’s it, with that I’m doing great, I’m 80% of the way there! Going for 100% perfection would be closer to checking savings account interest rates weekly to make sure you have the very best deal and changing the moment yours isn’t number 1 (usually being beaten by something only 0.2 or 0.3% better these days), that is way too much time and effort on those smaller gains (it’s like trying to look better in the gym by training calves when you can just do bench). What I wanted to do was beat the Tally from yesterday who had a shit savings account and sat on his hands like an idiot.
Part 3 - Goals Are Just Stepping Stones
With this new thinking I became way more motivated, instead of focusing on this fuzzy future goal the big victories became those steps right in front of me, I began the path towards my final form of Punjabi P Diddy (what every brown parent wants for their child). You see I grew up in a household where you opt for absolute perfection in your decision making and that meant thinking and researching and rethinking over and over for long drawn out periods of time till the very best possible solution was found. With 80/20 I stopped worrying about going for absolute perfection in my actions and instead opted for just action, whatever puts me a step ahead of old Tally makes me a winner and motivates me to progress to the next step right now. Afterwards I can go back and tweak what I do but the biggest benefit comes from that next step; this idea blew my mind.
I’m a lazy guy so I want to keep my money management simple and lightweight because it shouldn’t be a stress in my life and I’m not the smartest so it needs to be easy to understand. The philosophy I follow: managing your money should be a background thought, not front and centre in your mind causing you stress. You don’t have to give it that power and nor should you!
This is something that can also be applied to spending habits and investment goals. Don’t worry about having to figure out the best form of budgeting that saves every last penny to the point you hate it and can’t do it consistently. Just start with a random number you want to stick to and go from there, if you reach your goal keep increasing it each month till you get to a consistent and still enjoyable level. The goal with budgeting isn’t to have the best optimised system but rather put something aside consistently for your goals; that is the main aim. The goal of saving £100 a month is far more impactful than £120 when that extra 20 quid puts stress on you because you have to take it away from something else and you keep missing it.
Save that energy for actual fun stuff like chilling with friends or going down a YouTube hole at 1.00am watching a guy make a house with only his bare hands. I encourage you to take a step that makes you better today than the you from last week or last month - fuck being that person who didn’t know the best step so did nothing at all, I hated that version of myself and still fight it today! Chasing perfection in your budget or investment strategy is admirable and a great eventual goal but remember 80% of the success comes from that 20% you do so don’t sweat the small stuff when you are starting out. It takes many steps to reach any goal, you don’t need to be 100% prepared to take that first one; figure it out as you go because the hardest thing is to start.
If like me you get DONE by paralysis by analysis or trying to do the most from the beginning, slap yourself in the face and remember: go for great not perfection because the benefit you get moving from nothing to great is far more impactful and rewarding than great to perfection.
Stay safe and catch you on the next one,
Tally
