Maybe that’s why she and ARK Innovations has been so bullish recently, buying loads of CoinBase shares (COIN) and Grayscale’s BTC (GBTC) close to $300M worth. She mentioned that they’re underpriced, so they locked in an amount for now
What does this mean for me?
Eh, it’s a “nice to know”, but nothing changes for now: I just keep
working at my main business and side hustles
spend time with people I like and care about
doing stuff I like and enjoy
I’ve shared this earlier, that
75% of my investments are “boring” dividend stocks and indices
and “only” 25% are in high-risk-high-return-potential growth stocks and crypto
I’m just waiting to hit my sell price
And I’ll take out more profits, leaving some more to run
My target? At least $500K per Bitcoin.
Once Bitcoin hits that figure, my low caps would also have a good run, and I can take out profits from those too, together with my paltry BTC lol.
Where would my crypto profits go?
Into the boring dividend stocks and index funds bruh, nothing sexy — same old same old, keep doing
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
In full disclosure, I speculate and own $tipsycoin, which is a blockchain NFT gaming project that started from my home base in Singapore. I’ve met the founder too, so it’s not a project whom I do not know the founder / team, that’d make the project a little closer to my heart.
Dont get me wrong, blockchain projects are still risky and speculative, so it may go belly up….BUT I’m holding onto my $tipsycoins and let it run to as high as possible.
This project is a low cap token project that I’m betting on.
The original project started using minecraft, but now they’re working on a larger world project, called Gates of Abyss, which is a location based RPG game. Kinda like pokemon and a couple of other games I had played before, and it’s both nice and interesting, because it’s geographical and communal.
Stake for $gin
If you have bought sufficient $tipsycoins, you can also stake them for $gin dollars, which is used in the Gates of Abyss games to buy equipment, upgrade stuff…and get this: you can use it to also cash out to real world dollars and trade them for cryptocurrency, which is nice to have.
Key for success
The key for them to work, revolves around one key point: stickiness, replayability and community; which in one word, is about having players come on board, stick around and play again and again. If they can do that, then the project would have higher chance of success.
Check their price here on coingecko. Their current price is $0.00004655, and even if they 500x, that’s “only” $0.023275 for one $tipsycoin. Quite modest to only need to aim for 2.3c for 500x.
Some nice tokenomics:
max supply of 100 billion $tipsycpons, and no more will ever be created
sell-only tax of 10%, of which 4% goes back to existing holders, 4% buyback for the tipsyvault and 2% to fund the project (ie free passive tokens for you whenever someone sells)
limited buy-sell transaction of max 500 million per transaction, to prevent whales from eating up all the supply
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
CoastFIRE and leanFIRE are very different in nature, and I’ll cover them separately, and then you decide which camp you fall under.
LeanFIRE
This financial independence retire early approach takes a “leaner” way of lifestyle to save enough money and retire as soon as possible. Mostly, you will choose to live very, very minimally and save/invest the rest, and your retirement will be more frugal overall. This gets you to retire earlier than most (late 20s or 30s) BUT you trade-off with a smaller investment portfolio due to less time involved.
LeanFIRE approach may mean that the passive income from your portfolio may not allow you lavish lifestyle (so no expensive cars / holidays / spendings) ie retire earlier frugal lifestyle.
The average number to calculate leanFIRE is to take your annual expenses and multiply that by 25.
So if your monthly spend is $3000, then annually you spend $3000 x 12 = $36,000. 25x of this will be $900,000. Assuming you
save and invest $1,000 a month into 6% returns per year stable assets
reinvest that 6% every year
You can reach your target $900,000 in 28.5 years.
This is a common strategy for people who are wired to retire earlier and/or have overall lower spending expenses than other households for example people who have no kids / single, senior citizens, living in tiny homes / vans etc.
LeanFIRE is generally about being willing to live simpler in retirement, and people who follow this approach usually try to live on less than $50,000 per year or lesser. They would be okay / willing to
move to a lower cost of living area
spend less on travel or experiences
cut back or simplify food and transport expenses
CoastFIRE
Financial independence, retiring early can be very tough for young people to save a large chunk of money upfront, especially when cost of living is higher now no matter where you go. LeanFIRE can take many, many years to achieve (even the example above is a good 28.5 years). CoastFIRE on the other hand, is another alternative.
The difference between coastFIRE and normal FIRE is that with normal, traditional fire, you have more than enough passive income from your passive income investments to cover your daily expenses. You’re “there”. CoastFIRE is more about the beginning or earlier journey of FIRE, and you focus on
Frontloading your coastFIRE number which will let you achieve FIRE in X years.
I gave an earlier coastFIRE example with Jake here.
The two top principles of coastFIRE are:
you will still need to work to cover the basic living expenses BUT
you no longer have to worry about saving money and investing for retirement
Because you frontload the coastFIRE investment amount as early as possible AND let compounded investment return work hard for you over a period of time (usually the time you choose to retire).
Example, say 25-year old Jane has saved $100,000 and wants to retire at 55. Assuming Jane doesn’t spend much, around $2,800 a month (total $33,600 per year) and Jane’s money grows at 6% per year, she will have $574,349.12 by 55. 6% of $574,349 is $34,460.94. Jane would have achieved her coastFIRE number at age 25.
If I’m 35 want coastFIRE and retire with $1 million at 65, and say I’ve $200,000 to invest. Assuming annual returns of 6%, with the 6% reinvested over 40 years, I would have achieved it
within 28 years, by then I’ll be 63 years old. 2 years early.
Thing about this coastFIRE approach is that I will still have to work to cover living expenses as my investment work its compounding over time, but I will be on point for retirement without needing to add any extra savings – this is what it means to
coast into retirement
Of course, knowing myself, I will want more buffer, so I will top up / add in additional monies over the years to grow the principle more, and this will lead to
shaving off the years to hit $1M but more importantly
I’d have a larger (and more defensive) amount above $1M for buffers
What I like about coastFIRE is that it takes a lot of mental stress away from the get-go, and I can choose to work simpler or less hours at my work, knowing and having confidence that I can retire at X amount and years which is working for me. This is the biggest benefit in my opinion. To add on to that, secondary benefits are less sacrifices upfront:
no longer have to be stressed by counting dollars for vacations or big spends or small spends
dont have to choosing higher yielding projects with a lot more stress or tolerate rubbish people at work
even if I lose my job, I can choose a simple low paying job to pay the daily expenses and I’ll “still be okay”
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
Someone asked in a group chat just the other day when I was sharing about passive income, retiring early and financial independence, and my immediate response in my head was: why not?
Why not have passive income? Why not be able to retire early?
I dont get tired of speaking about this at all, and I’ve been sharing and saying this for years now, since 2009. Passive income is still relevant today, perhaps even moreso than ever before.
Especially
during 2020 – 2022 during the COVID lockdowns and fears and lots of job losses and changes
2022’s Russian’s parasitic, invasive war of Ukraine
?future
Passive income isn’t complex. It’s a necessity of life.
With so many different case uses and benefits, because everyone’s preferences and needs are different right? Me, I will work less and spend more time with family and pursuing / doing projects that matter to me including more time in nigelchua.com and video making. Maybe hire personal trainers and nutritionists to improve my and family health.
For others it may be
retiring their partners or parents
spending time with sick or elderly parents
having (more) kids
being able to NOT put down their sick pets
travel the world
maybe move to another part of the world (vanlife, anyone?)
volunteer
finally have the mental bandwidth to meet people, date and maybe even marry
focus on your first love, be it acting, drawing, writing, baking – whatever
There’s so many more examples of what one can do with passive income and retiring earlier.
Surely there’s downsides to passive income?
Of course there’s some downsides, such as
maybe you’d start to have people sticking to you cos you have money (and they want money from you)
maybe you’d get bored
maybe…traveling and the beach was boring after all
Who knows? You then have the luxury of time to explore and find out what you dislike, what you like and want more of, which is still a net positive in my books.
And that what keeps me going and sharing this message again and again to those who will hear.
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
I stumbled upon Robert Kiyosaki’s Rich Dad Poor Dad book in my 2nd year of my occupational therapy diploma studies, when I was in Ratna’s place doing group work or some assignment. Somehow, I just saw it and it stood out to me. Without thinking, I immediately blurted out to her if I could borrow it from her, and she graciously said okay.
That was the beginning of a money change in my life.
You see, I grew up in a poor to middle class family, and I dont tire of telling this story. I have very loving parents and siblings, and we love each other. But I remember growing up seeing my parents fight over money, there was so much money stresses and strain. My dad would loan money to pay for stuff, but we manage by. There was not much money talks, so watching them was sort of front-row seats of my learning.
In school, I realized I too started borrowing money from my friends whenever the month-end was too far away, and that happened almost every month (thanks Pei Fen and Julia) for helping me all those years. I was embarrassed to have done that, but I realized it’s something
Monkey see monkey do
Rich dad’s #1 lesson that changed my life
It’s just “an” idea, that assets put money into my pocket or bank account. So, the natural conclusion is that I need more and more assets to put in more and more money into my pockets. The simplicity worked for my simple brain, especially when financial intelligence was a new concept to me.
Robert then expanded that point, on how he went into entrepreneurship because he’s not super smart to become a doctor (I could relate to that), and not talented enough to become a highly paid actor or entertainer (well…dang, me too). So it’s entrepreneurship for me too, which led me to start my entrepreneurship journey.
First, as a freelancer, then as an agency owner, then a clinic, then a clinic chain.
This allowed me to
Earn more
Earning more has always been helpful.
It’s a stark difference of earning $2000/month (and taking home $1700+) as opposed to my first month as freelancer where I took home $4800. I will NEVER forget that feeling of amazement, disbelief, and this sense of hope. I knew that if I could do it once, I can do it again and again.
Then I leveled up, instead of just earning $5K/month freelancing as a freelance therapist, what happened if we opened our own clinic? We didnt have the skills or knowhow, but we were willing to learn, and then we started earning $10-20K+/month, with a clinic. Then multiplied again when we had people joining us. Then multiplied again when we have 2, 3…and more clinics.
Investing
Robert was (still is) very big into
real estate
teaching and intellectual property books / boardgames
precious metals such as silver and gold
and more recently, cryptocurrency
He taught me broadly about the idea of investing, and after we started earning more, we started to look at what and how we can do more when it comes to investing and working our hard earned monies even harder. This is a skill that I’m improving and honing everyday, on top of running and growing my businesses.
I’ve since gone for other courses and books and courses, but I wont forget this very first book. I still pick it up once in a while, and it’s a great gift to give.
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
Over last week (week of 10th November 2022), there was a series of twitter spat between Binance’s founder CZ and FTX’s founder Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), and then there was a strong signal by CZ saying they’re gonna sell off all the FTT tokens they have to derisk. FTX offered to buy those tokens over-the-counter (OTC), but Binance declined.
Market panicked
The market panicked, and FTT holders rushed to sell their tokens. During this time, SBF tweeted that “a competitor trying to attack them, and that FTX and their assets are fine”…and a few days later, withdrawals halted and it spiraled into liquidation after a short 1-day of Binance doing due diligence to potentially buy them out, but when that failed, FTX applied for bankruptcy protection.
Truth to be told, I also almost bought into their tokens when it was around $30s-40s range, but somehow that didnt happen.
SBF was in Bahamas.
That event was intense, and caused the entire crypto market to have diarrhea, all was sea of red, because, I think, that FTX is the golden poster boy of crypto-financial institutions, with lots of investments from big boys such as Sequioa and Temasek even. For FTX to fall, it was a big thing, shocking.
But let’s not be naive.
FTX wrong moves
From what I read and understand, FTX did some less-than-optimal moves, such as
taking a loan on their FTT tokens (collateralizing tokens, risk of margin calls if token drop in price)
loaned FTX and company funds to Almeda to trade (risk of trading losses)
fractal practice: had 900M in assets but loans of more than $9B
It was a disaster waiting to happen, and boy, did that disaster sweep FTX and the crypto world. In just a series of days, FTX is bankrupt and undergoing liquidation, SBF tried to flee to Dubai but was apprehended, “hacks” of ftx website causing money to disappear, and sudden printing of more FTT tokens that was sent to centralized exchanges.
That was popcorn-level-fascinating but wrong on so many levels. So many people lost their hard earned money, savings and investments, but it’s not good at all.
Where is the accountability?
Where is the moral high ground?
Where and how can the people trust crypto more and more?
Where is good leadership?
It’s no wonder CDC’s CEO kept saying that this event has hurt the user’s confidence of crypto, and that everyone has to play a role to win that trust back. This isn’t right, and yes, I’m not naive – these kind of games happen all the time in corporate board rooms, and even I’ve seen a couple of such circus clowns with my own eyes.
The good thing from this?
Expose and removal of bad actors from the system. Call it a purge, but let those that should be purged out, be purged out, and decrease the contagion. There is so much potential in blockchain and crypto space.
Focus on important things such as building important and good useful products and projects that the marketplace and people want
Happened during a bear market, so there’s less damage potentially as compared to height and euphoria of bull market
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
you will need a very small token ETH for gas (the minting is otherwise free still)
Xen crypto which aims to empower individuals.
Some quick notes:
No pre-mint
No Admin Keys
Immutable Contract
No listings on CEXs (I think this doesnt apply anymore, as they’re listed on some centralized exchanges for secondary market)
Starts with zero supply 100%
Transparent and on chain
Jack Levin
Jack Levin (born in 1974, St. Petersburg, Russia) emigrated with his family to the United States in 1990, where he studied computer science at the University of Missouri. He played a key role in building an early Google infrastructure, and he’s known in the tech industry as a serial entrepreneur who built a series of startups and as an angel investor. He got interested in Bitcoin in 2010 and remains in the crypto space to this day. After a string of successes, he recently came up with something special that has the power to change the world. Levin is creating XEN, a global currency for the people.
Google #21 – Levin’s interest in technology started at the age of 16 when he got his first computer and learned by downloading and reading documents from Usenet groups. He became an expert-level Web 1.0 developer, server system architect, network designer, and Linux master and moved to Silicon Valley, where he was doing security for offices and early Internet on-ramp companies. After creating the first open source embedded computer running Linux with a firewall and a VPN, he met Google’s founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, in 1999, and he got a job as their 21st early employee.
Taken from: https://www.xencrypto.io/whos-jack-levin/, go to the link to read more about Jack. There’s a lot to read and unpack.
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
One very important concept I want to share with you today is that you can figure out your passive income and financial independence game, as well as achieve it. It takes patience and some thinking and planning, which will take at most 1-2 hours if done quickly.
Of course, if you’re doing it for the first time, it can be overwhelming because you may just not know when and where to start…but that’s what happens with all new projects isnt it?
Like if you decide to go on a holiday, you’ve gotta plan, research what to do, weather, and buy the tickets and accomodations and go.
Eat that elephant one bite a time
I like to use this example because personal finance, financial independence and passive income matters can seem so big and daunting, like an elephant. So take it bite-by-bite, aka one step a time.
First, how much do you need to retire? What are you spending money on? Is it $1000/month? $2000/month? Take a look at your last 3-6 months of expenses and calculate from there.
Is there anything you can cut out from your spending? Perhaps you’d been spending on stuff that you dont really care about? Cut out the largest 1-3 expenses that you dont care about. More or less? This is very dependent on where you live (cost of living place) and your spending habits.
Then average out your monthly expenses last 3-6 months. From here, you can extrapolate how much you’d need average on a year. Say you need around $2000/month, which is $24000/year.
Then, figure out how much you need invested to get $24000/year. Of course that’d mean you can get a simple $2000/month job too, but that’s active working.
If you want to retire, then like me, you will need to build or purchase assets that will pay you regularly, such as dividend stocks or rental properties or even online business. Choose ONE that works best for you. The easiest for me is dividend stocks. So assuming I need $2000/month to retire, that’d mean I’d need $24000/year to retire. Assuming I like dividend stocks and that my dividend stock portfolio pay me 5% per year in dividends, that’d mean I’d need $24000/5% = $480000 in dividend stocks that pays me 5% in dividends
Working on your passive income portfolio. Choose one that you’re comfortable with. Is it dividend stocks? Is it crypto? Is it financial instruments like insurance? Or rental properties? Whatever it is, choose just one to learn, practice and master.
Then I’ll have to figure out how am I to amass $480K? The most logical would then be to slowly work, save and invest as much as possible. If I can save $18K/year and I can reinvest every single dividend, that’d take me 17.5 years. If I throw in bonuses and side hustle to a total of say $30K/year, and reinvest every single dividend, it’d take me just slightly more than 12 years to achieve my $480K target.
I’d layer some buffer, just in case. To me, this can mean increasing my portfolio by at least 25-100++%, depending on how much risk tolerance I have or how bored I am
Rinse and repeat.
Then what?
I dont know bout you man, but there’s so much you can do or not do.
Maybe retire your spouse if you’re married.
Or travel.
Maybe move to another country.
Or do philantropy works and volunteer. Teach and mentor.
Maybe pursue something you’re interested in, be it obscure or “useless” skills or fun stuff.
Learn a different language, even cryptocurrency.
Start a new project.
Become a preacher to serve God’s calling in your life.
Do deep work that you care deeply about, be it changing the world or climate change etc.
Whatever.
What financial freedom is
Financial freedom is hard to understand by itself, because not many people think about it, much less take consistent action or had achieved financial freedom.
Let’s talk about what financial freedom is not – most people are actually in financial bondage or financially stuck. They HAVE to work to pay bills, or keep the hedonistic treadmill going. They have debts which are either not going away or keeps growing in size. They don’t have the freedom to stop work at all.
Conversely, financial freedom…is about having the option to choose to work or not. Pursue something interesting or not. Create or not. Sleep in or not.
The hard thing about financial freedom
There’s a few hard things about this concept of financial freedom, which is
It’s too far away. Many people take the “I’ll cross that bridge when I get there” because they can’t grasp the concept of “saving and investing for 10-20 years to retire by 40”. It’s hard to envision, so many people just work and keep money in the bank. They fear they save for 10 years and then they die so it’s all for nothing.
It’s scary. It can be hard when the price of dividend stocks go down during corrections and crashes (funny, I take it as good stuff on sale) so they prefer to avoid this pain of losing value though it’s short term. This point is linked to point #1, where people tend to be short term.
Not many people do it. So it makes it unusual, which makes it hard for people who prefer to follow the herd. This means that most people cant achieve financial freedom.
It’s not taught in schools or most families. That’s why most people are broke and struggling. People (are) try to be nice, but the world and market doesn’t work on that – there are very specific principles to become and grow richer, which is to accumulate more assets. In fact, people are taught to be poor eg concepts such as “living below your means”, “save”, “dont take risks” and the most common “the rich are wicked” causes many to have conflicted thoughts about money.
Honestly there’s a lot more of this which I will cover in another post, that’s all for today. Food for thought.
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
Silver lining of COVID-19 is that it shook everything and turned many things upside down.
I hate that people suffered health-wise, and many died due to this pandemic. There is nothing that can change this fact and pain.
On the small upside, this pandemic forced to change.
We had to stay home, stay safe, and not surprisingly, we had many downtimes.
It’s in the silence of the downtime that we can usually hear ourselves and our thoughts, and I think the common question is that “is this it?”
As in, is this the kind of life we want?
Comfortable, Peaceful Living?
I live in peaceful, safe and stable Singapore.
Women and children can walk outside at 3 AM in the morning and they’d be 99.9% safe.
I run a business called Phoenix Rehab, a physical therapy, hand therapy , TCM and massage business.
I sleep well at night (other than my newborn waking me up) – I’m alive.
I thought this was okay.
I thought it was okay to be living a quiet-ish life where I
mind my own business (and dont bother others)
have food and water
and enough, money’s okay (we’re doing not bad as physical therapists)
And that running my business would be enough.
But i’m starting to ask myself if i’m shortchanging myself.
As in, am I wasting my own time?
My abilities?
Am I settling?
In 2022, I’m 40 years old.
As I mentioned earlier, for a hand therapist with a physio wife, we did (and do) pretty okay with growing a business, selling our first business for 7-figures.
My wife then went on to start a business and I even got an 18 month sabbatical before I decided to help her out.
We’ve a wonderful team and business as well as 3 beautiful kids.
I’m grateful but also uncertain
Like there’s a nagging sensation or sense…
like a spider-sense eh
As I started off earlier, one of the key benefits of the pandemic is that it turned almost everything on its head. In 2020, Singapore goverment got most of us to stay home for a good 1-2ish months.
It was uncertain times, and many of my competitors and people were very vocal about how dissatisfied they were yada yada…but I felt at home because of my 18 months sabbatical, and I could be more with my kids and wife.
I like(d) it.
The downtime gave me a reminder and question if the life we’ve been living is the one we want to keep doing.
Hey it’s not just me, it’s many.
Like many others, I too question.
It seems that it’s a movement where people are taking action en masse, see some examples:
We’re talking millions of people quitting jobs as they pivot.
No longer willing to settle, or maybe they’re just tired of lockdowns.
Then again, there are many bullshit jobs out there –
bullshit jobs are jobs you dont care for that you do to pay the bills…the kind of jobs where you dread Mondays and look forward for end of day on Fridays.
Bullshit jobs…have bad negative effects.
The highest problem is that they make you sad. They make people sad…but ironically, many people will do their level best to NOT lose their bullshit jobs.
Why?
Cos it pays the bills, and it’s pretty easy to “coast”. It’s easier in big companies where there are many layers of people that support other layers of people and more.
Ew, typing that was painful reminder as to why I stay an entrepreneur, cos I’ve met many bullshit individuals in corporates and even competitors.
If you love your job, you’re the top 15% lucky ones.
According to Gallup’s State of The Workplace Report, 85% of Americans are extremely disengaged at work and 81% are actively looking for new jobs.
85% and in my book, that’s majority of people have bullshit jobs they dislike or gasp, hate.
And that’s where the pandemic are shaking things up.
People are quitting bullshit jobs to find one that either
makes more money for them
provides more flexibility
more meaningful
There are more taking up entrepreneurship too:
A whopping 5.4 million new businesses registered in 2021!
Bloody good if you ask me – it’s easier and easier in the history of mankind to launch your own business and make money on your own terms. It takes lots of passion, gusto, and work.
Problem: It’s easy to hide.
I see this everywhere I go.
In fact, I’ve also faced individuals and corporations who daringly do blatantly wrong things…because they likely wont get caught. These guys and gals? Fuck them, I dont care.
But those I care about, the everyday people, who reach out and tell me that they feel stuck.
I reach back and tell them that they usually know it in their sense and intuition.
And then they write back that they’re scared (behind multiple layers of fears and what-ifs).
I empathize.
I’ve been there, and in some levels, I am still there.
I’ve been stuck many times.
Sometimes it takes months for me to overcome, sometimes its longer for it to “click” or for me to just give it a go.
Let me tell you something about intuition – your intuition is one of the most powerful sensors and inner compasses that you can have. The more I use it and hone it and trust it, the better and better it becomes.
…and the more it works for me.
Recently my intuition has been saying that I’ve been playing and thinking too small.
That I’ve been playing it “safe”.
I’m paying attention and putting my senses to writing, on paper.
One thing I realize is that my intuition is pretty spot on, and the more I resist it, the worse I usually get.
Upset I mean.
No, upset is not the word.
It’s really like tingling spider-senses which gets stronger and stronger, and eventually I cannot ignore it.
And when I do it, it’s like
Why did I take so long to do that?
Usually it leads to growth
Why I ignore these “spider-sense tingling” is because there is change and effort…which means it can lead to
failure
confrontations
changes
growth
insight
I like growing and learning – this is so “sexy” on paper.
Just that real learning and growth sometimes the process is painful and annoying, ugh.
I look back at my 20 year old self and my Lord, I wouldn’t recognize him.
And neither would he recognize me – I was a sucky, lumpy idiot back then.
Less of an idiot today, and I’ve grown so much too.
It’s easy to settle…but it’s costly
Coasting and settling is easy…but it’s very very costly.
Not in terms of just money (which we can count easily), but moreso in terms of opportunity cost.
No one lies in their death bed asking themselves:
I wished I earn $2M more, ah I could die better now.
Of course not.
On our deathbeds, I imagine we regret all the opportunities we do not take.
AKA settling.
We settle cos we’re scared.
We settle when we dont know what else to do.
We settle when it’s just easier to stay status quo or do nothing as compared to thinking hard and doing and failing again and again to figure out and course correct what we actually want to do.
When you’re doing well, everyone will tell you to keep doing what you’re doing.
You see, capitalism runs on that – doing X gets Y, and if we want more Y, do more X. Model that, and do it again and again. Squeeze processes and things and stuff and sometimes people.
Rinse and repeat.
Knowing yourself is the beginning.
I know I dont need $1B.
Heck, I dont even aim for $100M.
I dont even want to run a big company, or take a company public, or become a celebrity or politician.
All I want is…to be free, healthy and happy.
And that remains the same.
Alright back to my intuition: I’m starting to sense that I am on the cusp of something.
That I cannot play small or safe any more.
Like I need to go deeper, double or triple down.
Stop wasting time.
Make a bigger impact as I live and leave the world.
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
I tell this to my family, friends and even employees/contractors all the time: keep your day job BUT start a side hustle during your free time.
Your day job is to put a roof over your head, food and drinks on the table and some savings.
Your side hustle?
It will change your financial future and will likely be your biggest early retirement accelerator, waaaaay more than ability to save and be frugal.
Not to mean that ability to save and spend wisely isn’t good, it’s a good start but if you truly want to retire early and be financially independent, then you need to consider starting a side hustle.
Entrepreneurship may sound overwhelming, but to me there’s nothing more exciting than a person who wants to take care of their own financial future, pursue their passions and dreams and start their own business.
There are so many what-ifs around entrepreneurhship that makes business overwhelming, which stops so many would-be entrepreneurs from starting – and that’s why I recommend keeping your day job, your full time job, and dip your toes in the water with a side hustle.
The Long Term Problem Of Inflation and Time
Inflation is eating away the value of our money, and though banks are saying that the national inflation is low, say 2-ish percent…but the real inflation is when you go out to the marketplace and buy stuff for yourself.
United States February 2022 states that the inflation rates are 7.5%, highest since 1982. In Singapore, the petrol prices just went up 3-4x in a span of weeks in March 2022.
And we hadnt even touched on passive investment income and time.
Worse is “stagflation” where cost of living goes up, but wages dont catch up with the increase in costs.
So What Can You Do?
If you want to get out of the rat race, the very rat race that takes up most of your days and energy, then you need to change the way you think about making money in the first place.
After all, that is what that separates entrepreneurs from employees.
Employees tend to associate active work = income, which isn’t wrong. It’s called active income, and the only issue with this is that it’s finite and linked to your time.
Work equals income, no work equals no income.
As an entrepreneur, I dissociate time from earning, and instead, I build systems where I can help both clients and employees / contractors (or technology), whilst making a profit in between. This allows me to scale my business and profits beyond my two hands and my personal energy.
I made the decision a long time ago to not get too upset about how unfair or rigged the system is, and instead, to learn, to adapt and use the very same system to my advantage without hurting anyone.
Side Hustle Ideas
If you’re not sure about what side businesses to start, and this is especially if your true calling isn’t clear, then you can consider being a
Consultant — Being a consultant is suitable for people who love the work they do but not the company. So instead of reinventing the wheel, you take your expertise, experience and skills you already process into part time consulting gigs. I do this with my main physical therapy business. Companies are eager to work with you because you have hands on experience and you may like it cos it’s a low cost start up…maybe all you need is to turn up or work from home with a laptop.
Sales Agent — There are some agency work such as being selling properties (realtor), insurance, watches and cars. There are many other stuff that one can sell, these four examples are pretty common. property or realty agents, or insurance agents and the like, where you can sell other people’s products and get a commission, some are big ticket some are recurring commissions.
Multi-level marketing / Network Marketing — I dont recommend this to start off, but they do provide great sales training…BUT you must do your research. The products must be solid and have strong track record (be careful, many pyramid schemes out there) and commit to growing your business, your business will grow.
Turn your interests and hobbies into cash — There are interests that are monetizable, such as photography, woodworking, heck even knitting! You can build a business in your own community and start off by helping neighbours and people you know. Over time, effort, you will get more word-of-mouth referrals…getting paid to do shit you like. An extension of this is to start an online business sharing tips and information about stuff you care about, from knitting to teaching dog tricks to teaching babies to poop in toilet bowls. Learn how you can build an online business here (affiliate link and free to create account)
Sharing economy — Such as AirBNB (room/home-sharing); Grab/Uber/Lyft for to deliver passengers or food and even parcels.
What You Can Do With The Side Hustle Profits
As you earn more and more in your side hustle, you can consider investing a portion of profits into
dividend paying stocks or rental properties
hiring more employees / contractors to scale your business
creating products to sell and service your clients
quit your job, retire or work part time if you so desire
take more holidays
be more generous with your loved ones and friends
and more
All in all, the most important thing about starting a side hustle…is to give yourself more life and financial options and opportunities in life, that you otherwise wont have if you’re stuck.
I’m the founder and writer here at NigelChua.com; as well as serial entrepreneur, therapy business entrepreneur, digital entrepreneur, investor and also happy husband, father and Christian.
Started and sold off a business for 7-figures; built another 7-figure one and growing it further, plus building/investing into other businesses and investments as well as advisory works.
Nowadays I share and teach entrepreneurship, financial independence, retiring early as well as building and living a life you love.
Thank you so much for your time and I hope it’s helpful for you.
