The Money Blueprint - How to Make Tons of Money - Part 1

We start with nothing in the bank account except a few fortunate ones who inherit assets.

We get schooled to get a job where we trade time for Money.

Time = Money

There is nothing wrong with trading time for Money. Most of us start to make Money by trading our time. But most of us get stuck there and continue to trade time in the same way, the same mental ability & capacity, for money for an indefinite time. That's what we usually refer to as staying within our comfort zone.

I saw an interesting chart some time ago but forgot the source of it. So I tried to come up with my version. While writing the blog, I stumbled on Naman Shrivastava's newsletter, which expressed a similar point as mine.

You Always Know How Much Money You Have.

But, You Will Never Know How Much Time You Have!

To be good at Money, it is not essential to save ruthlessly and cut on your pleasures, especially the $40 (HKD) Latte every morning. Instead, have you ever thought about breaking the glass ceiling of your income? But before we proceed, let's first understand TIME, MONEY & FIRE.

TIME is the most essential & precious resource, and that cannot be claimed back in whatsoever we do. Many people have a lot of dreams & aspirations buried deep inside them. The fear of financial insecurity is the number one reason why people let go of their aspirations or stop pursuing their passion.

To pursue a passion, one needs freedom, mainly financial freedom, followed by time freedom. No wonder there have been a lot of raving fans following people who achieved FIRE (those who achieved/are Financial Independence and Retired Early).

Retiring Early (RE - in FIRE) - Some misunderstand it as doing nothing, which is wrong. Retiring Early means stopping to work for Money and working on your passion or things you love, where money is the by-product. In my opinion,

Real & Deep work starts only when you work on things you love!

Let's examine usual work & life - a conventional way to continue trading time for Money.

The chart above (not to perfection) shows a typical working life where for the most part, time is traded for Money. That's a stereotype for most of us. Even many high-income earners continue with the same pattern of trading time for Money in the jobs or professions they dislike. The lucky few are those who get it straight, love their jobs, and don't mind trading time for more money for an indefinite time.

For those who aspire to achieve FIRE (or) Financial Independence, it is essential to become money-aware. See the below chart, which compares the difference between a traditional way to trade time for Money & a way to trade money for time. By exchanging Money for time, I mean freedom to do what you aspire to, what you dream of, without worrying about your finances. Money is a commodity used by the wealthy to buy other people's time (or) to get things done at speed (or) to scale things (or) to purchase the experiences. Money gives you many options and more freedom though that is not the only thing that dictates everything in life.

Those on the path or wish to achieve FIRE should be extremely clear on what they aspire to or dream of. See the shaded area in green, a tilt in time where more money is accumulated early in life with a conscious and dedicated effort. That's the difference between the traditional trading time for Money and vice-versa. The goal is to make as much money as possible by all ethical standards to become financially independent, pursue your passion or dreams or live on your terms. Again, a few lucky ones might claim there is no need to achieve FIRE as they might be on their dream job where passion and profession are entirely aligned.

Next, How to achieve the Green shaded area?

Meaning, how to make more Money?

Most people think stock trading or cryptos will get them tons of Money. While for a lucky few, it might be true. Here is the reality that no one speaks about, though everyone knows it.

For the majority, it is our JOB that will get us rich. Do not look any further; with a job, improve your skills to become the best in what you do.

As an example:

If you are in Consulting - Your focus should be on:

How to become the best in Consulting.

If you are in Sales - Your focus should be on:

How to become the best in Selling & assisting your customers.

If you are an entrepreneur - Your focus should be on:

What problems does the product solve (or) how will the service make people's life easy?

In a nutshell, the focus should be on becoming the best in whatever you do by acquiring more skills. With skills, put them to use and gain experience.

Don't stop there.

Turn the Experience into Expertise.

When you become an expert in any field, tons of Money will follow. Let's take an example of a doctor. Who gets paid the most?

A GP (General Physician) or a Surgeon?

Surgeons, because of being an expert and there are only limited surgeons compared to the number of GPs.

Let's dig a bit deeper - amongst all surgeons; a Neurosurgeon is the highest paid than a general surgeon.

Are you not convinced?

Let's take another example - A Captain of a ship.

A Bulker or Gas Carrier Captain - Who gets the highest pay?

Captian of a Gas Carrier. They are experts in handling gas cargo which is rare and niche compared to bulkers.

Let's put all these into a simple formula:

Thus, not any skill but rare and niche ones are the building block to making tons of Money. Another interesting point you may consider adding to the above equation is a particular skill's relevance. I learned the above equation from Vusi T in one of his videos.

One of my friends Sunil Guglani added an interesting point with an example. Here it goes:

Let's assume you picked a skill - Machine Learning or Deep Learning (let's not go into the nitty-gritty of it). It might be irrelevant if you picked up machine learning or deep learning far ahead, say, 20 years ago, mainly because we did not have computers and processors to handle such complex tasks. Today, it is more relevant than at any other time in history. Thus, when you pick up a skill, check its relevance with the existing or future trends.

The Nudge:

1. Focusing on Money is not a great idea.
2. Focus on skills and sharpen them.
3. Aim to be an expert in a rare or niche area.
4. Aim to be the best in what you do.
5. Money is a by-product of the skills you possess.

Remember - as Elon Musk rightly said:

You Are Paid in Direct Proportion to the Difficulty of the Problems you solve!

That ends part 1 of the series - 'The Money Blueprint.' I hope the first part was helpful, and do share your thoughts as comments.

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• Read Books - Philosophy & Spiritual (Not Religious)
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Disclaimer - The views expressed in this article are of the author and do not represent the firm's views.