Picking High Leverage Investments for Your Time and Money

by Scott - 7 Comments

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Dude…you spend $500 a quarter on getting your blood tested?

Yes, I do.

Some of my friends think this is cray.

cray

The truth is I’d happily spend double if that’s what it costed to be self-aware of my health.

One thing I’ve been thinking a lot about is my financial allocation of resources relative to time invested in certain activities.

I haven’t really heard anyone else think about spending like this, but to me this calculus makes sense.

There are certain things which we do everyday because we believe that the yield is worth the investment. Here are some examples:

  • Eating healthy for performance & longevity
  • Meditation for well-being
  • Exercise for performance & longevity
  • Working for financial resources

Now think about the time or resource investment in each of these as inputs:

1 – Eating healthy: (3 meals) $30-45 and probably 60 mins daily

2 – Meditation: 15-20 mins daily

3 – Exercise: 45-60 mins daily + gym membership

4 – Working: 8-12 hours daily…if you live in NYC ; )

Compounded over the course of a year that’s an insane amount of regular time & energy investment for the outcomes we think these activities will render.

So doesn’t it make sense to invest heavily in understanding whether you’re performing the input with the highest level of precision & effectiveness?

This is how you get maximum leverage on your limited resources.

inv2It’s interesting that people will spend $315 eating a week, but think it’s outrageous to spend a few hundred bucks a few times a year to understand whether that investment strategy is working for them at a scientific level.

Or that people will spend every day meditating for an entire year without really understanding whether their technique will yield the maximum levels of benefit (even though it’s not supposed to be about performance!).

What am I getting at here?

I think it’s a really valuable exercise to reflect on how much time you invest into all the different activities in your life and understand whether there is an opportunity to optimize these investments so that every day has a higher return on your time. If you’re not sure…then the answer is probably yes!

Here are things I’m thinking about investing into:

  • I’ve done a few meditation courses and programs, but given the fact I do it almost every day, I’m looking to find a teacher to spend at least a weekend working with.
  • Exercising greater prioritization in what I read and listen to – sometimes I don’t take enough time to really investigate what is the best use of content to intake vs. what is just convenient.
  • A dancing coach – I love dancing and actually think I’m pretty good at shaking the ol tail feather. I look at this skill as one that I already engage in quite a bit (prob at least 3x a month) and will continue to pervade the rest of my life at some of my most cherished occasions. I would love to be excellent.
  • A growth-marketing coach – Similar to dancing everything I’ve done here is self-taught through experimentation of growing this blog and other properties. I’d love to spend time with someone who is classically trained to accelerate my learning curve for growing Troops, the most customizable Salesforce Slack Integration suite.
  • A Cooking coach – I generally eat “paleo-ish” and generally stick to 3-4 go to meals I can do pretty well at this point. I’d love to spend a little bit of time taking it to the next level so that these meals and a few others were amazing and still aligned with my nutritional goals.

Below are examples of things I’ve invested into that mirror this “if you spend a ton of time doing it, you should probably invest in getting good at it” philosophy. So far, I’m really happy I did.

  • I do crossfit 5x a week so a few years ago I gotten my level one certification to become a trainer
  • I get my biomarkers tested once a quarter using insidetracker and then collaborate my diet and supplementation regimen based on what my bloodwork says.
  • I’ve invested a tonnnn in ways to optimize my sleep. After all, it’s 6-8 hours of everyday, not to mention the after effects. This includes everything from my Chili pad to regulate my body temperature, to regular ZMA supplementation, my jawbone for tracking, and black out shades.

The notion that financial investments should mirror time investments calibrated with how much you care about the outcome just makes good sense. Besides what’s a more valuable investment than yourself!

This is just one framework, but certainly there are plenty of other ways to think about where you should put your dinero.

One caveat is that these type of optimizations do sometimes require financial means. But like anything, there is a degradation of investment level and you can always trade something other than money if you’re really good at something. If you don’t have $ to invest in sharpening your spear, than let it serve as a carrot to motivate you create the means for this.

How do you think about investing your limited resources?

Also, know any growth marketing, dance, paleo cooking, or meditation coaches in NYC? Holla at your boy…

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7 comments, add to the conversation.

  1. Moe

    Hey Scott, I agree with you on everything you wrote about getting the most performance out of your body. I am looking for a growth coach as well to help me see where I can improve my process. If you find any good one, i would love a recommendation. Thanks

    Reply

  2. Dan Colleran

    Very thought provoking Scott. Makes me think of the Pareto Principle (80/20), taken a step further. What if we not only identified those 20% of actions driving 80% of the results, but then doubled down by becoming exceptional at those 20% skills? Would be an interesting exercise to identify those items in the key areas of our life, then take it a step further by enlisting in professional coaching in those key areas. As you stated, the results would be exponential. Great post.

    Reply

  3. Ben Ferguson

    Scott, it is very ironic that I came across your website and specifically this post. I have been thinking of a similar concept myself to get the most out of life in general. I think it starts with categorizing life in to topics such as finances, relationship with God, relationship with family, relationship with friends, personal health, mental health ext.. Once the categories are decided on then decide which matter the most to you which is for each individual to decide. Then create some kind of measuring or rating system of how you think you are performing in each category. I think most of us will find that the things we say we value are not always what we are spending the most time and/or money on. After this initial evaluation then we need to come up with a plan for how to improve categories that we think are lacking or a plan form improvement for each category in general. The key to this exercise would be to create the most of life and give your life the balance you want and desire. I think there is more that can come from this high-level concept and quantifying the quality of life can be a tricky and may not always be the best path. This post is as much for me to share my idea as to start putting the concept in writing .

    Reply

  4. Katrina

    Love this post Scott! I recently realized how important eating well is (thanks to a recent Europe trip) and have increased my grocery budget to allot for fresher, organic fruits and veggies instead of opting for the cheap stuff to save on price. BTW I do have a friend that’s a meditation/yoga expert in NYC if you’re still looking for help with that.

    Reply

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