tag:world.hey.com,2005:/bensinclair/feedBen Sinclair2024-02-29T03:35:05Ztag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/355432024-02-29T03:35:05Z2024-02-29T03:35:05ZHealth is wealth<div class="trix-content">
<div>I feel like this is said in a lot of places but as I get older and start to gain weight this starts to resonate with me.<br><br>What’s the point on having everything in the world if you’re stuck on a bed or worse, dead from dying early. <br><br>It’s worth the pain to be healthy.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/340722024-01-04T21:42:58Z2024-01-04T21:42:58ZNewbie investors can be extremely fickle and emotional<div class="trix-content">
<div>I recently joined an investment group and they have a forum for their members.<br><br>Being apart of the community has really opened my eyes to how markets work. People are so fickle and act on emotions, sometimes based on someone’s opinion rather than on a plan or data. <br><br>We are emotional beings so it makes sense that we act this way. However, when playing with money, ideally people need to invest it, not gamble it.<br><br>It’s been amazing how many people in the community want to “sell the news” or giving up on disruptive stocks because the price has been down for a bit or trying to double their money in 3 months. Crazy.<br><br>I’m challenged to be level headed in my investments and not allow someone’s opinions or my emotions get in the way of my plan and data.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/304242023-07-26T00:25:29Z2023-07-26T00:26:16ZParenthood<div class="trix-content">
<div>I want my own space.<br><br>I want to spend time with them.<br><br>I love them.<br><br>I dislike them.<br><br>They’re growing up so fast.<br><br>I’m so impatient.<br><br>I’m so tired.<br><br>Time is flying by.<br><br>I don’t want to miss the moments.<br><br>Am I good enough?<br><br>Am I present?<br><br>Am I showing love?<br><br>What does it mean to be a good parent?<br><br>Will they like me when they’re older?<br><br>Will they want to spend time with me anymore?<br><br>Am I training them up in God’s ways?<br><br>God, please help me be the parent you’ve called me to be. Give me peace so I can focus on now and not worry about the future.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/304132023-07-25T03:41:33Z2023-07-25T03:41:33ZWaiting on God<div class="trix-content">
<div>I am the type of person that needs to be stimulated. I need to be listening or watching or reading something. Doing nothing bores me. It is a sad truth for a lot of society in 2023.<br><br>I was asking my pastor today how I can do life in God’s strength and no my own. This is something I’ve battled with my whole life.<br><br>He challenged to stop and wait on God more. Starting with 2 minutes and working my way to 10 minutes in time. No distractions. All thoughts captured and removed. Totally still.<br><br>I want to grow in my relationship with God deeper and excited to prioritise waiting on him.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/299752023-06-29T23:09:39Z2023-06-29T23:09:39ZClear communication: the anxiety killer<div class="trix-content">
<div><em>I wrote this article for the Tithely Engineering blog back in 2021.<br><br></em>When an individual or team of engineers have clear instructions and a laser focus on the project at hand, they can move swiftly and efficiently.<br><br></div><div>In contrast, when there is a lack of clarity, especially in a remote working environment, anxiety creeps in. We find ourselves having to dig in to find answers, work out who the right person is to talk to, we waste time, and generally go over the deadline we set.<br><br></div><div>As leaders and individuals, we need to create easy pathways for clear communication to flow.<br><br></div><div>At Tithe.ly, we have an engineering team of close to 60 people working on multiple products. Communication has had to evolve and scale. I wanted to share what I have found has worked for us thus far (and we’ve still got a long way to go).<br><br></div><div><strong>Why I don’t like meetings<br></strong><br></div><div>It’s easy to think a meeting solves everything.<br><br></div><div><em>“Let’s get everyone together on a video call and flesh this out”</em> they exclaim!<br><br></div><div>I think there is a place for meetings but there are a lot of situations (most) where they are hopelessly useless in my opinion; especially in the engineering space that generally has tough problems to tackle.<br><br></div><div>A situation I’ve seen time and time again is where you are on a video call with 3, 4, 5, maybe 10 engineers trying to talk through a problem and come up with a solution. 10 engineers on a 1-hour meeting is not a 1-hour meeting. It’s a 10-hour meeting. And this is how those meetings generally play out…<br><br></div><div>One or two people talk too much. Another says the same thing over and over. The deep thinkers do just that and don’t say anything. The call goes off-topic multiple times and everyone walks away with little more insight on what to do to move forward. I find it hard to remember coming out of one of those meetings feeling like it was fruitful.<br><br></div><div>Add very different timezones in the mix, actually having a meeting where everyone can attend in the first place adds to the frustration.<br><br></div><div>Not all is lost with these meetings. I have seen a strong facilitator with a physical or virtual whiteboard to take notes on and keep everyone focused help greatly in these situations. But this is not the norm or a skill I see used by many. And it still doesn’t necessarily squeeze the best value out of the deeper thinkers who might need to go away and think through an answer or solution.<br><br></div><div><strong>Why I feel written form is a better starting point for communication<br></strong><br></div><div>I’m a big fan of writing up whatever it is that needs to be discussed.<br><br></div><div>Those deep thinkers I spoke about earlier, they do really well in this space. Trying to come up with a good answer on the spot on a video call is hard. Having the time to think through what it is they are wanting to communicate and then writing it up is a helpful way to not only communicate better but to think through what they’re trying to get across concisely.<br><br></div><div>For this form of communication to work well, be ok waiting for an answer. Don’t put yourself in a place where you need the answer right away. Think far enough ahead where asynchronous communication is the norm. It’ll pay dividends long term.</div><div><strong><br>Don’t just write words, think about how those words read<br></strong><br></div><div>The biggest mistake people do when writing things up is to not think about the end reader. If you create a wall of text, people are going to skim read or even just ignore it. The value is lost quickly and it gets added to the “too hard” basket.<br><br></div><div>Formatting your written text in a way that is conducive to people reading and understanding what you have to say is almost as important as what you write.<br><br></div><div>Here’s an example of a very detailed piece that was made easier to read with certain formatting:<br><br></div><div> <figure class="attachment attachment--preview attachment--lightboxable attachment--png">
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</figure><br><br></div><div>Use headings to break up the post and allow for easy high-level understanding. Use paragraphs to split out thoughts. Use smaller headings to break up big chunks of content. Use screenshots to help those who are more visual.<br><br></div><div>Write it up and then read through it once or twice. Put on the hat of someone reading what you’ve communicated and make tweaks so it’s easy to follow. Expect a better response from your readers.<br><br></div><div><strong>When I do like meetings<br></strong><br></div><div>A meeting to clarify points discussed in a written piece is a great next step. These meetings are generally way more fruitful due to thoughts being more aligned in the written form.<br><br></div><div>Be sure to update the original written message with any decisions/clarity that came from the meeting.<br><br></div><div>And not all meetings are bad. There are plenty of other meetings I love and think are valuable! 1-to-1 meetings between engineers building relationships, maybe a bit of pair programming. Stand-up meetings are a great way to keep in sync and jump on items quickly. Social gatherings where maybe you play a game or gather with people who are reading the same book as you.<br><br></div><div>It’s always good from time to time to reflect on the meetings you have and as yourself “is this meeting valuable?”</div><div><strong><br>How we write things up at Tithe.ly<br></strong><br></div><div>We use <a href="https://basecamp.com/">Basecamp</a>.<br><br></div><ul><li>We break departments, teams, and products into their own team or project.</li><li>We make use of the Message Board to discuss topics.</li><li>Docs & Files is used to categorize <a href="https://basecamp.com/shapeup/1.5-chapter-06">Pitches</a> that we write.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>There are other great tools out there so Basecamp is not the only answer. It’s simple in many ways but is just enough to keep the communications flowing nicely.<br><br></div><div>Don’t use a chat tool like Slack as it’s not built for this long-form type of communication. Besides, it is more distracting than a colleague sitting next to you asking for help every 10 minutes.</div><div><strong><br>In conclusion<br></strong><br></div><div>Clear communication is something you need to be intentional about. It’s something you might even need to fight for. It doesn’t just happen unless an individual or a group of people stand up and create a pathway.<br><br></div><div>What can you do to get better at communicating in your position as well as help your team or department?</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/290652023-05-19T02:59:09Z2023-05-19T02:59:09ZYou should write letters to your sponsor child<div class="trix-content">
<div>My wife and I sponsor 3 children through <a href="https://www.compassion.com.au">Compassion</a>. It's a joy to give and help our communities around the world. <br><br>I've been writing letters to them ever since I took on their sponsorship. It's been difficult because how they write back feels like they haven't read my letters or acknowledged any questions I asked them. Granted, they were quite young when I first sponsored them, and there is a cultural and language barrier. It's probably far more challenging for them to respond than if it were in person. <br><br>Even with this feeling, I've persisted all these years.<br><br>One of our sponsor children, a beautiful little 12-year-old girl in Indonesia called Shena made all the letters I've ever written worth it today. For the first time, she was engaging. I was truly blessed to read her latest message, thank me for the photo, and ask about my son. <br><br> <figure class="attachment attachment--preview attachment--lightboxable attachment--png">
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</figure><br>It's worth taking that 5 minutes every month or two to write a letter, send photos and ask questions. I encourage anyone sponsoring a child to keep it up (or start if you don't write)!<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/290392023-05-18T00:52:26Z2023-05-18T00:52:26ZThe 37signals cloud exit<div class="trix-content">
<div>It's been fun hearing <a href="http://world.hey.com/dhh">DHH</a> from 37signals talk about their cloud exit. In summary, they are moving from AWS back to their own data center and hardware. I think it's a cool idea, and love that they are willing to give it a shot.<br> <br>It's interesting, though, for them to go back like this, as most tech companies, I'm sure, moved to platforms like AWS for a reason. I know we did.<br><br>What is everyone else missing that DHH sees? Is the cost saving to run your own hardware really worth it? Do they lose the redundancy that is offered by cloud providers? What are the risks, pros, and cons of each option?<br><br>The thought of the company I work for making this sort of move sounds like a big backward step. We just don't have the capital, expertise, team, or even the desire to make this type of move. <br><br>We had a bad situation last year where we hosted one of our applications on bare metal servers. The company we hosted with had been sold, and they were "getting rid of" customers on their legacy hardware. Moving off of their platform was an absolute nightmare due to various limitations on their end, and we experienced significant downtime. It was a pretty crappy week, to say the least. Now I'll admit we didn't own and manage the hardware like 37signals is planning to do, but it leaves a bad taste in your mouth.<br><br>I will say that the technology to manage servers, containers, and so on has come a long way in the last decade, so I can imagine deploying your own hardware is easier than it used to be. But still, it opens up a big area within a business to be focused on.<br><br> Cheers to 37signals and their gutsy move! I hope it goes well for them :)<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/290182023-05-17T00:00:00Z2023-05-17T00:13:08ZCommunication challenges in a remote workplace<div class="trix-content">
<div>I've been working remotely for almost 5 years now, and it has been fascinating learning how to be an effective communicator remotely and fostering good communication between colleagues.<br><br>Great leaders can create an environment of efficient communication in a remote workplace. Whether you're the CEO, a manager, or a team lead, you have the power to help your peers and those below you be great communicators by setting the example and putting the right tools at their disposal.<br><br>At the end of the day, you can only control what you can, which means you will be dealing with different types of individuals you have no control over and who might be best communicated in different ways. No matter how good of a communicator you think you are, your communication can go nowhere if you aren't aware of how to communicate with an individual effectively.<br><br>How much your communication matters to the person you communicate with can also significantly affect the outcome. Sometimes, other people simply don't have the headspace for whatever it is you're communicating, especially if you communicate in a way that doesn’t suit them.<br><br>Below are different types of individuals I've encountered in my remote workplace communication journey. Remember that sometimes you communicate with more than one type at a time, so every communication needs a quick strategy check before sending anything.</div><div><br><strong>The "I've got this" individual<br><br></strong>These are the individuals that, no matter how you communicate to them, will take the time to understand, ask the right questions and put the request on whatever to-do list they have. You can trust that they will get it done. <br><br>In this sort of situation, although you trust them and know they can consume what you have to say, don't push your luck by poorly communicating to this group (or any for that matter) and making it hard for them to digest. <strong><br><br>The "I'm too busy" individual<br></strong><br>I saw an example of someone communicating in an "I've got this" way to this type of individual. They shared a 5-page document and a 15-minute video, asking for feedback. I know the "I'm too busy" individual well and they will either never reply, or it will be added to a to-do list and end up being pushed back for a long time.<br><br>In these sorts of situations, this is what I'd recommended:<br><br></div><ul><li>Condense what you're trying to communicate and create a much shorter video. Sometimes you need to record it twice.</li><li>Put a bullet point list of TL;DR (too long, didn't read) points that someone can quickly skim through without watching the video or reading the document.</li></ul><div><strong><br>The "I can only handle one thing at a time" individual</strong><br><br>An excellent example of this is sending chat messages to an individual in Slack. Maybe you'll ask them 3 separate questions at different times during your workday. When they eventually do respond to you, they only see the 3rd message and miss the first two. <br><br>In these situations, if I write a second message, I'll instead edit the first message and ask my questions in bullet points. That way, it's less likely they'll miss anything.<strong><br><br>The "I can only have this type of discussion in person" individual<br><br></strong>Discussions in person can be a great way to discuss especially complex issues. But they can take a lot of time, and scheduling can be difficult if their calendar is busy. At the end of the day, sometimes you have to book that meeting to get the communication through.<br><br><strong>Other tips for communication<br></strong><br></div><ul><li>If you are writing your communication:<ul><li>Re-read what you've written a few times, simplify what you're trying to say, and remove excess words and sentences.</li><li>Use bullet points when possible if you are trying to outline multiple things.</li><li>Install an app such as <a href="https://www.grammarly.com">Grammarly</a> to help fix spelling and grammar. Paid versions also help you simplify what you're trying to say.</li></ul></li><li>If you are recording audio/video:<ul><li>Try to condense what you're trying to say to keep the message as quick as possible. I aim for no more than 5 minutes.</li><li>Share visuals on your video if you're talking through something that could be aided in this way.</li><li>Bullet point the TL;DR (too long, didn't read) list with the video if you're concerned they won't watch it.</li></ul></li><li>If you are on a video call:<ul><li>Share a visual agenda at the start of the video call.</li><li>Share visuals if it helps.</li><li>Follow up the video call with the action points or decisions made in the call.</li></ul></li><li>If you've picked up a way an individual likes to communicate with you, communicating with them in a reciprocal way can prove helpful.</li><li>Try communicating differently to individuals until you find one that works.</li><li>Consider what really matters to the individual. There may be a bunch of detail you do not need to include.</li></ul><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/289832023-05-16T02:43:18Z2023-05-16T02:47:43ZHandling an overwhelming amount of tasks<div class="trix-content">
<div>Handling an overwhelming amount of tasks, especially those that are long-running, is a skill that needs to be learned and often only requires a small amount of structure and process to manage.<br><br>I've experienced frustration working with colleagues who simply do not have the structure and process in place to handle the pace of tasks in relation to their role. When you ask them a question or require their headspace on something important, they either say they will look into it (and never do) or simply don't reply. This results in follow-ups, missed deadlines and frustration.<br><br>My goal for this post is to outline some practical strategies that have helped me manage overwhelming amounts of tasks while still keeping track of the high-priority items, being communicative with stakeholders, and switching off when I finish work for the day. I'll give some examples in tools I use but please know these concepts can be translated into other similar tools. <br><br><strong>Preface</strong><br><br>Currently, at my company, we use the following tools to communicate:<br><br></div><ul><li><a href="https://slack.com/">Slack</a> (chat)</li><li><a href="https://zoom.us">Zoom</a> (video)</li><li><a href="https://workspace.google.com/">Google</a> (email)</li><li><a href="https://basecamp.com/">Basecamp</a> (projects)</li></ul><div><br>Tasks come from all of the above sources. People send me a message on Slack, or an email or mention something on a Zoom call. All of these sources of communication need to be fed into my structure and process of handling tasks to be able to keep on top of it.</div><div><br><strong>My structure<br><br></strong>For the last few months, I've switched to a <a href="https://www.atlassian.com/agile/kanban">kanban-style</a> task list instead of a top-to-bottom list, which helps me keep track of the status of the items I'm working on. I have a 'To do' column, one for 'In progress,' and a third for 'Done.' <br><br>I have this setup in a personal project inside of Basecamp. Here's an example. Basecamp can add an 'On hold' section in each column which I've found helpful.<br> <br> <figure class="attachment attachment--preview attachment--lightboxable attachment--png">
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</figure><strong><br><br></strong>I'm constantly reviewing my task list many times a day. It helps me focus on what's important and stops me from forgetting to do something.<br><br>If my task list gets super long, I might decide at the start of the day on the top 4-6 things I need to tackle that day.<br><br> <strong>My process</strong><br><br>As tasks are communicated through various channels, I throw them in the 'To do' column whenever I cannot deal with them immediately. <br><br>I'll add a high-level title for the task, and within the description, I'll add context, links to Slack or email conversations, and whatever I'd need to be able to pick up the task. <br><br>Once a task is added, I can forget about it and pick it up again when ready without much effort.<br><br><strong>Big projects<br><br></strong>Sometimes I have to do something far more than just a simple task. Maybe there's an extensive list of things to do, maybe it'll be a long-running project, or even have other people involved.<br><br>This is when I go to the next level and create a project around a task in Basecamp. Here I can use different tools to communicate with those involved, store documents, link to 3rd party apps, and create an extensive to-do list. I can then link to this project from my task to easily access it.<br><br>Here is a project that involved several people over multiple months that I was managing. I know everything I need around this project will be within this Basecamp project.<br><br> <figure class="attachment attachment--preview attachment--lightboxable attachment--png">
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</figure><strong><br><br>Being ok stopping and starting<br><br></strong>When I started working at the web design firm my dad and I started, I struggled to switch contexts. In my mind, I had to finish one project before I moved to the other. Rather than multiple projects moving forward, it was one at a time. This was not sustainable, and I soon had to learn to be ok stopping one project and moving to another.<br><br>Having my to-do list allows me to write a note about where I'm at with the task. That way, when I revisit a project at another time, I know exactly where I was up to.<strong><br><br>Switching off for the day<br><br></strong>The final thought is around switching off. By having a task list and recording notes on the progress, you can far more easily turn off the part of your brain trying to remember what you're working on and what needs to be done. Next time you log in, you can catch up easily.<strong><br></strong><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/283232023-04-21T05:04:42Z2023-04-21T05:10:20ZAI won't replace your job, people who use it will<div class="trix-content">
<div>I was playing with ChatGPT last night, and it was incredible what I could ask it to do, specifically around writing code. <br><br>I asked it to write code in a certain way, and it did. I then asked it to change certain aspects of the code, and it did that also.<br><br>The experience was literally like me writing to an engineer and asking them to build some code and then tweak it. But instead of taking a human an hour, AI did it all in 3 minutes.<br><br>Now the code was by no means perfect, and it wasn't a simple copy and paste into some existing application, and away you go. However, it made me think about how humans will use the power of AI in the future. Remember, this level of AI is brand new. Imagine it in 5 or 10 years from now?<br><br>While I was giggling away at how awesome AI was at writing code, my wife, who is currently designing a house, was making some changes to a building design within a program called ArchiCad. I imagined rather than her shifting a wall by 20mm to the left, she could ask AI to do it for her. Rather than it taking her a couple of minutes, it would be done in a split second. <br><br>This is the future. <br><br>AI creates a world where everyday humans can go from being an employee to a manager. They "manage" AI to perform the work. It doesn't sound so crazy of an idea anymore.<br><br>This isn't a time to be fearful of being made redundant by AI. Instead, embrace AI and understand how it can make you a more efficient human in whatever you do in life. <br><br>The world changed forever when Search Engines came into existence giving us all the information at our fingertips. AI takes that a step further by using that information to create.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/281432023-04-14T00:18:28Z2023-04-14T00:18:28ZWhy you shouldn't invest in what your friends are investing in<div class="trix-content">
<div>Cryptocurrency. People either love it or hate it. They either understand it or remain ignorant. I'm a <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/bitcoin-and-the-bear-market-ee309156">big</a> <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/lessons-from-my-first-cryptocurrency-bull-market-ac82f399">fan</a> but have invested time in understanding it. Similarly, there is a tonne of publicly traded companies that make big promises of high growth and big gains for investors.<br><br>Although all so alluring, there is a good reason to totally boycott these.<br><br>I was talking to someone this week who, after reading a solid book on finance, had become painfully aware that their ignorance around money and investing was a choice. They'd had an "Aha!" moment. They felt that they had no excuse for not knowing more about finance, and for most of their life up until now, they'd been in a position of ignorance, social conditioning (doing what everyone else does), and investing in high-risk non-income assets. They felt like their investing decisions, in this case, cryptocurrency, had been more akin to gambling, although they wouldn’t say they were a gambler. They were hoping to hit the jackpot but hadn't. They realized they need to change their strategy to reach their financial goals.<br><br>I have another friend who started investing in certain publicly traded companies because their peers were doing it. Keep in mind these peers had money to throw around. My friend went from a very risk-averse individual to the total opposite. They bought, let emotions kick in, and sold out of fear and greed. I haven't checked in with how it all went, but I'm certain in the current market, they lost money. They fell into the same trap as the first example above.<br><br>All too often, inexperienced individuals jump on whatever their friends or the internet claim to be hot right now. Most of the time, the ship has already sailed on the gains if there were any. This is simply gambling. <br><br>Both stories are your typical individual nowadays. If this is you, don't dwell on the past, but look to what you can change in the future. Many of these individuals need to have the same "Aha!" moment as my first friend did. Most individuals want to set themselves up financially to retire comfortably yet most have no idea how to get there and rely on hope rather than wisdom. <br><br>We are all very unlikely to reach our financial goals if we throw money at investments a friend or someone on the internet recommends. There are methods out there to reach our financial goals in slower, less risky, and in proven ways, so I encourage you to research, read and listen.<br><br>One day you may have excess cash and throwing some money at a high-risk investment that your friend is pumping is fine. It won't interrupt your plan to retire or throw your financial stability under the bus. This has been my approach to both cryptocurrency and stocks that friends rave about. Sometimes I dabble and throw a little money at things to see what happens knowing full well it could go to zero.<br><br>My advice is to come up with a financial dream, then a goal and plan to reach it, and invest time in your knowledge and understanding of managing finances.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/281322023-04-13T11:07:53Z2023-04-13T11:07:54ZLessons from my first cryptocurrency bull market<div class="trix-content">
<div>In 2021, I got heavily into <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/bitcoin-and-the-bear-market-ee309156">cryptocurrency</a>. Although I only sunk a small portion of my net worth into it, it felt a little crazy, especially when sharing the news with our financial planner and accountant. So many respected financial people really were and still are against it, and for a good reason! A lot of people lose a lot of money.<br><br>I learned a lot during my first experience in a cryptocurrency bull market. I made some good decisions and also bad ones. I feel like anyone who experiences the rush of their first bull market is left with a lot of wisdom when approaching the next one. <br><br>Next one, you say? That's right. If you look back over the history of Bitcoin, it's relentlessly pushing its way up. All the previous bull runs all look like little blips on a 10-year chart because the 2021 bull run was so insane. Typically after the halving (the next one is due sometime in April 2024), there's a massive bull run, a climax, and a crash. The bear market runs its course, and then everything repeats. <br><br>I strongly believe the fundamentals of Bitcoin, the technology, the network effect, and the state of the financial system will create another bull market. Already year to date, Bitcoin has risen almost 85%. It just won't go away. <br><br>Having gone through a bull market once, I wanted to share what I learned and what I will do differently in the next one for myself and anyone who stumbles across this post.<br><br><strong>Understand what you're getting into</strong><br><br>I can't stress enough how important it is to educate yourself on cryptocurrency. Seek to understand Bitcoin, how it works, and what it's here to solve. Learn why it's nothing like other cryptocurrencies. <br><br>I spent hundreds of hours pouring over content educating myself, and gaining a strong conviction about Bitcoin and the future of the blockchain. In the process, I learned so much about money and how our financial system works. It was an incredible, eye-opening experience.<br><br>Cryptocurrency is a rollercoaster ride. If you can't handle volatility, you will get a huge smack in the face when the price inevitably swings. <br><br>On the flip side, there are a lot of information, opinions, ideas, and advice you really need to guard against. That's partly why I'm writing this article to help highlight what can happen to you when you get caught up and start sharing rocket ship emojis with all your friends!<br><br>If you're unwilling to do the work, you're making a bet like at the casino, not an investment.<br><br><strong>It's not a get-rich-quick scheme</strong><br><br>The pull of what the price of any cryptocurrency can rise to is all so alluring to the first-time bystander looking in. The facts are that cryptocurrency is not a get-rich-quick scheme. In fact, you're probably more likely to lose money. <br><br>Those who got rich quickly from cryptocurrency were lucky. Some lost their epic gains because they never took profit. <a href="https://twitter.com/ProTheDoge?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor">The Dogecoin Millionaire</a> is a great example of someone who got lucky with $3,000,000 in gains when he poured about a hundred grand into Dogecoin. However, he held on and didn't take profit, only for it to drop down into the low hundreds and thousands again. What a goose.<br><br><strong>Decide your strategy in advance and consider taking profits</strong><br><br>You only make or lose money on this type of investment when you sell it. All the losses and gains are simply on paper between buying and selling. <br><br>In my world, there are two strategies when it comes to Bitcoin.<br><br></div><ol><li>Buy and hold. Hold on for decades because the US dollar's value will continue to decline, and Bitcoin has the potential to rise a lot in value and keep its value like a digital gold.</li><li>Buy and sell. Take profit on some coins at planned price points to take money off the table.</li></ol><div><br>In 2021, I went with option 1 and wished I had done some of option 2. The coins I had bought earlier in the year were hitting 40% returns. Due to fear of high taxes on short capital gains and listening to the hype, I held on only to see the bull market end and crash. I'm probably just as much a goose as the Dogecoin Millionaire :)<br><br>I don't typically trade investments (buy and sell) like I plan to do with Bitcoin. I really only buy and hold. Bitcoin is an exception for me right now, and my long-term goal is to buy and hold mostly. I've been buying Bitcoin monthly for a while now, which has been great with these low prices.</div><div><br>However, going into the next bull market, I have already planned out at what price point and how many coins I will sell. For example, I might sell a certain percentage of my coins at $40,000, a slightly bigger percentage at $50,000, and so on. That way, I'm not selling everything too cheap, but if the price goes down, at least I took some profit. I won't go into detail, but I'd like to clean things up, try to make a bit of an actual gain, and shift some of the money into other investments. I also might buy in again when the bull market ends, and there is a crash.<br><br>The old saying to sell when people are greedy and buy when they are fearful rings very true regarding Bitcoin.</div><div><br><strong>Ignore price predictions and hype<br><br></strong>The<strong> </strong>YouTubers and Twitter folks know how to hype and throw out wild price predictions. Every video I watched felt like it had someone saying where the price would get to, generally in the six-figure range. I also had fanatic family and friends sending me texts and emails with 🚀🚀🚀. <br><br>I got caught up, and it affected my decision-making. The truth is no one knows anything. Ignore it all! Stick to your strategy. <br><br>Bitcoin is a wild beast, and no one can tame it. Know that some individuals own a lot of Bitcoin that buy up cheap and then dump it when it peaks, creating crazy fluctuations in price. The financial markets also have a huge impact on people's emotions. It's like a roller coaster in fog, and you have no idea when it will turn, go up or down. <br><br><strong>In every bull market, the returns reduce<br><br></strong>In every bull market, the return for Bitcoin continues to reduce. This isn't bad and is likely a sign of the asset class maturing. But it's good to know so that your expectations are in check, especially around the hype.<strong><br><br></strong> <figure class="attachment attachment--preview attachment--lightboxable attachment--png">
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</figure><br><em>Chart by David Canellis</em></div><div><br></div><div><strong>There will be a crash</strong><br><br>Cryptocurrency always crashes eventually. It's just too new and fragile. Don't listen to people who say it's different this time, and it may never go below a certain price point. I never thought Bitcoin would go below $20,000 after 2021, and guess what, it did. <br><br>One day I might be wrong once the asset truly matures, but until then, err on the side of caution and expect it to crash. Know your strategy and try to keep your emotions in check.<br><br><strong>Don't use debt to buy Bitcoin</strong><br><br>I remember listening to a podcast and a guy who was totally wrapped up by Bitcoin's little finger and was saying how he wished he could use some of the equity in his house to buy more because the price was shooting up. Interest rates were at an all-time low, and the "returns" of Bitcoin were way too lucrative. <br><br>I'll be honest, these examples tugged at me for a little as I looked at our interest rate and the price of Bitcoin, but thankfully, I didn't go ahead with it. It's just not something to take that sort of risk on. <strong><br><br>Not your keys, not your crypto</strong><br><br>I learned this the hard way, but not before doing some things right also.<br><br>I cannot stress enough the truth of the phrase "not your keys, not your crypto." Only veterans who have lost coins due to leaving their coins on exchanges or whatnot and not choosing to self-custody their Bitcoin can attest to this. <br><br>Self-custody is super scary when you first start out. I didn't trust myself, and the idea of going through the complexity and risk of hardware wallets and seed phrases scared me. In early 2022 I finally found a solution I was comfortable with. It was called <a href="https://keys.casa">Casa</a>, and I'd highly recommend checking them out.<br><br>Let's get back to the hard lesson I had to learn. I dabbled with a yield platform called <a href="https://celsius.network">Celsius</a> where you transferred coins to their platform, and they paid interest. They were cool, transparent, and helping people, or so we all thought. In 2022 they filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, and it turns out they lied about a lot of stuff and ran a terrible, risky operation. Who knows if I'll get the coins I put on their platform back. To me, the coins are gone. If I get anything back, it's a bonus.<strong><br><br>Only spend what you're prepared to lose</strong><br><br>Bitcoin and cryptocurrency have a bright future. I strongly believe that. It's important to remember that it's like 1999 when the dot com bubble popped. There was potential, but everyone was still trying to figure it out.<br><br>Only put money into cryptocurrency that you are willing to lose. If you buy Bitcoin or maybe even Ethereum, the chance of loss is much less if you keep your money invested for long enough. I'm not sure about Ethereum but I've heard that anyone who has held Bitcoin for more than 4 years has never lost money is something to give you some peace about. Everything else, in my eyes, is so risky, and the chances of losing everything are very, very high. Go in with eyes wide open.<br><br>Another way to think about it is only to invest whatever figure will allow you to sleep at night, even if the value of your investment drops 99% overnight. If you can sleep just fine, then you haven't invested too much.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/273462023-03-17T01:08:59Z2023-03-17T01:09:52ZAssets put money in your pocket<div class="trix-content">
<div>I really like how Robert Kiyosaki defined an asset and a liability in his "Rich Dad, Poor Dad" series of books. He says that assets are something that put money in your pocket, whereas liabilities take money out of your pocket.<br> <br>Robert was scrutinized when he said that a person's own house is not an asset because it costs money to keep it. I tend to agree with Robert. Yes, a house should increase in value, but so do all the other properties around. It should simply keep up with the property market. Someone might get lucky and buy low in a suburb that outperforms the rest of the suburbs around them, state or even country, but that's rare.<br> <br>I was talking to someone recently who bought a rental property last year. They were breaking even at the time of purchase, meaning their rental income covered the mortgage. But with the increase in rate hikes, they now must chip in their own money to keep up with the additional payments. The rental property has become a liability for now and maybe forever if the money cannot be recouped when things turn around, rent increases, or the property sells at a profit.<br> <br>I love how Robert's book discusses how you make your money when buying a rental property. That means that rental property purchases should generate positive cashflow in an up or down market. He looks at 100 properties just to buy one, so it goes to show sometimes you must hunt for a good deal.<br> <br>Negative gearing is a word I used to think was good. And maybe it was or maybe it still is for some. I'm not totally sure. But getting a tax break on money I am losing doesn't sound like a great plan. If I pay 40% in tax and my rental property has a negative return of $1,000 yearly, I get a $400 tax deduction, but I still must fork out the $600. <br> <br>Think about it this way. How many rental properties can you own if they all lose money versus them all making money? The latter is a much better place to be in, and is making you richer, not poorer.<br> <br>Now I'm not suggesting people go out and sell their negatively geared rental properties. This is all about education and hopefully, it provides something to think about, especially regarding future purchases or decisions. I know for me; this understanding has changed how I look at a property.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/266202023-02-22T00:00:07Z2023-02-22T00:00:07ZGenerous giving<div class="trix-content">
<div>I'll be upfront and say that I have a very biased view toward giving and generosity for two reasons. One is because I am a Christian, and I am taught to give generously of my time, talent, and treasure (money). The second is because I have followed that teaching and have seen how giving has come back to benefit me in multiple ways.<br><br>I don't believe you need to be a spiritual or religious person to be generous and to see fruit from that generosity in your life either. <br><br>As with anything I write about, I need to have done it or am doing it to share my thoughts or opinions. I have been giving since I was very young. To me, being a generous person is a must to be successful in this world and my hope is this gives some insight into the joys of giving generously.<br><br><strong>Generosity is a mindset<br><br></strong>Remember the Christmas story about Ebenezer Scrooge? Although a story, it is a true depiction of how greed and not caring for others make one look further inward. <br><br>When a person decides to be a generous person, their outlook changes to be more outward-focused. <br><br>We need to decide to be generous before we will be generous. To some, this comes easier than to others. <br><br><strong>Giving should be a cheerful action<br><br></strong>When someone gives, it should be out of a cheerful spirit.<br><br>Giving should be a win-win for both the giver and the recipient. If anyone is giving with a bad attitude, they are robbing themself of the gift that giving does inside of them. They will receive no benefit from the gift, only the recipient will. <br> <br><strong>Giving and generosity reduce greed and selfishness</strong></div><div><br>As human beings, no matter how much we give or how generous we think we are, we are all looking out for number one - ourselves. We all have greed within us and we all are selfish to a degree. This certainly helps with self-preservation in dangerous situations, but it overflows into areas in which we need to be less inward-focused.<br><br>Generous giving does something to combat these natural tendencies we have inside of us. It's a great feeling to become more selfless as it unlocks something inside of our spirit. Our focus shifts from being very inward-focused to being more outward-focused. <br><br><strong>Giving isn't just about money</strong><br><br>Giving is far more than just money as it encompasses your time, your talent, and your treasure (money).<br><br>It can be tempting to just give in an area or two that suits you, but I don't think that's how it should work. I don't think anyone should just give money but never give of their time. No one should only give of their talent but not of their money.<br><br>It's fair to say that some people have more time to give than money, and that's ok. But those people shouldn't just limit themselves to only giving of their time and should give of their money where they can.<br><br><strong>You have an opportunity to make a difference today<br><br></strong>Someone once said to me that it's better to build your nest egg and then one day you can give. Intellectually that makes sense - save up your money and then give out of the abundance later. <br><br>To follow the above advice, however, I need to have a mindset focused more inward (be greedy and selfish) until I hit a dollar figure. To me, that's not the type of person I want to be. There would be many years of robbed generosity that I could benefit from. <br><br>There are so many needs in the world today and out of all those needs, there are those that I care about most. Being able to give now and see people's and communities' lives impacted now by my giving is so rewarding.<br><br>It doesn't mean I need to give it all away now and there is certainly space to save and invest to build my wealth. However, having space in my budget and schedule to be generous brings joy to my life today as I make a small difference in this world. <br><strong><br>You get back what you give</strong></div><div><br>Placing money aside for a moment, let's think about the idea of getting back what you give. If you smile at someone, they'll likely smile back. If you are kind to someone, they'll likely be kind back. If you start road-raging at someone, they'll likely start road-raging back at you. <br><br>There have been books written about this topic such as The Secret and Think And Grow Rich where they speak of what you think will attract those things into your life. Being a generous person in your thoughts and your actions I believe, and in my experience, follows this same principle.<br><br>Now although a similar response back is often the result of our giving, we shouldn't give with the expectation to get something back. Sometimes things come back to us in ways we don't expect or even know. <br><br><strong>Being a generous giver makes you wealthy<br><br></strong>Being wealthy is a spiritual thing as well as a financial thing. <br><br>When I gave away something <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/giving-is-a-gift-a65131d6">simple to a retired gentleman</a>, it made me feel incredible and added to my internal wealth bucket.<br><br>I have also found as I have given money away, more money seems to flow back toward me from various sources. <br><br>My experience has been a "you reap what you sow" situation. As someone who has been taught to be a giver since I was young, I can see in all areas of my life, finances being one of them, my family and I have flourished because of a generous mindset.<br><br><strong>It's harder to give when you have more<br><br></strong>It's been my experience that giving has become more challenging the more I have. It's funny because many people would think it would be the opposite. When zeros start getting added to your giving, although you have more money, there is a mental battle inside that one has to deal with giving so much away. Greed and fear often creep in.<br><br>My solution to this has been not pondering on it and just giving anyway. The action of giving helps break down the greed and selfishness that arise from time to time. <br><br>Having a plan upfront, like budgeting you giving into your life when you had less gives you a framework to worth off of as you grow in wealth.<strong><br><br>How much should you give?</strong><br><br>Before worrying about how much to give, I think focusing on being a generous person is a better place to start. As you become more generous as an individual, you are better equipped to make decisions around giving.<br><br>There is no right or wrong in how much someone should give. In some seasons I've given more of a percentage of my income and in other seasons I've given less.<br> <br>Giving should be a line item in your budget.<br><br>Today my wife and I personally give away about 30% of our regular income. We tithe 10% to our church and the other 20% goes to support various charities, family members, and programs we believe in. This is a big sacrifice to us as we could use that giving to buy other things we want or simply save and invest that money and grow our wealth. But we have committed to being generous people and feel this percentage is right for us in this period of our life. <br><br>I am in no way suggesting you should start by giving away 30% of your income. That's a big ask even for a naturally generous person. This is something we have built up over years of having a generous attitude. And many, many people give way more than we do.<br><br>My encouragement to a new giver is to start small. Decide on a percentage or amount you'd like to start with.<br><br>If you're an established giver, review the percentage or amount you give. Perhaps set a challenge to increase it a little in your next budget?<br><br><strong>Only give what you have</strong><br><br>When it comes to giving your money, one thing I'd encourage you is to only give what you have in cash. <br><br>Never give using credit if you don't have the cash in the bank to pay back that credit right away.<br><br><strong>Over to you</strong><br><br>Giving and being generous are attitudes we have decided to nurture in our family. We budget in our giving first, we pay ourselves second and the remainder goes to bills and expenses. <br><br>I encourage you to bring this attitude into your family.<br><br>If you've never tried giving before, I encourage you to try it and see how it feels. Start small. Let that generous spirit grow.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/265502023-02-20T00:00:07Z2023-02-20T00:00:07ZPlanning for retirement<div class="trix-content">
<div>Thinking about retirement when you’re young oftentimes feels pointless as it’s so far away. I felt this way for many years. But as soon as I had kids and saw how quickly they were growing up and how fast the years were starting to go, I realised that retirement will hit sooner than I thought. </div><div><br></div><div>I think it's pretty safe to say that your company and government aren't going to be able to support you. Counting on that is a huge mistake.</div><div> </div><div>If you have no plan in place, you may not have enough to retire on and when you do pass away, will your assets be distributed where you want them to be if you're not here to manage them?</div><div><br></div><div>This article discusses some things to consider when planning for retirement.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>How much will you need when you retire?</strong></div><div><br></div><div>It's really hard to calculate this as inflation and cost of living play a big part. Depending on whether you own your home, what country you live in, and what city you live in will all impact your requirement.</div><div><br></div><div>If you do some searching online, you can likely find some good resources and calculations you can use. It's worth educating yourself on this and then setting a goal for how much you'd like to have for retirement. That way you can work backwards and get creative if you need to to reach that goal.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Will</strong></div><div> </div><div>Putting together a will becomes increasingly important as you start to have children or start getting some structure set up in your finances. You want to make sure your possessions and wealth go to who you want them to go to.</div><div><br></div><div>There are simple will kits you can pick up or you can go with an estate planning lawyer. There are varying levels of complexity and it does come down to your personal situation. And the good thing is you can revise your will as much as you want so don't worry if your circumstances or priorities change.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Documentation</strong></div><div> </div><div>I had a friend whose dad passed away a couple of years ago. His dad owned many rental properties and had several assets. The problem was, my friend's mum didn't have the information to take over the rental properties when her husband died. She didn't even know the password to his computer! My friend spent countless hours wrangling all the information together to get on top of the situation. It was really stressful and all on top of the fact his dad had just passed away.</div><div><br></div><div>It suddenly struck me that if myself or my wife died, worst case we both died at the same time, how would the executors get access to what they need to distribute our wealth?</div><div><br></div><div>The good news is, with a death certificate, an executor can get access to many things. But what if they don't know if a certain thing even exists?</div><div><br></div><div>So I decided to document a lot of what we had to help our executors.</div><div><br></div><div>I went super detailed and thought through the worst-case situation where we both died, our house burned down and all our devices were destroyed, how would my executors get to what they needed. You don't need to go this far so I encourage you to decide what works for you.</div><div><br></div><div>Here is a list of documents I put together and shared with our executors where to find them:</div><div><br></div><ul><li>Important Contacts (lawyers, accountants, mortgage brokers)</li><li>Computer Recovery (how to access our devices, multi-factor authentication)</li><li>Email Addresses (what we have and what they are used for)</li><li>Investments (where our investments are held)</li><li>Domain Names (what we have)</li></ul><div><br></div><div>The goal isn't to give everything away but to create a trail they can follow in the event we weren't here.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Self-managed retirement funds</strong></div><div><br></div><div>If you have a Superannuation Fund in Australia, a 401k in the USA or an equivalent elsewhere in the world for your retirement, chances are it's there chugging away as the money flows in. It's important that you understand the fees you're being charged and if possible, look at different options. </div><div><br></div><div>My wife and I set up a self-managed retirement fund (called a Self Managed Superannuation Fund) some years back which allowed us to take full control of our retirement savings and invest them accordingly. </div><div><br></div><div>Generally, you need a certain dollar figure amount to make a self-managed retirement fund worth it as there are accounting and audit fees we have to pay. But we like that we have control over it. I'd encourage you to explore if this is an option that might suit your needs and weigh up the pros and cons. Not everyone needs one.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/265202023-02-19T00:00:06Z2023-02-21T08:26:48ZWealth structures<div class="trix-content">
<div>There are different structures available to not only protect the assets within them but can also lead to tax savings. </div><div> </div><div>My experience being an Australian is around the structures that exist in Australia. However, there should be similar equivalents in most western countries.</div><div><br></div><div>The goal here is to give you an overview of the different structures I am familiar with and some language that should help you if you decide to pursue a structure that is right for you. There are more structures available depending on where you are from but I’ll cover three main structures I’ve had experience in.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Sole Trader</strong></div><div> </div><div>In Australia, an individual can register an Australian Business Number (ABN). Although you can be a sole trader without an ABN, having an ABN allows you to legitimise yourself to customers, claim sales tax credits, purchase Australian domain names and so on.</div><div> </div><div>Everything you earn through this structure will come under your personal income tax and you’ll pay tax at your assigned tax rate. As a sole trader, you can claim business expenses and get tax deductions where allowed.</div><div><br></div><div>This is the most simple of structures that can be good to start with, especially for a side hustle but if you plan on growing it and generating more income, you might find a different structure is needed.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Discretionary Trusts</strong></div><div> </div><div>In Australia, we have discretionary trusts (also known as family trusts). These are great for asset protection as well as tax efficiency.</div><div> </div><div>The person that controls the trust (the Trustee, can be more than one) controls and allocates assets as well as the income within the trust. </div><div><br></div><div>The trust will also have one or more Beneficiaries who can benefit directly from the trust.</div><div> </div><div>My wife and I have a discretionary trust which holds various investments. We are both the trustees and the beneficiaries of the trust. This means we can control the trust and benefit from the trust. At the end of a fiscal year, we as the trustees need to decide what to do with any income that has made its way into the trust. We can distribute it to ourselves as the beneficiaries or we can distribute it to family members such as parents or siblings. We can even give to our church.</div><div> </div><div>The downside to this structure is all income has to be distributed at the end of the fiscal year. So if you make a lot of money, it has to go somewhere and you can end up paying more tax if you start creeping into higher tax brackets.</div><div> </div><div>A trust can have what’s called a corporate trustee. What that means is you have to set up a company that is assigned the trustee of the trust. Whoever is the director of the company can then control the trust. The good thing about this is it adds an extra layer of protection.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Companies</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Lastly, you can set up a company. My experience is with Proprietary Limited (Pty Ltd) companies which are the most common types of companies in Australia. Again, these are great for asset protection as well as tax efficiency.</div><div><br></div><div>A company will have one or more directors, generally, the owner of the company and are heavily involved.</div><div><br></div><div>At the end of the fiscal year, the company will have to pay tax on profit, however, at a fixed company tax rate. In Australia, that's 27.5%.</div><div><br></div><div>A company can make distributions to directors of the company, similar to how you might distribute money to a beneficiary of a discretionary trust. The cool thing here is if the company paid tax on any of the money distributed, the recipient director will only have to pay the difference in tax. So if the director's tax rate is 43%, they will only owe 15.5% tax.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>What is right for you?</strong></div><div><br></div><div>There is no one size fits all structure and it’s always important to seek advice from your own accountant before setting one up. You need to look at your personal situation as well as the growth trajectory of your endeavours and goals to ensure you are set up with the correct structure.</div><div><br></div><div>When I first set up a proper structure for our software business, we had no idea what we were doing. We went to an accountant and they set us up with a discretionary trust. </div><div><br></div><div>After a couple of years, we had to move to a company because we were making too much money and the company made more sense. We ended up keeping the trust for personal investments so it was not all to waste.</div><div><br></div><div>This is an example of how your needs can change and how everyone needs a unique structure to them.</div><div><br></div><div>My wife and I now make use of different structures for both personal, investment and businesses that we own so you can have more than one.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/264962023-02-18T00:00:06Z2023-02-21T08:27:00ZIncreasing cashflow series: stocks<div class="trix-content">
<div>Investing in stocks is a great way to get started with very little money down. It depends on the broker you use and their minimums.</div><div> </div><div>When considering stocks, you'll come across a bunch of different terms such as index funds, exchange traded funds (ETFs), mutual funds, individual stocks, actively managed, growth stocks, and value stocks. It can be overwhelming. </div><div> </div><div>I’m going to give you a very quick rundown of these terms to get you started and then I'll talk about dividends which is where the increasing cashflow part comes in.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Index Funds</strong></div><div><br></div><div>An index fund is a specific list of stocks also known as an index.</div><div><br></div><div>A good example of an index is the S&P 500 which includes the top 500 publicly traded companies in the USA. The companies within this index will change from time to time as new players emerge or old players lose value. Any index funds that follow this index will make adjustments accordingly but it is otherwise passively managed.</div><div><br></div><div>An index fund that follows the S&P 500 will own all the stocks in the correct proportions as outlined in that index.</div><div><br></div><div>Index funds generally have low management fees than more actively managed mutual funds.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Exchange Traded Funds (ETF)</strong></div><div><br></div><div>ETFs are typically the same as index funds, however, they can be traded live like stocks. What that means is when you buy or sell an ETF, the price at that very moment per share will be what you pay. The price you pay for index funds on the other hand will be the price set at the end of the trading day. For long-term traders, this difference isn't such a big issue.</div><div><br></div><div>There can also be some tax advantages as well as the ability to buy fractional shares within ETFs due to the way they are structured and in my research seem to be more of a go-to.</div><div> </div><div><strong>Mutual Funds</strong></div><div><strong> </strong></div><div>Mutual funds are actively managed and generally try to beat an index or provide a certain return to its shareholders. They will create their own list of publicly traded companies and do a lot more buying and selling than a passively managed fund.</div><div><br></div><div>In my experience, mutual funds I have purchased have rarely, if ever, beaten the index they compared themselves to and they have much higher management fees.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Individual Stocks</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Purchasing individual stocks is buying a share of a single publicly traded company.</div><div><br></div><div>Funds generally consist of hundreds if not thousands of companies, and the risks are much lower. Whereas if you buy the stock of a single company, the risk is much higher, but so is the reward.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Growth Stocks</strong></div><div><br></div><div>These types of stocks are typically publicly traded companies that are growing fast. These days they are generally associated with tech companies.</div><div><br></div><div>Growth stocks typically don't pay dividends and pour that money into growing the company.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Value Stocks</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Value stocks are typically publicly traded companies that have been around for a long time and are growing in value slowly but are extremely well-known and stable.</div><div><br></div><div>Value stocks are typically the type that pays dividends to their shareholders rather than reinvesting into the company.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Dividends</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Ok so let's finally get to the "increase cashflow" part.</div><div><br></div><div>Dividends are when a fund or stock pays out a monetary distribution to its shareholders. This might be monthly, quarterly, every 6 months or annually depending on what is decided upon by the manager. This money can be paid in cash or can be used to reinvest in the company or fund by purchasing more shares.</div><div><br></div><div>Not all stocks and funds pay out dividends. In some funds, only some of the stocks within it pay dividends. Some funds focus on dividends. Sometimes stocks stop paying dividends.</div><div><br></div><div>Dividend paying stocks and funds are generally coming from value stocks so you typically aren't going to see a big capital gain return. It's the ongoing dividend that is focused on.</div><div><br></div><div>From my experience, it's been rare to see a company that is growing fast and also paying dividends. In this case, the company and its shareholders are chasing capital gains as opposed to a regular income.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Summary</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Hopefully, that gives you some better insight into the common terms you'll see. </div><div><br></div><div>To increase your cashflow using stocks, focus on purchasing funds that pay out dividends. There are plenty of great resources compared to different funds in your country a simple Google search away.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/264612023-02-17T00:59:23Z2023-02-17T01:01:18ZDoing business online should be easier than in person<div class="trix-content">
<div>Today I needed to buy some organic ghee. For those intrigued by what the heck ghee is, it’s clarified butter for cooking and has a high smoke point making it more healthy. Google it.<br><br>Anyway…. I was at the mall and the health food store didn’t stock the type I wanted. So I decided I’d just order online.<br><br>I Googled the brand I wanted, went to their website and added the ghee to my shopping cart. <br><br>I went to my cart, looked over it quickly and saw an Apple Pay button. I use Apple Pay all the time in person so I clicked it.<br><br>Instantly Apple Pay opened with the card I wanted to use, my email address and delivery address all pre-filled. I double tapped the side button on my phone and the order was placed. <br><br>That was it! <br><br>I’ve never experienced a simpler order process at an online website before outside of buying something in the Apple App Store.<br><br>It was so much easier than even being there in person, lining up at the counter and tapping my card.<br><br>This is the benchmark for all online shopping. It should be this easy everywhere. Yet so many online shopping experiences require me to manually type in my details every time. It's painful.<br><br><strong>Doing business online should be easier than in person</strong><br><br>If I were to start a business online that required payment, I’d be finding out how to implement that.<br><br>Something to think about beyond just payment is the experience customers have and how doing business via your website should be as easy as being in person.<br><br>Some thoughts<br><br></div><ul><li>Website should be fast and be well designed</li><li>It should be easy to navigate</li><li>It should have enough of the required information without overwhelming the visitors</li><li>It should cater to all visual, auditory and kinaesthetic types (the last one I’m sure there is research on how you can at least do better in this area)</li><li>You should have an online chat that is proactive, asking if they have a question (and have someone actually manning it!!! and some automatic suggestions of answers based on the other they are on)</li><li>You should be able to buy or easily book whatever is on offer in a couple of clicks</li><li>Collecting payment should be as simple as what I experienced today</li></ul><div><br>Too often doing business online is hard and people would prefer to just go to the shop or call on the phone. And there is a need for that because no matter how easy the experience, that human touch is always desired by a percentage of customers.<br><br>But at the same time there are people like me who go to the shops and are on a mission, I know what I want, I don’t need anyone to talk to me, I just want to be in and out.<br><br><strong>Businesses that don’t sell online are going to die out<br><br></strong>Going back to the health shop that didn’t stock my product. I was intrigued when writing this article if they had an online shop. They didn’t. They simply had a list of their locations.<br><br>I wonder how much that business loses being an in-person store only? Why not leverage the online world that is only crushing in-person more and more? I can only see the need for in person shopping only reducing more and more in the future as buying online become cheaper and easier.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/264592023-02-17T00:00:07Z2023-02-21T08:27:16ZIncreasing cashflow series: rental property<div class="trix-content">
<div>Renting out a property and receiving income from it can be a very rewarding thing. </div><div><br></div><div>A lot of people shy away from the idea of a rental property because they have to deal with humans, also known as tenants. But in my experience, get a good property manager in place and you're more likely to get good tenants and you'll also be shielded from most of the tough stuff in dealing with tenants. They are worth their weight in gold.</div><div> </div><div>The one big issue with getting into the property market is that a sizeable deposit is likely going to be required to get a loan. And then it depends on if and how much a bank might loan you. Your ability to service the loan is going to be important.</div><div><br></div><div>Banks will take into account the income generated from the property, but your finances are also going to be extremely important. That's why <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/managing-your-finances-intelligently-389565ac">managing your finances intelligently</a> is super important. I'd encourage you to do some research based on where you live to better educate yourself on what banks will look for when offering mortgages. The internet or even a mortgage broker can be a good resource.</div><div> </div><div>Property is a great way to use leverage through debt to purchase assets. But if you’re going to buy a rental property, you want it to pay for itself. That means the rent being paid covers all of the expenses and also puts money back in your pocket. </div><div><br></div><div>Think about it this way. I can buy a $250,000 house if I have $50,000 and the bank loans me $200,000. If the rental income covers all expenditures, over the term of the loan, your tenants are paying for 80% of the house for you. Eventually, you'll own a $250,000 house (which should be worth much more when it's paid off) that cost you $50,000. You turned $50,000 into $250,000.</div><div><br></div><div>Losing money each month on a rental property is likely, not wise for your situation. Yes, the capital gain can be enticing over the long run, but if it’s taking money out of your pocket each month, you’re going backwards. Remember, this is about increasing cashflow, not reducing it.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/264122023-02-16T00:00:07Z2023-02-21T08:27:30ZIncreasing cashflow series: business<div class="trix-content">
<div>Last time I posted about side hustles. A side hustle can turn into a business and that's where a lot of businesses start.<br><br><a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/on-creating-a-business-53d73fd3">Creating a business</a> can be one of the best ways to increase your cashflow. It can be as simple as finding a need that people have and creating a solution. Sell that solution to people and you’re on your way to starting a business.<br><br>A big misconception is that you do need to go to college to learn how to create a business. It's simply not true. I had no experience when I created my business and it wasn’t until years into starting that I got everything set up correctly. I learned as I went.<br><br>But at the same time, there are plenty of great resources on the internet today to help you consider what things to learn and think about when creating a business. Taking the time to get educated (which is the theme of this book) can save you a lot of issues in the future.<br><br>Just don’t let a lack of knowledge stop you from starting. Sometimes jumping in and doing something is the best option. Get started and learn as quickly as you can while you do.<br><br>There has NEVER been an easier time to get into business. The world and technology are at our fingertips.<br><br>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/263842023-02-15T02:08:45Z2023-02-21T08:27:44ZIncreasing cashflow series: side hustles<div class="trix-content">
<div>This is the first post of a series I'm writing on increasing cashflow. The first topic I wish to cover are side hustles.</div><div><br></div><div>A side hustle can be anything (legal of course) that gets you paid on top of whatever other job or income you have paying you.</div><div> </div><div>Side hustles can often turn into a business one day so it can be a great place to start if that is a path you might consider.</div><div> </div><div>Some examples of side hustles I’ve seen:</div><div><br></div><ul><li>Charge to take drone footage for people</li><li>Create a product and sell it at a local market (such as clothing, concrete pots)</li><li>Collecting payment for recycling bottles and cans</li><li>Using tools like Air Tasker to take on jobs within your scope of ability</li><li>Creating a YouTube channel that displays ads</li><li>Get paid to take online surveys</li><li>Take on personal clients outside of your work (for instance, if you work as a hairdresser you could take on personal clients at home if you are allowed that is) </li></ul><div><br></div><div>The possibilities are endless!</div><div><br></div><div>Finding a side hustle can be as simple as reviewing your skills, looking at <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/use-what-s-in-your-hand-a7e1ffdc">what's in your hands</a> or even doing some internet searching to find ideas. </div><div><br></div><div>Invoicing and collecting payment can be done in cash otherwise there are tonnes of cheap apps to allow you to take payment by credit card.</div><div><br></div><div>Getting started is the hardest part so if you desire to increase your income, I encourage you to give it a try. You may try something and it doesn't work out. That's ok. Maybe try something else!</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/259922023-02-03T00:00:05Z2023-02-03T00:00:05ZOn creating a business<div class="trix-content">
<div>Creating a business can sound scary and hard to an individual who has never done it before. As someone who has done it a few times now, I’d love to help expand your thinking. </div><div><br></div><div>I like to think of a business as creating a solution to a problem. A business can be as simple as one person solving a group of people's problems. </div><div> </div><div>Think about what skills you possess. You likely have <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/use-what-s-in-your-hand-a7e1ffdc">a skill in your possession</a> that could solve a problem for a group of people.</div><div><br></div><div>If you don't have the skill you desire, why not take the time to <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/we-get-good-at-the-things-we-practice-8e2c8dde">develop that skill</a>? That's what I did when I started learning how to write code when I was an early teenager.</div><div> </div><div>Maybe another business out there is already solving the problem you want to also solve. Don't let that be an excuse to quit now. Who says you can’t come up with a better or unique way of solving the problem? What's stopping you from offering a better service?</div><div><br></div><div>I have some friends who own an eyelash boutique. There are plenty of those around. But what makes them unique is the experience they create for the customer. They are always thinking about little value adds that make the customer feel special without spending a lot of money.</div><div><br></div><div>Another example is when I was in my early teens, my dad and I mowed lawns. We had a lawn mower and a line trimmer. We walked the streets handing out leaflets offering our services. We weren't much different from the other companies. But what happened? We got work. We had a business. We were out in the hot sun mowing lawns and getting paid.</div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/you-re-not-going-to-be-rich-if-you-only-work-a-job-89da7c9e">You're not going to be rich if you only work a job.</a> What other income can you start creating today via a business?</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/259592023-02-02T00:00:07Z2023-02-02T00:00:07ZPay yourself first<div class="trix-content">
<div>A habit that is important to get into is paying yourself first before you pay any of your other bills.</div><div><br></div><div>Paying yourself first should be under the goal of putting aside money for yourself to increase your wealth, not to be spent on things you want.</div><div><br></div><div>An <a href="https://www.ramseysolutions.com/saving/quick-guide-to-your-emergency-fund">emergency fund</a> is a good place to start if you don't have one. From there, you want to put the money to work to increase your asset column.</div><div><br></div><div>If you have a budget, you should add a budget line item to pay yourself. This way you're turning an expense into an asset. Pretty neat.</div><div><br></div><div>As for me, I tithe to my local church so that's my first payment. The second payment goes to increasing my wealth.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/259272023-02-01T00:00:11Z2023-02-01T00:00:11ZStart with an idea and opportunities will likely come<div class="trix-content">
<div>When I was in my early teens, I decided I wanted to learn how to write software code. I didn't have this grand plan of making money or making a career out of this skill. It just interested me, so I pursued it.<br><br>Looking back 20 years, that decision to start pursuing the idea ended up defining my life up until this point. It resulted in several business ventures that proved extremely profitable to me as an individual.<br><br>The keyword in the title of this post is "start". A lot of people have ideas, but unless you start, you're never going to get anywhere.<br><br>I've decided to write a book this year. I could think of all the reasons why not to do it. I could overthink it and try to ensure everything is perfect before I start. But instead of delaying, I've just started writing and it's amazing how much it's flowing. <br><br>Start with an idea and opportunities will likely come.<br><br>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/259132023-01-31T10:46:51Z2023-01-31T11:07:43ZVuePress 2 vs VitePress<div class="trix-content">
<div>I needed to build a simple <a href="https://www.bensinclair.co/">website</a> for a book I am writing. The book is going to be published on the web (similar to <a href="https://basecamp.com/shapeup">Basecamp's Shape Up</a>) and since it's mainly text content, I decided to go with <a href="https://v2.vuepress.vuejs.org/">VuePress 2</a>.</div><div><br></div><div>After building the site quite easily in VuePress 2, I found out that VitePress existed. After some research, I thought it would be worth giving it a try also as it felt like VitePress was going to take more precedence over VuePress 2 in the future.</div><div><br></div><div>This post is in no way comprehensive but it is a quick overview of the comparison between VuePress 2 and VitePress based on my experience.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>The VitePress website says it's an improvement over VuePress</strong></div><div><br></div><div><a href="https://vitepress.vuejs.org/guide/what-is-vitepress#motivation">On the VitePress website</a>, it alludes that VitePress is the new and improved version of what VuePress was. Although VuePress 2 is on its way, it's still having to be somewhat backwards compatible with the original version. They also mention that VitePress is future-oriented.</div><div><br></div><div>The way I read into it, VitePress is the future, and VuePress is the past. Even with active development on VuePress 2, it's pretty clear VitePress is going to be a better future-proofed option.</div><div><br></div><div>You can see where this post is going but I may as well keep on with the comparison for those who want to be more sure.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>VuePress isn't being developed nearly as much</strong></div><div><br></div><div>The first thing I looked at was the activity being achieved on GitHub. <a href="https://github.com/vuejs/vitepress/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md">VitePress</a> has had 11 releases this month vs 0 releases for <a href="https://github.com/vuepress/vuepress-next/blob/main/CHANGELOG.md">VuePress 2</a>. It is the end of January so maybe the engineers had the month off?</div><div><br></div><div>Another thing to note is that VitePress has far more forks, more than 2 times the watchers, 3 times more contributors and almost 6 times more stars than VuePress 2. Any stat you look at, VitePress is way more active.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>The sidebar is much simpler in VitePress</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Setting up the sidebar in VitePress is an absolute dream compared to VuePress. You can have multiple sidebars based on a subfolder.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>VitePress has a simpler configuration</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Since it's a newer project, the authors were able to capitalize on improving the configuration and simplify it.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>VuePress 2 component replacement</strong></div><div><br></div><div>When developing in VuePress 2 I was able to swap out components in the config file. This was cool and a bit of a challenge when I switched to VitePress. </div><div><br></div><div>I liked that I could leverage the default theme more in VuePress 2 where is you'll only get so far in VitePress before you have to create your own.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>VuePress 2 has better style customization</strong></div><div><br></div><div>One thing VitePress does claim is it's less configurable and minimalist. At first look, it does feel this way but once I got stuck into VitePress and started understanding how it works, I found that I had a lot of ability to customize. It really will depend on how much you want to change the layout. A lot can be done via CSS and slots.</div><div><br></div><div>VitePress can be a little more challenging to customize as a lot of the styles are scoped within Vue components. So when you want to adjust styles, the use of <span style="background-color: rgb(242, 242, 242);">!important</span> was required several times which is a bit icky.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>You cannot hide the Nav Bar in VitePress</strong></div><div><br></div><div>Hiding the Nav Bar seems like a weird thing to do in the first place but for my use case, it was a handy thing in VuePress 2. In VitePress, there is no such luxury.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>VitePress can access frontmatter inside markdown files</strong></div><div><br></div><div>One thing I loved in VitePress was how easy it was to access the frontmatter data within markdown files and use it. What required me to use a custom component in VuePress 2, I was able to do it within a single markdown file in VitePress.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>VitePress requires a sidebar to support prev and next links</strong></div><div><br></div><div>This one is a pro or a con depending on what you require. VitePress does not support the prev and next links without using a sidebar. This is a massive pro if you use sidebars as it will automatically add the links for you.</div><div><br></div><div>I wasn't using the sidebar so I had to create a custom version of the prev and next links. I was able to do this by extending the default theme and using slots to add them in. I was doing this already as I was making use of other slots so this was not big deal and easy to maintain.</div><div><br></div><div><strong>Verdict</strong></div><div><br></div><div>VitePress is my choice! It's more active, future-proofed and although claimed to be less configurable and minimalist, I found there was plenty of power given to me as the developer to customize most things.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/258912023-01-31T00:00:35Z2023-01-31T00:00:35ZCreate money out of thin air<div class="trix-content">
<div>What if I told you that you can create money out of thin air?</div><div><br></div><div>People do it all the time. They create businesses or use their talents and tools around them to make money.</div><div><br></div><div>When I created the software business that I sold for millions of dollars, I created that money out of thin air. It was my time and intelligence over 7 years that built something of great value. I used the knowledge and skills I'd developed for years before creating a business.</div><div><br></div><div>If you want to become wealthy one day, having a job isn't going to do it unless you get paid high and you live well below your means. In addition, the tax man takes his cut first, you can only earn so much and there's a chance you could lose your job altogether.</div><div><br></div><div>People who become financially free are those who <a href="https://world.hey.com/bensinclair/take-responsibility-for-your-life-7ba2c387">take action</a> and create money out of thin air.</div><div><br></div><div>And it doesn't need to be a massive step.</div><div><br></div><div>I remember finding a YouTube channel called <a href="https://www.youtube.com/@OurRichJourney">Our Rich Journey</a> several years ago. Their channel is about their family's journey of joining the F.I.R.E (Financially Independent, Retire Early) movement. I enjoyed watching their videos on the different methods they used to make extra income to speed up their progress.</div><div><br></div><div>My hope is this post gets you thinking about the possibilities of creating money out of thin air.</div><div><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/258672023-01-30T00:00:07Z2023-01-30T00:00:07ZGo over and above<div class="trix-content">
<div>I once had a 12-month contract at the college just before I got married to my wife Jennifer. It's a funny story that I accepted the contract because since my dad and mum never had jobs, I was against getting one myself. <br><br>When an opportunity opened up for me to work at the college for 12 months for a maternity leave contract, I was against it straight away and refused to even contemplate the idea. <br><br>Jennifer, to whom I was newly engaged shared some words of wisdom and suggested I should at least explore the idea. I was broke at the time trying to start up my software business. So I explored it as she suggested, and I was offered the role for an annual salary of $60,000 AUD. This was more money than I had ever earned. It was a great feeling so I sucked up my pride and accepted the role. <br> <br>The job was easy. The lady I had replaced was not very good at her role. From talking to the different staff she supported in her role, she was slow, hard to deal with and had a bad attitude. I on the other hand was fast, efficient and friendly. My natural personality was to do a good job. This resulted in me going over and above the expectation of the role.<br> <br>I was able to complete all my tasks quickly which resulted in a lot of free time. I even had time to build them a software package outside of my scope of pay that allowed the film and video teachers to vote on films submitted by students.<br> <br>Being a college, some weeks were intense and busy, but then mid-semester rolled along and there simply wasn’t enough to do to keep me busy. My boss never felt the need to meet with me, which was fine as I was used to being self-sufficient and everyone I worked with was happy with what I was contributing. <br> <br>I used this free time to build my software business. As soon as my college job needed me, I instantly stopped and gave them my full focus. But when there was nothing to do, I got to programming.<br> <br>This is a season I am very thankful for because, by the time I left that job, my wife and I were able to purchase our first investment property plus my software business was earning more money than my job. <br> <br>When my contract at the college was coming to an end, my boss begged me to stay. This was a season when the college was laying off staff at the time due to the Australian dollar being strong and a lack of international students attending. This blew me away. Here they were trying to create a job out of thin to make me stay while making others redundant. Unfortunately, I was about to travel the world for 12 months with my wife so it was an easy decline.<br><br>When you go over and above in areas like your employment, you not only stand out but it gives you confidence for greatness. I think that no matter what we do in life, whether at a job, volunteering or with our family, we should go over and above as it can lead to possibilities we hadn't expected or planned for.<br><br>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/258332023-01-29T00:00:08Z2023-01-29T00:00:08ZInflation is a hidden tax<div class="trix-content">
<div>If you stop and think about it, with the rise of technology, shouldn’t things be getting cheaper, not more expensive?<br><br>Take computers for example, although they aren’t getting a lot cheaper, the components inside are far superior each year. If you compare the price to the power inside modern computers, the overall cost is getting cheaper.<br><br>Since the world reserve currency is the US dollar and that the US dollar is not backed by anything but the “goodwill of the US government”, the US government simply prints more of it to pay debt, fund the military and so on. There’s not a lot of accountability.<br><br>Inflation is a direct result in the increased money supply. Put another way, inflation is a reduction in purchasing power. Things aren’t costing more, the money is just worth less.<br><br>Inflation is a hidden tax because as the government prints more money, they are reducing the purchasing power of the dollars that their citizens hold. Rather than tax citizens more openly, causing an uproar, citizens are taxed in a hidden way through inflation of the money supply.<br><br>Want to know why property went gangbusters in 2021? A direct result of the increase in the money supply paired with cheap debt.<br><br>Hard assets like property, gold, Bitcoin, stocks should go up in value as they generally keep up with inflation. But if you have money sitting in the bank over many years, it’s going to buy less.<br><br>As Robert Kiyosaki says, “savers are losers”.<br><br></div><div>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/258002023-01-28T00:00:08Z2023-01-28T00:00:08ZFocus until you win<div class="trix-content">
<div>I've seen entrepreneurs who have a good go at a business. They are talented, skilled, and on fire and they go at it, hard-core! But after a few bumps in the road, when things aren't going to plan, they give up and move on to the next great idea that'll make them rich.<br><br>I however think there is power in focusing on something until you win. That focus has been something that has helped me get to where I am today.<br><br>It all started when my dad handed me a tutorial on how to write HTML, the language of websites. <br><br>Years later when I built my software company, I was focused. Winning for me was creating a great product. <br><br>I spent countless hours programming, building the website, setting up billing, researching, and more programming. <br><br>It was slow. It took years to even get close to giving me a decent income but I kept at it. I didn't give up. <br><br>Eventually, I sold that business for 7 figures. Someone wanted what I'd built.<br><br>There certainly are times to quit. Most businesses fail in the first 5 years. Not all ideas were good ideas. Not all individuals or teams are talented enough. <br><br>At the same time, not everyone has that intense focus where they will do what it takes to win. It's a sacrifice and you're going to have to trade time for that focus. But it can pay off in a big way if you win.<br><br>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.comtag:world.hey.com,2005:World::Post/257642023-01-27T00:00:06Z2023-01-27T02:16:28ZUse what’s in your hand<div class="trix-content">
<div>In my experience, what has been in my hand (an opportunity or a skill) has oftentimes been a useful tool to propel myself forward.<br><br>An example of this was when I learned how to edit websites. I used what was in my hand to build my own website and create a $10,000 USD a year income. Not bad for a 12-year-old. Fast forward 20 years, and what was in my hand led me to build a successful business that I then sold for 7-figures.<br><br>Don't underestimate what's in your hand. It could lead to great things.<br><br>-Ben</div>
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Ben Sinclairbensinclair@hey.com