Why I Spent $107,451 In 2020

So recently I made a video talking about my experience spending 50,000 us dollars on online courses or fake gurus. And you guys really enjoyed that video. So I started looking for other areas of my life, where I spent a lot of money and productivity is the obvious answer because I spent a lot of money, you know, productivity.

So I want to break down. Hawaii spent 107,451 us dollars in 2020 alone on productivity. We're going to be talking about tongue savers, smart drugs technology, the office that I'm in and people. And I want to make more videos being transparent about money, because I remember when I was a kid, I was always told off for asking people how much money they earn, or just genuinely being curious about money and how it works in different ways.

And I think this can actually cause a lot of harm to society. A lot of miseducation, a lot of misunderstanding when it comes to money. So I want to start on this channel and just being more honest and upfront about this kind of stuff, inspired by people like Allie up doll and grim Stephan who make videos like this.

But I should note that if you're sensitive about this kind of stuff, you worry that you're going to be triggered or feel uneasy someone else talking about money, especially if it's a large sums of money. Then by all means tread carefully as you proceed on, or don't watch this video altogether. I'm not forcing you to watch this video.

You don't have to watch this videos. If you think you're going to get angry, just don't watch it. That's probably the best thing to do. And I'm also making this video because I personally made a ton of mistakes around spending money and being productive and trying to spend money on it, to be productive.

I wasted a ton of money. I wasted a lot of time, and I'm hoping that by making this video, I can clear up some of the mistakes that I made so that you can get more done without having to spend so much money. So I started this journey out the way everybody starts this journey out, apart from the people who inherited a lot of money or have trust funds.

I started the journey out by trading my time for money. I would work all day trying to create value and solve problems and build businesses that I could earn money. I was trading my time for money. Another example is I remember I bought a book. It was 10 pounds. And when it came, I had a couple of rip pages in it.

I wasn't happy with this. We ended up walking half an hour to go to the post office that I could return the book and get my money back. And that example, I'm very clearly trading 30 minutes of my time to walk to the post office, to get 10 pounds back. I was trading my time for money, but it gets to a certain point where that starts to flip.

Once you've traded your time for money, you now have money, which you can trade for time. You spend some money to hire a cleaner so that you get back. The time spent getting a cleaner. Well, maybe you pay for an Uber. So then instead of having a half an hour walk, you have a five minute drive. Uber doesn't sell transportation.

Uber sells time. The reason I take an Uber is because I'm guaranteed. It's going to be there and I'm taking away the risk of waiting three or four minutes for a cab. Uber sells time. Okay. Imagine there's two burger stores. One of them is giving out free burgers, but there's a massive queue. It's going to take five, six hours for you to get your free burger.

The other burger store has normal price burgers, but there's no queue whatsoever. Previously. I would have waited in the queue to get the free burger. I trade my time for money, but now it's at the point where I want to trade my money for time, because my time is valuable. And this example shows that the only thing more attractive than free is gaining time.

And that leads me on to the first category called time savers. This is just a general category of anything where I'm very clean spending money in order to save time. An example, maybe if you go to a grocery store and you buy some pre-chopped or pre-cleaned vegetables, instead of buying them raw and doing all the chocolate and cleaning yourself, and there's a bunch of different examples of little things like this that I do, but it's hard to calculate these things.

They're very small and they're very varied. So I'm just going to talk about some of the main ones. One of them is Uber, which as I talked about, I get fairly regularly. So last year I spent 169 pounds, 14 on Uber or around $231 on Uber. All of these things is to save me time from walking. And I know that walking has a ton of health benefits, but I deal with my exercise in a different way.

For me, when I'm getting an Uber, it's very simply about trading money for time. And in 2019, I realized how much time that I was spending on cleaning. So I hired a cleaner once a week. I paid 12 pounds a week. So that was a total of 624 pounds or $854 over the course of the whole year. So me to pretty much do zero cleaning all year round food.

Food is a secret time killer. That's your time? Way more than you currently think. Think about it. You get hungry, you think what should I be eating? You go to the cupboards. You check, whether you have that. If you don't have it, you have to walk all the way to the shops. Pick up the items, pay for the items, stand in a queue and then walk back.

Now you've got to prepare the food. Now you've got to cook the food. Now you've got to eat the food. Now you've got to wash up and then three, four hours later when lunchtime or dinner con comes, you got to do the very same thing again and again and again. And that's ignoring the weekly shop that you have to do walking to the grocery store.

Picking that stuff up, walking back with it, all of this stuff takes a ton of time. So I'm very grateful to be in a position where my business time theory and my YouTube channel that you're watching right now earns me enough where I can just outsource all thinking about food, all food preparation, all food cooking.

And all I have to do is once every other day go and pick up the food from the mailbox and put it in the microwave when I'm ready. And this isn't unhealthy food. I'm talking about. Well, customized, balanced, nutritionally, healthy food, that's handmade and delivered to me. Uh, and also for Cade who works on time theory, I get this for him as well.

And this costs $2,984. So in total, last year on time savers, I spent $4,069, which is a lot of money. If you told me that I was going to be spending that amount of money on this kind of things. A few years ago, I would have thought that I was crazy. I would have thought that I was using my money wastefully and I was being careless with the way I was spending my money.

But I don't think that's the case. Yeah. You see, imagine you've got an hour that normally you have to spend on cleaning. As soon as you find an activity that can earn you more than the amount it costs to pay a cleaner, to do the cleaning. Now it makes complete logical sense for you to pay someone to do the cleaner, because if it costs 12 pounds for someone to do the cleaning and you can earn more than that by not doing the cleaning, then it makes complete sense.

You don't do the cleaning and you do the activity that earns more money and you use that money to pay for the cleaning. As soon as you find an activity that earns you more than the cost, it takes outsource something. You should outsource that thing. But in order for me to make these kinds of calculations about whether or not it's worth outsourcing something.

I've got to have an idea in my mind of my hourly rates, how much I think my time is worth. Then as soon as there's something that I can outsource to free up my time, that's what the less me and my, I think my time is worst. Then I'll do that thing. And you should probably come up with one of these as well.

The easiest way for you to do this is just look at how much money you've earned in the past year. And look at how much time you worked, then the divide, the amount of that you've made by the time you've worked. And now you've got a rough, hourly rate. There are people like Nevada that say it's better to set an aspirational hourly rates, instead of actually figuring out how much your time is worth.

You figure out how much you want your time to be worth. And that way your time will become worth that much. Did you start working towards that goal, but also the equation? Isn't just as simple as is this activity that I can outsource less than the amount that I could be earning. Because every extra activity that you do and you have to do on a regular basis, it takes up a large amount of cognitive load.

You're thinking about cleaning. You're thinking about eating, you're thinking about cooking and that's distracting you away from the other things that you should be doing. So when you start outsourcing things, Not only are you freeing up time, but you're freeing up mental bandwidth that you can then use to generate more money, bring more value to the world and reach the goals that you want to reach.

So those are the different time savers that I spend my money on. And it's interesting. I used to look for ways that I could save money. Now I'm actively looking for ways that I can spend money in order to save me time. Because like I was saying, it's just worthwhile. It makes complete logical sense. The second category of spending on my productivity is smart drugs or nootropics.

Basically what these are, is there are certain drugs that you can take that aren't designed to get you high. Aren't designed to make you happy. Aren't designed to make you trip. But it designed to improve the cognitive function of your brain, allow you to be more productive. And there's lots of different people that have talked about this.

I started getting interested in when I heard people like Tim Ferriss or Dave Asprey talking about them. Uh, but people like Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton have reportedly used Modafinil, which is a smart drug. I know Joe Rogan has his own brand of smart drug called alpha brain. And if you guys are in the U S you've definitely heard of Adderall, which is a very popular, smart drug, especially for students that are cramming to get work done before a final exam.

But in 2020, I tried a bunch of different smart drugs. I tried Modafinil. Which is right here. I tried quality of mind, which is right here. I try Joe Rogan's alpha brain. I also tried lion's mane, which is a type of mushroom and I'm mixed with coffee as well as specific supplements, like melatonin for sleep.

So in total, I spent $248 in all of these different supplements. And at this point, what I would love to do is drop an affiliate link in the description of either quality of mind or Joe Rogan supplement alpha brain. So I can earn a bit bit of the money back that I spent on these things. But to be honest, I've got a few thoughts on the overall experience of nootropics, and that's not going to allow me to put a link down there as much as, as much as how much money I know I would make from it.

It's just, it's just been not as they see it, that's just leave it at that. So first after immersing myself in this world of smart drugs, nootropics, most of the people using these things are using them to try and put a plaster over a gushing wound. Uh, these people have bad sleep. They have bad health and not eating well.

Um, they don't understand why they procrastinate the root causes of procrastination. They don't understand motivation. They don't understand the, how the brain works. They don't understand anything to do with productivity. So of course they're unproductive, of course, they've got brain fog. They haven't got the basics of their life down.

They're not exercising, they're not drinking water. So they think that the solution to this problem is to put a pill in their mouth. And it's just not the case. Like I was saying, I'm not trying to put a bandaid over a gushing wound. And the worst thing is. It kind of works. What happens is you are productive for a day.

The Modafinil stops you from feeling tired from your bad sleep, and you are able to get a lot of work done. So not only are you putting plaster over a gushing wound, the plaster is hiding the fact that there's a gushing wound there. So you don't even realize the fact that the basics, the fundamentals of your life are down.

But what I found is it's far more efficient, both in the short run and in the long run, but especially in the long run. For you to just get the basics down once you sleep well, once you eat well, once you find something you love, once you understand just a little bit about how the brain works, you understand why you procrastinate, what humans procrastinate in general, those sorts of things will allow you to make so much more progress than any pill that you can take.

And what I'm talking about, smart drugs, it reminds me very much of instant gratification. It feels like it's a good idea in the moment you get a lot of work done in the short run, but in the long run, I just find that it's not the case. You may become reliant on them, where you may be productive whilst you're on the smart drugs, but when you're off the smart drugs, you're unable to get anything done or maybe in the long run, you crash or you fall completely off because you can no longer function as a human being.

I've seen these things happen. And overall, I would much rather I took the time that I spent researching and dabbling in nootropics and just spent that time doing my main thing, keeping the main thing, the main thing. Because at the end of the day, people think that smart drugs are the solution, but think about whatever the goal that is you want to achieve, whether you want to earn more money, whether you want to grow your business, whether you want to become a better place.

None of those things are done through smart drugs. They may be accelerators, but they're not the main thing. The way you grow your business is by solving someone's problem even better, or providing a solution to a problem that hasn't yet been fixed. That's the main thing. So you should cut out any sort of distraction that may promise to help you get there quicker, because by focusing on those things, you're actually going to get there slower.

At least this is my experience. Overall. There's definitely been productive days that I've had with these supplements, but yeah. Overall, I would just say they're a distraction. Keep the main thing. The main thing stay incredibly focused. So I'd probably say most of the money and especially the time I spent on this was a waste.

So I'm recording this clip after I'd recorded the previous clip. And I just wanted to add something in, because I don't feel like they gave the whole nootropics topic. A fair analysis. What I was just talking about is what the majority of the people who are interested in nootropics are like, at least from what I saw in the communities I went in.

Uh, but I don't want to discredit the small group of people interested in nootropics who use it for very valid reasons. And there's a small group of people who traditional medicine has failed them. So they're looking into nootropics to try and help themselves with some of their problems. And they're doing that through their own research instead of relying on external forces, which if that's the case and you're using a sense of limits, actually working then completely fair enough.

It was also a group of incredibly high performers that usually using nootropics to just get the extra edge. And again, if that's the case, then with all respect, fair enough to you keep doing what you're doing. Obviously don't listen to what I'm saying. You've done more research into this than I've done.

So the overall summary is that the majority of people don't use it well, but there is. The small group of people who do use it well. And if you were interested in nootropics and make sure you're in the group, who does do it well. And the third category where I spend money to be more productive is tech, uh, texts and interesting one.

I think the biggest mistake that people make around tech is similar to nootropics. They think that tech is the main thing. They think that they need the best camera in order to start their YouTube channel. Well, they think that in order for them to be more productive, they need to buy better technology.

And that may be the case sometimes, but nine times out of 10, it's just a distraction. The time that you spend waiting for you to get the perfect camera could just be spent on a phone recording your first YouTube video. All the time spent researching what the best laptop for you to use or the best keyboard or mouse for you to use could just be spent doing the main thing.

So often tech acts as a hindrance to productivity. So now in terms of my tech, I have a Google pixel for a phone it's pretty cheap. It's 349 pounds to buy new. And there was a time in my life that I would watch all of these different reviews of all the different flagship phones. And I would argue by saying that if I get the best phone, that's going to allow me to be more productive.

But in reality, the time that I spent researching these things were far larger than the benefits actually got from getting the best phone. It's got to the point now in the phone industry, you can buy a 350 pound phone. But it's pretty much as good as a 1000 pound phone. This is reliable. It works. It's quick.

The camera's good. There's no problems with it ever. So why would I spend a thousand pounds for a phone? Why would I spend 300 times more for a phone than the price of this one? When all I'm getting is 5% more benefit, 300 times the price or 300% of the price. 5% extra benefit just doesn't seem worth it to me.

And it's interesting. A lot of people would say you spend tens of thousands of dollars on productivity. It comes across that I'm quite careless with my money. At least that's the way I would have interpreted the actions that I'm taking now, but that's really not the case. I think this phone leads to an overall philosophy I have regarding money.

I think that you shouldn't spend money on things you don't spend money on, but you definitely should spend money on things you should spend money on and you should spend a lot more time than you currently do, trying to distinguish what is worth spending money on and what isn't worth spending money on.

Most people think that things that all worth spending money on, on westbound and money on, and the things that aren't worth spending money on all we're spending money on. Most people have with the completely wrong way. Some examples. I have no design of clothes. I have no car. I don't have any watch. I don't go on crazy holidays.

I don't spend money for the sake of spending money. I don't spend money. And less, there's going to be a return on that money. Next piece of tech is a camera. Um, when I first started my YouTube channel, I recorded on my phone, but now it's got to the point where it is worth my money to get a nice camera.

But when I was doing the research for this, I thought I could get into a massive rabbit hole of finding the perfect camera. I could spend literally months distinguishing what the best camera was, but the quickest way that I could find of getting a nice camera was just to look for someone whose content that I like to have a good quality content.

But also someone who knew lots about cameras and just buy whatever camera they bought. So I literally just copied Nathaniel Drew's camera and it's been absolutely incredible that saved me a ton of time having to research. And it just got me a good camera without the time. And that camera was 1,899 pounds.

Apart from that, I've got an Apple watch. It's good. It's not the best. I have an Apple keyboard. It's good. It's not the best. I have a 2019 Mac book pro it's not the newest one. I know there's a new M one chip there's brand new technology, but this one works. So why would I upgrade it? This one isn't slow.

So why would I upgrade it? I'm not going to spend money on things that I shouldn't be spending money on. Um, at least that's the way I try to be, but I would love to hear you guys as feedback for this whole video. If you think that I'm wasting my money, if you think there's a better investment of my money, leave a comment I would love to learn.

And the last piece of tech that I have is some noise canceling headphones. These are pretty good at counseling out sound. The reason I have that is because I work better when there's no sound. If I hear people walking in the office hallway, which I'll talk about later, it's going to distract me. So noise canceling headphones, allowing me to stay incredibly focused and get more done.

They were 219 pounds. They're very good that the Sony XM, somethings, as you can see, I'm not very good at tech. Um, there'll be a screenshot up on screen. So that was a total of 2,468 pounds on technology. Now, moving on to the fourth category, you guys may be wondering, there's a large gap between the amount that I've talked about spending and the overall figure of a hundred thousand dollars.

Plus these next two topics are going to be the main bulk of the amount that I spend on productivity. The first one is office. Now time theory, headquarters. We now have an office, which is where I'm recording now. Well, the place that you've seen, the videos, it's where me and Kate, a colleague of mine works, that works on time theory.

Um, and basically I wanted to get somewhere that inspired or I read a study that actually found that all led to more life satisfaction than gratitude. There was a correlation. I think there'll be a link in the description that said that. Or increases life satisfaction by 0.33. Whereas gratitude increases life satisfaction by 0.22.

So I wanted to find a space that I could be inspired by. That would constantly fill me with all that I can increase my life satisfaction. And also, because if they say you become what your environment is, you are shaped by your environment. I wanted to make my environment and incredible place with a hope that I would become an incredible person.

And this is a difficult one. It's very difficult to determine whether there's been a return on investment of the office. Um, in total it was 15,700 pounds or $21,433. That's the amount I spent on the office in 2020. And it's very difficult to figure out whether or not this was a good investment. Yes. It fills me with, or yes, there's a chance that increases retention on these videos, which increases the likelihood that the video gets pushed to the YouTube algorithm.

But overall, I mean, it's very nice. It's great. I don't know whether it's worth it, but I like it a lot. Um, it's a difficult one. So I I'm on the fence. I'm not a hundred percent sure whether it's worth it. And the final category and the most expensive category is people. We've talked a lot about trading money for time and the most direct way you can do that is by trading your money for other people's time.

Um, if you're working by yourself, it's impossible to have a 400 hour work week, but if you've got a team of people that are working with you, You can have much more than that. You can have a thousand hour work week, or even more than that. If you have enough people and this is taken to the next level, when you can hire people who are better at certain things than you are.

So not only are you buying time, you're buying the skill and expertise of that time, which is even better than the time you could be spending yourself. So in total, in 2020 I spent, and this is across people that work on the YouTube channel and at time theory, 57,325 pounds and 19 pennies or $78,330, which is an absolutely insane amount.

That is a lot of money. And it's interesting. It's difficult to tell the specific return on investment for this kind of an investment, because the people that you're giving money to are working on very specific parts of an overall system. So it's not the specific parts that generate a return on investment.

It's the overall system that generates the return on investment. And for me in 2020 and time theory, it's always generated a massive return on investment. So overall, I would say with this money is incredibly well spent, especially because the fact that we're working, you know, something that's so meaningful, we're trying to change the way that humanity uses that time.

We see so many people procrastinating, wasting their time, and we think that we have the solution to that. We've proven with working with 500 plus people that we have the solution to that. So now it's just about spreading that to as many people as possible. So when you put all of that together, that leads to a total spend of $107,451 on my productivity in 2020.

And as well as that, there's the money spent on fake gurus. There's a link in the description if you want to watch that video as well. Uh, but overall that. Led to with my maths is correct. $107,451 spent in 2020 on my productivity. And yeah, let me know if you want to see more videos like this.