Income Career and the Market Impact

Why would you leave a great job with a high salary? Life is much more than following the traditional path where you get a job, get qualified, continue your career, and advance your career. There was a point in my life when I felt the need to look inside myself and ask myself, "What am I really doing?" For a good part, I really enjoyed the banking lifestyle. There was all the glitz and glamour. There were business trips. There was status. And for a while I convinced myself that this was what I wanted. This was the life I wanted to live. And then, as I went along, I felt like there was a big disconnect between what I wanted to do and what I was doing

. And the further I went, the more I felt that discordance becoming stronger and stronger I had to go through a pretty dark phase to understand that this wasn't what I wanted. And it was at that point that I had to look inside myself and ask myself some difficult questions, like: " Am I living the life I really want or the one everyone else expects me to live?" Mhm. Am I buying things I want to buy for myself or things I want to show off to others? The question that really changed everything for me was, "Would I still be happy living the same life in 5 or 10 years as I do today?" The fear of that was

much greater than the fear of anything I had to do. And it gave me the confidence to say, "No, I'm leaving. I'm leaving this job. I'm leaving this life. I'm leaving this identity because there's so much more out there for me." And I had a bigger why that surpassed anything that moment had in store for me. I have a feeling that there are probably a lot of people listening to me right now who are thinking exactly the same thing. They have the traditional degree that they were expected to have. They got the job. Maybe they've been there for 5 or 10 years and think, "I'm not in the right place." But you have this whole sunk cost distortion, this idea that I

spent all those years studying for that. All my friends thought this was what I would do. Maybe I even have a partner. Maybe I have children. This is not the right time to get agitated. "For example, tell me about the bias we have, which is that we've invested so much time and money into this. Everyone in my life understands that. How could I ever dream of doing something different? I mean, it's the hardest thing to do, living life according to what everyone else has told you to do. But if you don't have the courage to write your own story, someone else will always write it for you. And I think what most people think of as courage, or

daring, or doing something new and leaving behind what you've created, is really just having a financial cushion. And having the confidence to walk away from situations you might not like or environments you might not like. But today we put a lot of pressure on ourselves, because we have to do it all or nothing. We have to quit our jobs and follow our passions. So, for someone in that situation or in that position, I would say A, it creates a financial cushion because it gives you more peace of mind and sanity than anything else you could think of. And the second thing I would say is that when I worked in banking, having a salary It gave me a lot of confidence, which allowed me to do a lot of little experiments in my free time.

So, I spent my evenings and weekends trying, testing, and doing a lot of different things. And when you do it that way, you look at your job and think, "Oh, I'm so grateful to have this salary that allows me to do all these things in my free time without thinking, "Oh, I just have to find a way to pay the bills." "And it makes everything much less enjoyable. I completely agree with you. For me, it was the same path. I worked during the day and then I did this in the evenings and on weekends. At the time, I was making videos. And I don't think I would have been this creative if I had been financially struggling. Now, I wasn't making that much money, but I was making enough to pay the bills and take care

of things, and I had to edit my own videos because I couldn't afford to outsource it to someone. I had a friend who did me a favor by shooting my own videos because I couldn't afford one. But the idea was that I wasn't short on creativity because I wasn't afraid that every video had to make money. Yes. And I think people put themselves in these positions where you take this big leap and now the dream has to pay the bills, and now the dream doesn't seem like a dream anymore. It feels like pressure. Absolutely. It becomes a drag when you don't have that money coming in. And so, I always like to think about the different things you do that have different purposes, and sometimes your work is just for

the purpose of paying your financial way. And Then a passion project can be the purpose of your creativity or whatever without, as you said, thinking, "Oh, how am I going to do this?" or going into survival mode. Is there a good way to calculate what a financial cushion should be for someone? Typically, you'd recommend 3 to 6 months of your living expenses. So, calculate how much your basic living expenses cost you in a month and multiply it by three if you feel a little comfortable with a low cushion, or by six if you want to be a little more safe. I've gone up to 9 months because I'm super calculating, but ultimately it comes down to what makes you feel comfortable. What makes you feel like you can walk away from

this and say, "I have a good financial runway ahead of me." Tell me the biggest financial mistakes people make in their 20s. Avoiding looking at their finances. That's the number one thing that makes people regress. It's very easy to ignore it, because sometimes it makes you feel a little uncomfortable looking at your finances. I mean, there's A psychological bias called the ostrich effect, where we actively avoid information that makes us feel uncomfortable in the hope that if we ignore it, it will sometimes disappear. And it's why you don't check your bank account

after a weekend of spending. You don't check your credit card statement because you're afraid of the damage and what it might do. But in your twenties, you're creating habits that will stack up in your favor or against you over time The stakes aren't that high, so you want to be able to learn and acquire small habits early. Look at your finances, all the little gaps that arise, and fix or improve them before they compound to your disadvantage. Why do people avoid looking at their bank account? Because sometimes it shows them what their priorities are and what they're focused on.

Hmm. And that might be completely at odds with their core values. And they might make impulse purchases or buy things they didn't really think about at the time. And then looking at it. And seeing that these are actually all the things I bought, but all the things I wanted to do for myself, for my future self, have taken a back seat. So, I think that's an important part. Yeah, I also saw this study years ago that talked about how money has changed. So, for example, before, when you paid for something, you took the cash out of your personal wallet and gave it to someone. So, you actually had to

count how many dollars, how many cents, how many pounds, wherever you lived, right? And you had to count and think, "Oh my God, that's a lot of money." That's $100. That's $50. Whatever it is. Then there were the cards, and now you do n't see the money anymore. No. And so it's much easier to swipe your card and put it in a machine than it is to count dollars. And now, you make an online transaction, so you don't have to give anything. You just type in a code or hit "buy," click, or whatever , and the next thing you know, it's already there. And so, spending money has become much easier. And so I understand why people are scared, because it's like I've gone from having to count to having to give to having to click.

Absolutely. And now you don't even have to think about it. Yes, you could literally buy a car from your phone at 2:00 in the morning. And don't talk to anyone in the meantime. And so it requires effort, it's friction. And so, the awkward thing to do is to create friction between you and a purchase, but that 's the difficult thing. It's hard to wait 48 hours before making an impulse purchase and then decide whether you really want it or not. Yes. It's hard to say no to an Instagram ad that pops up repeatedly and decide you don't want to buy that thing. This is the hardest thing to do, which is more important now than ever, as you said, because everything is so fluid.

And would you argue that it's a matter of willpower, or do you believe that if we looked at our finances, we would automatically make better decisions I definitely think it's a weird combination, but one of the things comes down to willpower and the ability to say no to things in the moment. The world right now is built to take your money and make you spend it. That's how the economy works. So, a lot of this requires your willpower. But a good way to stop this is to actually look at your finances , taking 20 minutes at the end of the month to examine how much you spent and say, " Okay, are these purchases in line with what I wanted? Did they make me happy? Did they actually improve my life in some way, shape or form?" And then

deciding, "Do you want to continue with this habit next month and the month after that?" "Or are you going to start making changes?" If someone listens to this podcast and says, "Okay, Nisha, I'm going to start taking a 20-minute look at my finances at the end of the month." Is this the right time to do it? What's the plan? Tell me a very simple 20- minute plan for what someone should look for when checking their finances. I would say there are probably two types of people. And some of them don't want to look at their finances at all. The thought of making a budget or looking at numbers simply makes his skin crawl. They tried to romanticize it, they tried to do it

over a glass of wine, they tried to do it with a friend, but it didn't work. For them, I would recommend taking a step back, broadening their perspective, and thinking about what the goal of controlling their finances is. Why do you want to budget or track your finances? And the main goal is to save a certain amount every month. If you fall into this category, I would recommend taking a rough approach. Take your net salary, minus an amount you want to save each month. Start with what you feel comfortable with, whether it's $50 in the US, $50, $100, whatever the amount is. It's your savings. Put them away, don't touch them.

You could spend the rest. The important thing to do here is, with that amount, as soon as your money arrives on payday, set up an automatic transfer, so that the amount is transferred from your checking account to a separate bank account that you can't even touch. If you hate numbers, if you hate looking at your finances, if you don't want to look at your bank statement, do it. And then, as the months go by, you might try tweaking that savings figure. If you're one of those people who says, " You know what? I want to look at my bank statements. I want to look at my numbers. I want to understand this a little better So, I would recommend a less restrictive way of thinking about your finances, one that makes you feel like taking control is a way of

saying yes, rather than saying no, to buying things. And so, if you fall into the category of those who think, "Okay, I want to optimize my finances," looking at your net pay- again, that's the number on your pay stub, not on your job description-and breaking that net pay down into three categories. These are three numbers everyone should know. The first is your essential expenses. These are the things you need to have in life. The things you need for everyday life. Mortgage or rent, groceries, car payments. This is your first category. The second category is that of entertainment. So, these are leisure, travel, manicures, pedicures, spas, massages, all of that. It falls into the entertainment category. And then the last category is

your future. So, that's all about your tomorrow. Savings, investments, uh even extra debt payments. When it comes to your expenses, assign a percentage of your expenses to each of these three categories. My recommendation is about 65% for your essential expenses, 25% for your entertainment, and then 10% for your future. So, this is what you want to look at when you look at your bank statements. The first thing is: are you saving enough? This is the first category. And then you should look for patterns in your other expenses. What do I constantly spend money on? What can I delete? And if you're examining your entries item by item, ask yourself three questions.

Do I need it? If I need it, can I live on a smaller amount? Or can I get the same thing for a lower price? Mhm. Repeat these three questions. Do I need it? Can I live on less? Or can I get the same thing for a lower price? Those are great questions. This is the perfect pause between the moment you're about to click and buy and actually creating some space in your mind. Because as soon as you say those three things, I think, " Yeah, it makes you wonder whether you want to buy that thing or not." Yes, absolutely. And I love your analysis because one of my favorite quotes is from Warren Buffett when he said, "Don't save what's left over after you've spent, spend what's left over after you've saved." "Yeah, I like that. And that's

exactly what you just shared with us, which is that you have to set aside your savings first. And I think most of us spend and then see what we have left at the end of the month and put it aside. And obviously, it never grows. I think one of the most important things for Nischal, when it comes to finances, and I know I was like that, honestly, I thought you had to wait for a big payday to make money, save, and invest money. And until you got it, it didn't really matter. Yeah. Like, you're not really going to do that. You're not going to save that much and small amounts, what are they going to do anyway?

What are the micro habits that actually make us rich? Because I think we think it's these big things that happen, like getting a promotion, somehow selling a great company, or, you know, all these things you see online that you think are going to make you rich. But what are actually the micro habits that make people rich A couple of weeks ago, I was in a hotel lobby and this lady approached me. She was very kind. He said: "I watch your videos and have always wanted to invest, but I need to learn more. I just wanted to learn more." And as we talked, I realized he knew what he wanted to invest in. He was following the recommendations that everyone gives online,

the S&P 500. He knew how much he wanted to invest. He had even downloaded an investing app on his phone. And he hadn't put that knowledge into practice yet, for some reason. And there we were. We were both waiting for our taxis. And so I said, "Okay, why don't you. Why don't you do it right now? Why don't you invest now? You know what you want. You know what you want to do. We could do this together. "So he did. He took out his phone. He bought what he wanted to buy. And in three minutes, he had invested. And it was as if this thing he had been building in his head for so long, this analysis paralysis, this fear,

simply collapsed the moment he actually took action. And that's one of the micro habits that makes people so far ahead. Taking what you've learned and turning it into action. Because very often we learn just for the sake of learning. And we don't actually do anything with it. So that's one of the main things. Whenever you learn something new about personal finance, take action that very day and then refine it as you go. It might not be the thing that works for you, but it could. But as long as you keep moving forward and keep implementing your life, that's what separates a person sitting in the backseat and doing nothing from someone who is actually taking the

driver's seat and charting their own course for their life. And another habit I would say is creating goals but having concrete plans to achieve them. So, how often? we say, "I want to save more." Or, "I want to invest more." Always." Or: "I want to achieve financial freedom," right? We say this all the time, but one of the habits people could adopt is to follow this mindset with very, very concrete steps. So, instead of saying, "I want to save more." "It will be, 'I want to save $5,000 in the next 12 months.' That's just over $ 400 a month, and to do that, I'm going to do X, Y, Z. I'm going to reduce my subscription. I'm going to negotiate this bill and automate my savings." "Now the situation is

completely different. Absolutely, yes. It's great. Now you have a clear goal and a path to get there. People who are good with money and those who aren't, or aren't at all, don't have different goals. It's just a follow-up plan to achieve them. You're right. We throw out these goals all the time. Like, 'I wish I had more money.' I want to save up for this. Da "." But you still don't quite understand how it works. And as you said, it could be as simple as automatic savings, cutting subscriptions. Tell me about how much drinking coffee every day negatively impacts your bank account? Yes. If you really, really, really feel like you're living day by day and have effectively eliminated everything except coffee, then maybe you should take

a look at your coffee bill. But, really, it's much more about alignment when it comes to spending and intentional spending. Because what you want to do is look at the things that bring you joy or happiness, and then decide for yourself whether they're worth keeping or getting rid of. So, I wouldn't say, "Oh, cut out those coffees and invest that money." "It's just about looking at every single decision or every single pound or dollar that comes into your life and asking yourself, 'Well, what purpose do I want this pound or this dollar to have? "" Because if you don't define its purpose, it will end up defining yours. Yes. So, be more conscious and more intentional about how you spend rather than cutting back because that's what everyone else online tells you to do.

What happens to someone who says, " I'll save 1 month, 3 months for a bag "? "How can we improve our willpower towards the expensive things that make us happy?" Yes. So, for someone who says, "I really want that pair of shoes. I really want that bag. I'll do anything for anyone." You can afford it, but can you really create a better life for yourself? Are you more financially secure? How do you control your willpower when it seems so compelling? It's much easier to spend on things when you know your future is secure Mhm. And when you know, "Okay, the first thing I do is save some money and that money accumulates for my future."

You feel much happier if you spend money on whatever makes you happy at that moment. And I encourage everyone to take a look at their life, their goals, and decide, "Is this bringing me closer to my life goals, or is it taking me away from them?" Do you need a six-figure salary to achieve financial freedom? This is a misconception. We often think that to manage money better, to achieve financial freedom, you need to earn more. While that's great, earning money doesn't actually make you better with money. And it's not how much you earn, but how you manage it. So, a person with $100,000 who spends $100,000 is actually worse off than a person with $50,000 and saves 10%.

Hmm. So, if you want to achieve financial freedom, you need to save and invest a portion every month. And then what the market really rewards is time and consistency. So even small contributions today, which are left for the future, 10 or 20 years from now, can add up enormously over time, and it's such an unfair advantage that the People aren't making the most of it. Using the money you have now and using leverage to make it. multiply in a way that doesn't require you to keep working and trading your time for money. It's actually much easier to feel behind financially than to feel ahead financially.

And a large part of this is due to the fact that we compare our achievements not based on how much we have, but how much we have compared to those around us. And there 's research on this. There's research showing that two people could earn exactly the same income and report different levels of satisfaction simply based on whether the people around them earn more or less than them. So, you could have 50,000 and you could feel happy with your finances if everyone around you earned 45,000 or feel less happy if everyone around you earned 55,000. It's amazing, yes. We measure our success based on.We're human. We're social creatures.

We measure our success based on what happens around us. And in the past, it wasn't so bad. when our social circle didn't extend beyond our city or our neighborhood. You could be a basketball player blissfully unaware of the bigger fish up ahead, right? But now, with the internet, we're exposed to everyone, and the most successful anomalies, the most successful anomalies, are there for all to see. So, yes, it really is. Emotions are an important part of my work, but I want people to understand that there are things that drive their emotions that are outside of their control, and to always remember the checkpoints that matter and go back to the financial part to understand if they're better off

or if they're doing well financially. Yes, I'm really glad you brought this up, too, because I also think it demonstrates a kind of flaw in human training, in the sense that you hope that if everyone around you earns more than you, you can study them and learn from them and even grow. But we only end up envying them more, becoming jealous or angry with ourselves. Even if we're not jealous or envious of others, we become a little hard on ourselves, like, "Oh, you should be better," and you're behind and everyone's ahead of you. And it's almost as if we could learn to study people instead of envying them, criticizing them, or getting angry with ourselves.

Yes. Then it would be healthy to be with people who are better off than us because we always hear the famous quote that says you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. If you're trying to grow your finances, and I'm not telling people to change their friends, but if you're trying to grow a certain area of your life, you're going to have to be around people who excel in that area. Absolutely. And knowing that people are excelling in that area, sometimes you're at a certain level with your finances and you don't realize what's possible because everyone around you is in the same area or at the same stage. And I remember the moment I heard

someone earning X amount per month, that's when it hit me and I thought, oh, this is really possible. And then when you get there, you hear someone else say, oh, this is how much I make a month and you just change your view of what normal is. And yes, it's not about changing as you said, it's not about changing your circle of friends to try to find friends who earn more, but simply understanding that these are possible things and that none of them are beyond your reach. It's not like you can do whatever you put your mind to and surround yourself with. What do the top 1% understand about money that most of us don't?

There is 1% of financial success and then there is 1% of financial happiness. And they are two different things. Financial success is society's definition of happiness. Financial happiness is your intrinsic definition of happiness. And people who fall into the 1% of financial happiness have very clear ideas about what they want from life, what a good life means to them And going back to my banking experience, it's much easier said than done because if you don't take the time to look inside yourself, then you will only follow what is outlined for you and the path that is ahead of you. So, This is the first thing that people who are in the 1% of financial happiness do.

The second thing is that they understand that every financial decision they make, every pound or dollar they spend, either brings them closer to that level of happiness or takes them further away from it. And that's the point. If you don't know what you're doing or why you're doing it, you'll spend money without thinking about whether it's bringing you closer to your life goals. But you can't have number two without having number one. You must first be clear about your why and then spend in line with that why. I like this redefinition. I think that 's really important because I think social media has also made us more focused on the top 1%. Here is the list of billionaires, and this is the list of millionaires. The reality is that

living a life aligned with and grounded in your values and what you care about is much more within your reach and will make you happier. And I like that. reframe the concept from financial success to financial happiness, because I think that's what we're all looking for. And that brings us back to your same point, which is that it's not just about making more money, it's about knowing what you're doing with what you have and then allowing that to expand. And I'm so glad that you're kind of pushing that conversation out there, as a money expert, because I think it's easy to get excited and just talk about how to make, like, $100 or a million dollars or $10 million or whatever. And then it's like, well, A, it could be a long

road, and you know, this brings us back to all the get-rich-quick schemes. It brings us back to people who promise you that you can make a million dollars in a week. Like all that kind of stuff. What is your opinion on passive income? Is it possible? There is no such thing as completely passive income. There are several forms of income, but none of them are completely passive and require a lot of initial work. I'm so glad you said that. It simply isn't. And the most passive way to make money with minimal effort is to invest. It's the easiest way to learn, the easiest to understand, and you can make an extraordinary amount of money with small amounts of money.

So passive income, as it 's advertised online or through what we see on the Internet, should be taken with a pinch of salt and we need to understand who says it, why they say it, and nothing is passive without a lot of work. The simplest way, the easiest way to get rich in the long run is to invest in the stock market. If someone wants to completely transform their finances in the next 6 months, what's the plan? There is a specific order of steps that I would recommend people follow. And especially the first part, I think a lot of this fear comes from the first thing, which is not having an emergency buffer. So, save on expenses. The first step I

recommend or the first step I recommend anyone to save is $ 2,000. And Vanguard research shows that simply saving that amount …$2,000, which increases your financial well-being by up to 21%. Wow. Saving $2,000. And then if you increase that number to 3-6 months, you have an additional 13% of financial well-being. We fail to realize that having that buffer does not have to operate from a situation of scarcity. Only $2,000 to get started. It's incredible To begin. Yes. After that, you want to make sure your high- interest debt has been paid off. And by high interest, I mean anything above 8%. This is credit card debt consumer debt. And I say 8% because

historically, the average stock market return has been 8 to 10% So, if you have debt above 8 %, you are actually worse off financially holding onto that debt than paying it off. So, this is the first thing you want to do. And then for interest or debt below 8%, again, this is where the mathematically smart choice is to invest rather than pay off debt below 8%. But again, we are not robots. We are not artificial intelligence. We are humans with emotions. And one of mine.We have a WhatsApp chat with some girls I've known for about 13 years. And in that WhatsApp chat we talk about our investments and what we've invested in, we exchange ideas. And one of the girls invested very, very little. He just moved in, but he's been

paying off his student loans and is almost out of debt. For her, of course, the mathematically right choice would have been to invest her money. And we look at finances in terms of revenue optimization, expected value, expected rate of return. But peace of mind also has value. Yes. And if you have debt that keeps you up at night and stresses you out and makes your mood worse, then who's to say you should invest first? Absolutely, yes. You want to get things done and make sure your finances are organized in a way that helps you sleep at night. And then, once you feel comfortable with that debt position, then you want to start investing and move forward on

your long-term wealth journey. But that's what I recommend. I love that plan. That's a fantastic plan. It seems so doable at first. It offers you a step-by-step process because I think sometimes people wonder whether I should save first or pay off my debt first. And you think, well, you'll actually feel a lot better if you just have that cushion. It's important. You need it. Next thing, start paying off that debt. And now that you've done that, later on we can start thinking about investing and everything else. And I think you're absolutely right when you say that we often do it the other way around. We think, oh, if I invest first, then hopefully one of these things will make me some

money. Of course, this is not the case or it takes 5 to 10 years or even more. And so the fear doesn't go away, the insecurity doesn't go away, and now you're not even saving the right way. So I really like this rephrasing because I really hope that everyone listening and watching right now, like Nisha, just got a masterclass in what to do with your money right now if you're in a tough situation. And I couldn't agree with you more. Fixing your financial well-being and peace first is a much stronger foundation to build on. Sure, people need to get better at their finances, but I want them to use their finances to build a life that is more aligned with them, bigger, bolder. And that happens by deciding what peace of mind means to you and then doing what works for you.

Yes. What are three things we should stop wasting money on that most of us don't even realize? The first thing people should stop wasting money on is anything they think will increase their value by showing others what they have. Oh, nice answer. I mean, it's one of the quickest ways to save money. saying, "I'm not going to buy this thing to show others that I have it." And really, with every purchase you make, ask yourself: Am I buying it for myself or am I buying it because I want others to know I have it. So that's the first thing I would tell I remember a purchase I made in the early days. It was just a watch I bought in the early days and I thought everyone would notice it and everyone would hate it Like, at first, nobody noticed.

And so I was trying to say, you know, like. " Yeah. Because I didn't like it either. I bought it because everyone thought it was going to be cool. And now, you know, I don't even know where it is anymore. And I say, "No, let me buy things that I think are cool and that I know the value of and yeah. " I think that's the difference. If you do it, if you buy it for yourself and it makes you feel good or it's fun, then do it. But if you do it simply thinking that it will make you happy based on other people's expectations or opinions, don't worry. It's not. And I made a similar mistake. My first 3 months' salary when I started working at the first investment bank I worked at went straight to a new car. And it was

the craziest purchase I could have made, but at the time I didn't have that introspection to know if it was what I wanted or if it was in line with my goals or not. Yes. The second thing people shouldn't waste their money on is upgrades. I actually believe that when you buy something for the first time, your happiness level increases tremendously But then for every marginal upgrade you make after that, there's this law of diminishing returns where the amount you spend proportionately just doesn't correspond to the extra happiness you understand.

Hmm. So, actually, rather than spending that money For something new every time, spending it on experiences or memories has a much bigger impact on your happiness and overall life satisfaction than buying something new. Yes. Yes, absolutely. The new iPhone, for example, will be the same for the next 4 years anyway. Yes. Yes, and every time you bought that upgrade, you could barely notice the difference from the first one Absolutely. I really appreciate you thinking about this advice because the quality of the insights you're providing are allowing us to reflect. It would be so easy for you to simply say, " Cancel your subscriptions, cancel the coffee." Like, and these are

basic things that people can definitely look at, but the questions you're asking us are actually the driving factors of how and why we spend money, and I think that's much more at the root of the problem. The third thing I would say is that when you buy something, you have to understand whether you buy it for the name or for its purpose, for its usefulness. So, do you buy a designer bag for the designer or because you like it and it can actually help you carry your money? Yes. Having this way of thinking can actually greatly reduce the excessive spending you do needlessly in your daily life.

Yes, absolutely. Yes, I remember having so many friends who bought sunglasses or wallets that they thought were cool, but then never wore or used them. Yes. Because they actually didn't like how they looked on their face, but you made the purchase that day, you exchanged it, and now you can't return it, and everything else about it, and you're stuck with it. No, these are, these are, these are absolutely fantastic, and I feel like it's so true that a lot of the money we spend is because of things we're not aware of or because we're doing it based on some unconscious need that we're trying to figure out.

And even if you do, it's good to know. So, even if you are spending based on some unconscious need, it is good to be aware of it and accept that this is the case. What I want to do with you, Nisha, okay. I want to talk about how saving money really works. And so, this is a quick little session on saving specifically because I feel like a lot of your work is about helping us save better. Okay, what habits do successful savers have? What I.Wait. But I also want to say. Okay, go ahead. That you only save up to a certain point Okay, continue. Continues. You're flipping the script. I like this.

You say that one thing I want people to understand and know is that saving will only get you so far. You may only use a certain number of coupon codes. You may only find a certain number of offers. After a while, you realize that you can't cut your costs beyond a certain level. While the other side, the profit side, that side is infinite. And there is unlimited potential. And I actually have the feeling that a lot of people don't take the profit side of things into account . And that has a much greater chance of changing your finances than saving. We can only think about it. When you save, if you think about saving, literally, what is it? If you think about it more broadly, it's the difference

between your income and your expenses. And one way to increase your savings is, of course, to cut your expenses. The other way is to increase the amount you are earning. Mhm. The easiest way to increase your income is to create more value. Money is just an exchange of value. Mhm. And the amount of value you can create, as a byproduct, the money will come from that. So, with this in mind, how can you increase your income? First of all, how can you think about increasing your value? If you work a day job, what can you do to make yourself more indispensable to your company, if you work for a company Can you take on projects that no one

else wants to take on? Can you increase revenue for your team? Can you reduce stress for your boss? What are these things that can justify a raise or promotion? And if you work in a place or a situation or an organization where you're almost at the limit with salary increases and you can't get raises or promotions, like you can in other industries, then the same applies How can you increase your value? But you want to look for ways to do this outside of your day job. Mhm. Look at your friends, your family, your colleagues and ask yourself, what do they need? And what do I have that can solve what they need? What skills can I charge for? If you think of your savings as the difference between what

you earn and what you spend, if over time you continue to earn more, get those raises, get those promotions, and your earnings increase, and you keep your expenses more or less the same, sure, enjoy the upgrades. If you get a small bonus, spend a little to make yourself happy. I don't believe in the idea of completely cutting everything out and making your life coherent. But if the gap and difference between your earnings and your expenses continues to grow and widen, and you continue to set that difference aside and save it, that's fuel for your finances. Yes. This will make a much bigger difference than just focusing on cutting back and finding ways to save because you could only save as much as you earn, but you could always earn more.

And sometimes you have these voices that tell you that if you want more money, you're a bad person, or that you're trying to earn more, there's something wrong with you. This is also completely wrong. That quote that says money is the root of all evil, that is not money is the root of all evil. It is the love of money that is the root of all evil. But trying to earn more isn't necessarily about money. It's just a matter of money, because for many people, having more money exacerbates who you are deep down . And if you could do more with the money you have, then there's actually nothing wrong with wanting more for yourself, too. And a lot of people say, "Oh, I don't know if I can make more money or if this is for me." " I would also recommend setting an

hourly rate in your head. Set an hourly rate for yourself. And anything you can outsource for less than that hourly rate, outsource it. So, even for example, if you're spending 3 hours trying to save $10, what's your hourly rate? Because you just spent 3 hours trying to save $10. Whereas, if you spent those 3 hours trying to earn more, that would change your finances. That would have a much bigger impact. That 's a great way to think about it. I like the hourly rate breakdown because you basically just said your hours are worth $3 each. And you know you could go out and add more value and earn a lot more. I feel like there's a lot of talk in our generation right now and in the generation that's growing up about the

value of money, and that's why I love your reframing of financial happiness. I think you're absolutely right to talk about financial happiness versus financial success. What are the secrets to people being financially happy, not just financially Success? I'll talk about my experience, where I almost felt like I had lived two lives, in a sense, working for a company for nine years. And partly, I loved what I did. I found it very intellectually stimulating. I liked the work. I liked the environment. And that doesn't mean working for a company isn't the right thing to do. If you're an employee, you're the owner, and you enjoy it, it's the right thing for you. If you're an entrepreneur and you enjoy it, it's the right thing for you.

But for me, I found that my version of financial happiness was being able to work on things that made me truly happy. Being able to take on projects that I wanted to take on and that I knew I could do very well at. And also just being able to have more control, freedom, options, independence in my life. And while I don't necessarily think you could get that from anything else, yes, as an entrepreneur or doing your own thing, I think a lot of people are looking for the same things. Yes. And that comes from keeping your finances in check, setting them up in such a way that, as we said before, you can create A life more aligned with what you desire.

We conclude each episode of On Purpose with five final questions. These questions should be answered in one word or phrase at most. Nishi Sharma, these are your five final questions. Question number one: What 's the best financial advice you've ever heard or received? The best financial advice I 've ever heard or received is that you can't take money with you to the grave. You have to spend it throughout your life. Question two: What's the worst financial advice you've ever heard or received? The worst financial advice I 've ever received is that you have to save for retirement.

Saving for retirement isn't possible these days. With the way things are going, with the rising cost of living, you have to invest your money Question three: What would you do differently now, looking back on your financial journey? mean, there was a time in my life where I spent a lot of money on material goods, objects and designer items, and looking good. Since then, I've made a lot of good financial decisions, I'd say, and I use them in a way. That makes me really happy today. But if I could go back in time, I would have spent more money on things that make me happy, which I didn't do back

then and that would have changed those years for me. Question number four, if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would you say? Lil Nisha. Lil Nisha, if I could give you one piece of advice, I would say, and it's that quote, which is " jump and the net will appear." There have been so many times where I 've felt like I'm on the edge of a cliff and I don't know if I'll be able to make the leap and have the strength to do anything. And as I've gotten older, I've found that as long as you're moving, you'll find a way to make

things work. You'll find a way in motion to create that net for yourself. Fifth and final question we ask all the guests who have participated in the show. If you could create one law that everyone in the world had to follow, what would it be? I'll do it in the financial sphere. Yes, please. And I would say don't treat other people based on the amount of money they show. that you have or think they have. I think we very often value someone based on the amount of money they have in front of them. But in reality, there's so much more that goes into a person, so many more characteristics that define them. So I also think it would solve

a lot of problems with not having to spend money on external validation. This would probably be a law I'd like to create. Well said. Yes. Nisha, thank you so much. Thank you so much, Purpose. Anyone who's listening or watching, be sure to subscribe to Nisha's YouTube channel. You can follow her on social media and, of course, check out her programs on financial education, financial literacy, and creating a better future for yourself. Nisha, thank you so much for being so open, thoughtful, and insightful. I felt like I learned so much, and I'm so grateful to have spent this time together.

Thank you so much, and to you too, Jay, you're exactly the same person online and offline. Like, you could say that your purpose online is to try to help as many people as possible and give back as much as you can, and offline you do that in your day-to-day life, and everything you do is to help others. And I'm so grateful to be able to see both sides of you. So, thank you. Well, I appreciate it, and congratulations to you. I can't wait to see so much more. I'm so excited for you, Nischal. Fantastic. If you enjoyed this clip and would like to watch more, this next video was chosen especially for you based on your

viewing habits. I hope you enjoy it, and if so, please subscribe so we can continue providing you with great conversations.