Issue 5— Finance Fridays —Codie’s Money Matrix, Top 3 Housing Crisis Solutions and 7 Rules of Abundance

There’s no financial advice here, just pure entertainment mate x

Contents:

• 💡 Idea of the Week — Codie Sanchez’s Money Matrix
• 🎒Useful Resource — Top 3 Solutions To The UK Housing Crisis
• ✅ Actionable Advice — Picking Stocks By Following Your Money
• 💹Investment Review — S&P 500
• 🥗Side Hustle of the Week — Print On Demand
• 🎒Useful Resource — 7 Rules of Abundance

💡 The Money Matrix

money matrix by Codie Sanchez

If you’re stuck for business ideas, this money matrix by Codie Sanchez categorises the type of business you should be focusing on. In a nutshell:

• If you have no money and no skills — Start a simple service business e.g. Selling Coffee, Cleaning, the type of stuff you find on TaskRabbit.
• If you have no skills, but capital to spend — Buy a boring, reliable business like a Laundrette, Skip Hire or Pest Control business.
• If you’re highly skilled, but no money — Be a consultant then turn your services into digital products like Notion or Google Sheet Templates.
• If you’re highly skilled and have lots of money — Start a software company where you can digitise your skill or knowledge into a product like an app.

🎒7 Rules of Abundance

I randomly stumbled across a PDF in my inbox sent to me by an old work colleague called The Choose Yourself Guide To Wealth. It included 18 rules but I’ll share just 7 of them this time round. Meditate on these rules and think of ways you can implement them into your day-to-day life. For example, writing down ideas everyday is one I recommend if you want to become an entrepreneur.

1. ABS: Always Be Selling (both in a presentation and via copywriting)
2. ABN: Always Be Negotiating (which means win-win, not war)
3. The Idea Muscle Rule (take out a pad, write down a list of ideas, every day)
4. The Real Rules of Leadership (give more to others than you expect back for yourself)
5. Monopoly Rule. Nobody can predict what will happen. But understanding demographic trends and how to use them to take advantage of the coming monopolies in society will be of great benefit.
6. Idea Sex (get good at coming up with ideas. Then combine them. Master the intersection)
7. 1% Rule (every week try to get better 1% physically, emotionally, mentally)

🎒Top 3 Solutions for the UK Housing Crisis

We can all agree that the current housing market in the UK sucks. But are there alternatives? According to some research, these are the best alternatives and their tradeoffs.

1. Japan’s — Relies heavily on capitalistic forces but results in low quality builds which is uniquely suitable for Japan because of their earthquakes. Within 30 years, the value of a typical Japanese home drops to almost zero.

2. Singapore’s — Requires an authoritarian government with socialist values trusted by the public

3. Vienna’s — Requires high government investment and changing the cultural stigma around social housing.

I’ve added a few YouTube videos incase you wanted to get a bit of background on each housing model.

Vienna’s Radical Idea? Affordable Housing For All

Japan’s Unconventional Solution to the Housing Crisis

Why London Should Copy Singapore’s Public Housing Model

✅ Invest 20% into companies you regularly use

Inspired by Fink Money’s TikTok

Putting aside how frowned upon investing in individual stocks is. If you were to do this, this is simple and pretty solid advice for 2 reasons:

1. If you’re using it regularly, the business has solved for customer retention. One of the most beneficial and difficult to cultivate parts of their business model. Especially if you’re paying for it upfront.

2. If you’re a regular customer there’s product quality and brand trust, that’s a solid foundation for long term staying power. Think Levi’s, McDonald’s and Apple.

But I’ll add one more criteria.

3. The company has to be self-sufficient.

I am developing a scepticism towards VC funded business models that haven’t found a way to monetize their customers. For example, Spotify is still not profitable as of 2023 whilst also being too big to fail. I use these services (Spotify, Airbnb, Deliveroo, Netflix) all the time, but will I continue to if they jump up the prices or drastically change the user experience? That’s what the streaming services are trying to solve right now.

The question is where will their share price level out once they have achieved profitability? So check whether the company is actually capable of being profitable before investing. Then decide whether they are worth betting on.

How do you actually do this?

1. Open your Bank app (or Monzo)
2. Scroll down through your recent transactions.
3. Check if you can find your favourite companies on an Investing App of your choice.
4. Invest what you feel comfortable with

💹Investment review (S&P 500)

1. Potential upside ⭐️ — 10–20% returns annually is great but isn’t life changing.

2. Level of risk ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Risk is spread across 500 top companies. Very low (which is great)

3. Upfront costs ⭐️⭐️⭐️- None besides miniscule app fees

4. Historic performance ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Very well documented which is why people love it

5. Skill required ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Perfect for beginners

6. Market saturation⭐️ — Everyone is invested in it

Based on its historic performance it is a reliable investment but the potential upside is limited. You cannot expect anywhere above 15% above returns annually which isn’t life changing. Because it has become more accessible than ever before, some have begun to hint that it’s overvalued meaning a correction may be due.

🥗Side Hustle of the Week (Print on Demand)

1. Hours per week ⭐️ — You have to upload 000s of designs

2. Skill required ⭐️⭐️⭐️ — Use of AI and design tools like Canva makes it easy

3. Upfront cost ⭐️ — You can use Free sites like RedBubble, Merch on Amazon

4. Market saturation ⭐️ — The heyday has passed

5. Timeline to reach success ⭐️⭐️ — Depends on how quickly you can create and upload 000s of designs

6. Income potential ⭐️⭐️ — The margins get lower every year

The Print on Demand hey days are over due to market saturation. I know because I’ve tried it over lockdown. Artists admit to uploading hundreds of designs everyday just to get lucky on a few. So the skill required is very low especially with the use of AI tools and design template apps like Canva and Placeit.

Between the high volume output required, profit margin per unit and high market saturation, you can make some money but probably isn’t sustainable over the long term.

✍🏿Quote of the Week

“You’re crazy until you’re successful then you’re a genius”

― Mr Beast, 20 Questions with MrBeast

Key takeaway: Sometimes dreaming big pays off (massively)