Investment Diary #19: Insights from Reading 'Puppy Money'

I recently read Puppy Money and realised that a lot of the principles in it are similar to what I’ve seen in books before.

The book Puppy Money Money mentions a dream album that allows you to establish your mission or dream, not unlike the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People which mentions that one of the key habits for personal success is to start with the end in mind, and that a success diary is like the Internal Scorecard that Munger mentions, to continually motivate yourself to move forward, and to establish your loves and strengths. As well as the book’s references to the story of the goose laying the golden egg, the active income and investment fund concepts are again the same as those in The Winning Way of Individual Investing.

Of course, the book also offers some new ideas that have inspired or touched me more.

What money is for 🔗︎

Poverty is more likely to produce misfortune

Money enables you to gain more respect, and you will begin to respect yourself, you can talk to interesting people, and you have the ability to help others, who are willing to accept your help. To lead a happy life, a person has to change himself. It has nothing to do with money, money is neutral.

If your dream is to make more friends and talk to interesting people, you have more friends and freedom when you have money.

That’s what drives me to want to work hard to make money.

What Investment Diary Solves 🔗︎

A success diary records your success story and why you are successful.

1. In the future, you can write your story and connect with others. When you keep a success journal, you will think more deeply about yourself, the world, and the laws of success, and will learn more and more about yourself and your desires, which will make you more capable of understanding others as well.
2. Without a success diary, you won’t think about where you fit in to earn money. Do what you love. Most people focus on what they don’t like instead of visualising what they wish for.
3. Overcome fear: Just look through your success diary and you will find evidence from past successes that you are capable of accomplishing anything in the future as well. It’s much better to be overconfident than underconfident, and the key to whether you can make money is how confident you are, not how smart you are, because if you don’t believe you can do it then you won’t do it and you won’t get anything. (Of course mentors + practice + thorough preparation are important too).

So write at least 5 entries every day and keep envisioning your future.

What does a dream album do 🔗︎

1. Builds longing: it’s essential to envision yourself with these things already in place so that your little wish becomes a strong longing. Most importantly, it is because of this longing that you will be able to overcome difficulties and not back down. You will consider things that you previously thought did not matter, endeavour to learn something new and think about many things.

2. Do not retreat:

• Only a few people can follow through on their plans with determination when real difficulties arise. For example, keeping a success diary, your own investment strategy. Those who are very successful have the ability to excel in their most difficult times.
• Do whatever you think is right. There will be all sorts of people who will make fun of you, but there will also be more people who will recognise you.
• The best things in life are when you do what you would otherwise be afraid to do." Trying" is an excuse to find a way out before you even do it. Trying is also an excuse, as if trying will lead to success. You don’t need that excuse when you actually put in all the effort. Luck is simply the result of adequate preparation plus hard work. Not everyone is willing to make the necessary effort because they don’t want to pay the price.
• You can’t give up on your ambitions because of anyone. Crazy ideas are easier to achieve than ordinary goals because it means you have to put in much more effort than others. Actually putting it into practice is much more useful than pure thinking. Put more focus on what you can do rather than why I can’t do it well. More on finding solutions than excuses.

How to Build Active Income 🔗︎

**1. Solve a problem for someone else **

**2. Focus your energy on what you know, can do, and have

People often spend their lives thinking about what they don’t know, can’t do and don’t have. Don’t focus on what I can’t do and don’t have. Figure out what you love to do and then think about how you can make money with it and think seriously about how you can make money. The only way to achieve true success is to do what you love. Document the ways in which you can earn money.

Learn to hire others, including doing things you’re not good at, things you don’t have time for, and expanding your income. But the work you do is only worth half the pay at best, the other half stems from your idea and the courage to implement that idea.

When you decide to do something, it has to be done within 72 hours or you’ll probably never do it again*

Principles of investing 🔗︎

Many people don’t understand investing, and people don’t believe in what they don’t understand. Investing is simple, and simple and basic principles are the way to go, not “esoteric” things. There is a danger that overly complex narratives will deviate from the essentials. We often too quickly conclude that “this I already know.

1. Bank deposits are a gold-digging beast, because if inflation is 3%, the interest you earn on your deposits every year is not enough to cover inflation. 3% inflation, according to the Rule of 72, you will have half your money left in 24 years. Stocks have the greatest return.

2, never pin your hopes on just one job, it won’t last as long as you envisage.

3, You should pay off as few loans as possible.

4, the fund risk is much lower than individual stocks, money is guaranteed because the money in the fund is deposited in the bank, the longer the time the lower the risk, but still keep about 20% of the cash or fixed income, to avoid the volatility of the stock market, the family should not be more than 10% of the cash. Every month 50% of your income is brought to fixed income funds. Your fixed investment fund is your goose, most people do not have their own goose, can not rely on the goose under the “golden egg” (interest) life.

5, the amount of money is not the key, you must learn to live within your means. When you spend money think, “Is this really necessary?”