Thread by @acouplecents

My #1 piece of advice I have for those seeking financial freedom is to focus on "escape velocity". Money has funny physics that we have to overcome for those of us that don't inherit wealth. Here's how:

1. Money has a "Gravity" to it. A cup of Starbucks coffee, Chipotle burrito or 1BR apt costs the same for all of us. That means in order to live a relatively ordinary single life, you'll prob spend $30-40k per year in the US. Many obviously make do w much less & many spend more.

2. Because this, you can't even start the investing battle until you're making more post-tax than you spend. It's why budgeting, minimalism, and frugality content is so ubiquitously popular. It's easier to show people how to reduce spending and harder to show how to "make more"

3. But at this stage, cost-saving is only half the battle. Definitely spend frugally, but imo it's easier for a hungry, smart person to grind/study/network to increase their wages from $20/hr to $40/hr. Better bang for the buck, + your earning potential is increased permanently

4. During this stage really focus on the two things that actually matter:
- Making more money
- Spending less money
This will allow you to save more & more and fund your investments to escape the Gravity of Money

5. Be sure to invest while you're saving, but the reality is you need to save your way to a big enough investment portfolio that it matters. A share of $AMZN is $3,100. A 20% return on a $10,000 portfolio is only 1 year of Starbucks or half a year of Chipotle lunches w/ guac.

6. Earning potential will always matter. Optimizing little expenses matters most early with small savings. The bigger your portfolio gets, the less "spending hacks" matter. On a $100k portfolio, a single day move in the NASDAQ is a year's worth of Starbucks.

7. Obviously the tricky thing is keep spending in check as life goes on. It's tempting to increase spending as your income goes up. And building a family is EXPENSIVE. Just try to make sure your earnings go up (much) faster than your expenses.

8. Investing will have a bigger impact as your portfolio size goes up. Don't spend all your time chasing 30%+ returns on $10k if you can use the time to increase earnings potential. Unless its a hobby or career thing. Really hard to compound $10k to $100k in less than 9 yrs.

9. At this stage, hopefully you're saving more in a month than a 10% return on your portfolio. Either be a long-term investor in compounders or take this time to make high conviction, asymmetric risk/reward bets. The choice is a personal risk and style one.

10. I had a few compounders while saving (@aapl, @goog, @amzn), but I was weighted higher to the high-conviction high risk/reward bets. This was #Bitcoin for me. Its clearly been $TSLA for others.

11. The whole investing field filled w PhDs & Harvard grads is dedicated to finding these investments, so its hard AF. Finding them is a combo of intellectual curiosity, researching new things, and finding trustworthy "analysts". If this is too hard, just invest in index funds.

12. Investing style depends on what the goal is. If you're not time-sensitive & just want to retire on $5M, you can just invest in ETFs and compounders. But if you want $10M+, it's really hard to earn your way there. You have to find some concentrated bets that pay off 4:1+.

13. Concentrated bets r easier when u have higher earnings & larger portfolio. Losing $50k isn't so bad when u save $40k/yr. In my case losing six figures on #Bitcoin (crypto winter) didn't affect me when I saved $100k+/yr. Don't bet what you can't EASILY save your way out of.

14. The truly great bets also don't come around very often. And all of them look really speculative in their early stages. They also require "diamond hands". Lots of luck and research required. The easiest bets are actually the 2:1 payout ones (real estate, pre-IPO equity).

TLDR - No matter who you are, until you have a large enough portfolio, say $75k+, u should prob focus on increasing your earnings and saving money. Your investing style is determined by your goals, the more $ you want, the faster u want it, the more risk u have to take.

Regardless of your investing style and goals, you'll need help from well-intentioned research, analysis, and content to find the best investments. I hope that I (and Cents) can be this resource for you, in addition to other amazing creators out there!