Slow and steady wins the race
Making productivity pragmatic.
At a party yesterday I got talking to someone about how they’d just had a session with a life coach, because they feel like they want to achieve a long list of things, but are making no progress on any of them.
I used to feel that way. And then I took more active steps to start doing stuff (like starting Money Brunch!), rather than spending time thinking about what the desired end point looked like, and trying to retrofit a pathway to get there.
It’s something Oliver Burkeman talks about in Four Thousand Weeks.1 How we only have a finite amount of time, and therefore getting hung up on perfection and being able to do everything we want to do will ultimately breed unhappiness.
And, how, if we believe we’ll reach a point in our lives when we have no more problems, nothing else on the to-do list, and are simply content, we’re kidding ourselves.
With regards to financial independence, it’s about taking small steps and working towards more manageable goals. If you’re only focused on the end goal of reaching this utopia, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. And that’s not productive.
1. The UK’s out of recession - but that’s not reason to celebrate
From an economic standpoint, it was a mild and short recession. But speak to any individual, and the chances are that you’ll get the view that things are really hard - and they have been for many, many months.
What does this mean?
The economy was not growing at all - more specifically, there were at least two consecutive quarters of negative economic growth, as measured by a country’s gross domestic product (GDP)
But growth was recorded in Q1 of this year, of 0.6% - so no more recession
However, prices of goods and services are still high, and increasing. And wages are not keeping up. The cost of living is still a crisis.
The big question is about what this means for interest rates. When the Monetary Policy Committee made its monthly decision on Thursday, the Bank of England kept the rate unchanged.
It might be less inclined to cut rates into an economy that is growing faster than expected. So the forecasts of a cut in the summer may be more unlikely. But, as always, we wait and see.
2. The 4% pension rule - what it is, and if it still stands
I wanted to include an article about accessing your pension. I think we, at working age, get told just to put money into a pension. But very little is done to educate people about what actually means for you at retirement age. Because drawing money from your pension is fairly complex, and does require planning.
The three things to remember:
You can take 25% of your pension as a lump sum, tax-free
Any other withdrawals qualify as income, and therefore are taxable
While money remains in your pension pot, it’s still invested (although usually in lower-risk investments) - so you should still see growth
A popular rule for pension savers is to take 4% of the value of their fund in the first year of withdrawals and increase that by the rate of inflation each year. This is supposed to last a typical retiree 30 years.
But how helpful is this in practice? The answer is probably not that much, beyond informing some rough financial planning.
Why?
You’re likely to spend more in early retirement on travelling the world, or pursuing hobbies
But care costs will also need to be factored in, so later retirement could also be expensive
Markets fluctuate, as we know, so the value of your fund is going to change over the course of retirement:
In down markets, you might want to take only income from your investments (i.e. dividends and interest), and leave the assets untouched, so they can continue to generate value when markets go back up
For many people, retirement is ages away. But the thing to do is build a plan; a realistic projection of your monthly and yearly expenses, including contingencies for unexpected costs. And to start thinking about the different sources of income you can draw upon.
Pension money alone is unlikely to be the way to fund your retirement, and certainly not in a tax-efficient way. So you’ll have to consider things like your other investments and savings (remember, money from ISAs is tax-free), and even a part-time job.
3. The best times of day to buy and sell online
When buying:
The highest number of listings go live between 9am and 11am on a Friday, Saturday and Sunday - so search then for the best new things
Do negotiate - particularly when many similar items are available for sale
If you like a person’s style, don’t be afraid to ask what else they might be selling. It’s a great way to snag items before they are listed publicly
For sellers:
List stuff that people are likely to be looking for - right now, think garden furniture, camping gear and sport equipment
List items between 3pm and 8pm on a Saturday or a Sunday
Respond to enquiries promptly - delays can cause buyers to go elsewhere (particularly when many similar items are available for sale!)
Replies to ads on Gumtree peak between 4pm to 6pm on a Saturday, Sunday and Monday
This is all info from Gumtree data, so it’s not a translatable science. Still, there’s no harm and seeing if these insights translate to other second-hand platforms like Vinted and Depop.
Some other things.
Money
Get married on a weekday to save money.
Remember that you can negotiate on non-salary benefits, like annual leave, too.
People are relying less on social media finfluencers (but they still have a helpful role to play about education and exposure to information).
Rent, don’t buy - the library of things that enables you to borrow items rather than buying outright.
Don’t lend money with the expectation that you’ll get it back.
Culture
The Drake-Kendrick gossip explained.
I’m listening to WOLEDTO, the new album from Palestinian-Chilean artist, Elynna (Spotify, Apple Music).
I watched Spinster on Amazon2 (starring Chelsea Peretti) and really enjoyed it - very low-key, but substantial. Like a great soup.
A few things from about cleaning, the burden of domestic labour and similarities with diet culture (paywalled but I highly recommend subscribing to this if you like understanding how we live and work - there is SO much content to explore).
Blocking celebrities, brands and media outlets that profit from our attention as an act of resistance.
Have a great week. And, if you know someone who would enjoy this in their inbox on a Sunday morning…
It’s kind of an anti-productivity book too, and, as a productivity nerd, I highly recommend it. I obviously recommended this book to them too.
I’m on a 30-day free trial, which I do at least once a year - then cancel, and wait a few months to resubscribe to watch something I really want to watch. This time it was for Mr & Mrs Smith (but I only made it to episode 2, and then read plot summaries for the rest of the series).