2 Easy Ways to Love Your Job and Never Work a Day in Your Life

In my opinion, there are 2 easy ways that people can follow to achieve a better job and enjoy their work more.

1. Find a lower stress job with more personal meaning

Sadly, this usually means a pay cut. But if you are so miserable at your current job that you think you’re wasting your life, maybe this is something you should look into. Frugality can mean more than more savings, it can also give you the freedom to work in careers that mean more to you. Perhaps just in your current field you can find a role with a better environment, better boss, better hours, co-workers you enjoy.  All these things combined can make a huge difference.

2.  Be good at your job

A lot of people are mediocre at their job, and make no effort to improve at their work. If you are really good at what you do, there’s a lot of leeway. You will get better work assignments, more interesting projects, more autonomy, more control over your schedule. If you have a hobby or passion project, maybe you can become so good at it that you’ll get a new career. Perhaps instead of investing $5,000 into the stock market, you should invest that money in a class or certification that will get you a better job. The returns to human capital often dwarf the returns available in the capital markets.

I believe being Financially Independent gives you an awesome negotiating position.
- Living paycheck-to-paycheck means that losing your job will cause you to lose your car, get evicted, run into debt, etc.
- Having an emergency fund means that you could work on finding a better job for 3-6 months.
- Being Financially Independent means that you don't have to do anything if you don't want to, because you have the money to support you and your decisions.

We're all gonna make it.

My Workouts for the Week (9/2/15-15/2/15)

Monday 9th February 2015:

Legs

Made a focus on my quads today as they are lacking (especially compared in strength against my hamstrings) and also my hamstrings were a tad sore from the weekend football. Went to the gym at around 830pm and it was bloody packed! So decided just to get in, pump out some sets and get out. Going to go first thing in the mornings instead of late at night from now on to avoid these crowds

So here was my workout for Monday:
Quad Extensions: 4 sets of 8, really focused on the contractions.
Leg press: 4 sets of 10, 120kg and made sure to go deep and get the full range of motion.
Seated Hamstring curls: 3 sets of 8, hamstrings were a bit tight/sore so didn't go overboard with them.

All in all a short and sharp session for a Monday night when the gym was packed to the rafters.

Tuesday 10th February 2015:

Chest and Triceps

Went to the gym later on Tuesday at 10pm and there was a lot more benches free and a lot less people which was nice, so it looks like this might be a regular thing!

So here was my workout for Tuesday:
DB Bench Press: 4 Sets of 8, really focused on slow, controlled movements.
Barbell Bench Press: 3 sets of 10. Did a lower weight (60kg) but pumped out reps for a good pump.
Flat Bench Flys: 2 sets of 10. Focused on the contraction of the muscle.
Cable Flys: 4 sets of 10. Man I just love cable flys.
Tricep Pushdowns: 4 sets of 8.
Tricep Extension: 4 sets of 6

Wednesday 11th February 2015

Back and Biceps
Hit the gym for an early morning session, feels weird yet good being up so early in the morning, will hopefully do this more often!

Here's my workout log for wednesday:
Lat Pull downs: 4 sets of 8, Lat pull downs would have to be one of my favourite excercises besides Cable flys
Deadlifts: 3 sets of 8
Seated rows: 3 sets of 10
One arm rows: 3 sets of 8
Barbell Bicep Curls: 4 sets of 8
Hammer Curls: 3 sets of 10
Preacher Curls: 4 sets of 7
Thursday 12th February 2015

Shoulders

Went real late after my football training so the gym was practically empty for once! Busted out a quick shoulder session to finish my workout cycle.

DB Shoulder presses: 4 sets of 7
Military Presses: 3 sets of 8
Lateral raises: 3 sets of 10, love the contraction on the lateral raises.
Front raises: 3 sets of 10

Friday 13th February 2015

Didn't manage to go to the gym, had a day off work so played golf and chilled with some good mates at night,  and managed to avoid spending too much at the pub!

Saturday 14th February 2015

Again didn't end up going to the gym, lounged around home and watched the Australian's flog England at the World Cup!

Sunday 15th February 2015

Legs

Legs again! Rested and roaring to go, so I decided to smash out my wheels !

Squats: 4 sets of 6
Leg press: 3 sets of 10
Quad Extensions: 4 sets of 8
Seated Hamstring curls: 4 sets of 8
Calf Raises: 4 sets of 12 (Would kill for some bigger Calves!)

Hope everyone had a good week!
We're all gonna make it.

My 5 Fitness Goals for 2015

I know it's already a month into 2015 already but better late then never to write down my fitness goals for this year!

1. Weigh over 95kg by the end of the year (Currently at 88kg). Would love to finally crack the 90kg barrier and consistently stay above 90kg.

2.  Improve my 1RM on my Bench to 100kg. I just want to be able to say with confidence I can bench 100kg !

3. Be able to squat over 100kg

4. Improve Flexabilty, so I can finally touch my toes!

5. Be able to preform a muscle up

We're all gonna make it

6 tracks for the Gym in February

Here are the current songs keeping me going at the gym!

1. Red Soul - You're My Hope (PJB Remix)

2. Human Movement - Paradise

3. Kokiri - Retrospect (Koven Remix)

4. The Prodigy - Nasty (Spor Remix)

5. Pendulum - Witchcraft (An old one but a good one!)

6. W&W - Lift Off!

Pretty much Drum & Bass for this month, let me know what you think and what songs you're listening to lately! 

Blog Changes

Not even a month into this and I have decided to change the blog!
I decided to combine the two F's I love, which is Finance and Fitness. The finance side of the blog will continue as usual, but I will now be posting some fitness updates in between!
Also slight change with the name of the blog to "Chasing Gains" because I want to constantly achieve financial gains as well as my Fitness ones.

So to start off my new revamped blog I will list some my Fitness details at the moment
Stay tuned and I will post my goals for this year later in the week!

About me:
Height: 6'3
Weight: 88kg

My current one rep max's (1RM) are:
Bench: 85kg
Squat: 90kg
Deadlift: 100kg
Shoulder press: 65kg

Will be interesting to see how this turns out!

My 4 steps to Achieve Financial Freedom

So here's my steps for how I plan to achieve Financial Freedom and quickly as possible!


1) Earn as much money as possible:

a. Finish my degree and find a job in a high paying field. It is much easier to have a high net worth if I have a high income

b. Don’t stop learning once I leave University

c. Work hard

d. Be willing to take reasonable risks

e. Consider being an owner rather than an employee


2) Don’t spend too much money 

a. Start saving early. Keep in mind that every dollar I save & invest in my twenties and thirties is a lot more valuable than one saved in my fifties

b. Realise that buying a house or cars that are too expensive for me will likely keep me from achieving FI.

c. Be prudently frugal and selectively extravagant. Be sure that I am spending my money on the things I value most.

d. If I can’t afford to pay cash for it, I can’t afford it. The only exception is a house (because it will generally appreciate at just over the rate of inflation), and I won't buy it if I can’t afford to put 20% down.


3) Make my money work as hard as I do 

a. Read at least one good basic personal finance book & one good investing book. Something like The Boglehead’s Guide to Investing and The Intelligent Investor.

b. Aim to get the market return on my investments; use index mutual fund investing and value investing as my default strategy.

c. Minimise taxes. Know the basics of tax laws and use them to my advantage.

d. Keep investing expenses low (Eg. Brokerage fees)

e. Understand basic financial calculations and lingo. Understand compound interest, the time value of money, financial risk, and the expected rate of return of my financial assets.

f. Simplify my financial life. Put any bills I have on automatic payment and investments on automatic withdrawal. Minimise the number of accounts I hold and the number of investments you have as much as possible

g. Understand why my savings rate matters a lot when I'm young and very little as I approach retirement. Understand why your investment return matters little when I'm young, and more as I approach retirement, and a great deal during your first decade after retirement. Understand the concept of a safe withdrawal rate

h. See the end from the beginning. If I fail to plan I plan to fail.

i. Have a written investment plan I can refer to when contemplating major portfolio changes.


4) Don’t lose my money 

a. Have a healthy emergency fund at all times

b. Get rich once, get rich slowly. Boring investing is good investing

c. Hire professionals to teach me, not just to do it for me. This includes real estate professionals and investment advisors. Make sure to question and ask about the advice I've received off someone with no conflict of interest in the transaction, realising that no one cares about my financial success nearly as much as I do. If I am reasonably well-educated and interested, I can teach myself to do my own taxes, sell my own house, and invest my own money.

Net Worth January 2015

This month I put a further $4000 into shares, (Although I did dip into my emergency fund to buy them). Also had a few major expenses this month like having to pay for car rego as well as insurance.

I have promised myself that the next lot of shares will be in VGS in order to give myself some overseas diversification !

Here's the breakdown of the shares for the end on January:

So my net worth at the end of January is:

Assets: $13,600 in Shares of AFI, CCL, CTN & MPL
             $500 rainy day fund sitting in a Ubank online saver earning 4%

Liabilities: $0 (yay for living with parents!)

Net Worth: $14,100