You can download a printable version of the One Blue Land financial by clicking the diagram.
The F.I.R.E. movement and One Blue Land:
First and foremost, there is no right way of investing. As long as you are doing something every day to reach those goals, then you are on the right track. One Blue Land supports the entire FIRE movement, it’s the reason the "land" was created! However, the deeper we learn while striving for financial freedom, the more our investing philosophies continue to evolve. The One Blue Land focus shifted a lot more towards prioritizing the greatest asset of all, which is someone's time. With that in mind, there are similarities and key differences between FIRE and One Blue Land
GOAL
F.I.R.E.
One Blue Land
One Blue Land Rationale
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Goal is to achieve financial independence and/or retire early.
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Pursue your passion once your financial goals are reached.
There are people that are not making too much money, but are completely happy where they are and are providing value to society! They have already achieved their “financial freedom”.
STRATEGY
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Aggressive savings rates to be put in the stock market / real estate / other passive income streams.
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Most people don’t love what they do and therefore seek to pursue their passions after they get the money.
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Build your life around your passion.
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Create a business that you love.
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Use what you love to provide value to society and the money will come after.
Saving as much as possible through a job or business that you don’t like doing in order to start pursuing your passions sacrifices so much of your time.
Instead, you can use your passion to provide value to the world and this will become your primary income stream.
TIMEFRAME
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Keep working until you get your FI number, usually aiming for 10 years or less
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0-10 years, but…
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Really depends on your desire, mindset, and perspective. Can be a lot sooner than you think.
0 years because, as said above, some people already achieved their freedom, as they already love what they do daily!
$$$ TARGET
25 x your yearly expenses
Your FI number or “financial independence number” is your target.
How? Multiply your lifestyle goal’s yearly expenses by 25 for the “4% rule”. Multiple by 33 if you want to be more conservative using the “3% rule”. That number is your FI number.
What is the 4% rule?
If you are able to live off of 4% of your total assets yearly (25x your living expenses with annual growth and inflation already factored in), you will unlikely run out of money. Same concept with the 3% rule.
$ 0 – $ 999,999,999,999,999,999+
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This is different for everybody and have a much wider range.
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The target number is: when you have a job/business that you love that can support ALL your expenses and goals. Simultaneously, you utilize other passive income streams and investments as a SUPPLEMENT to achieve these goals.
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Note: If you already love what you do, but have a CAPPED income (ex. paid by the hour) and your goals/expenses are NOT being met, you need to set up other income streams and obtain assets that will help you achieve these goals
This number is different for everybody.
Happiness is not necessarily directly proportional to the amount of wealth that you have.
But money does give you more options.
Basic needs have to be met first.
There are completely miserable very high net worth individuals and very happy low net worth individuals.
The key is to focus on what you truly love and your goals, and the expenses needed to support it,
BUDGETING
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Emphasizes frugality
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Highly reduce expenses.
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Keeping track of your budget down to the penny is not necessary
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One Blue Land has a heavy focus on increasing income rather than significantly reducing expenses.
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As your income from other sources increase, more time can be dedicated to your passion, which can then eventually become your primary income stream.
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Reduce expenses on things that you really don’t need. OK to spend on things that are necessary, that you love, and that will grow your business.
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For more expensive items, if it makes you happy and you can buy it using excess income from your assets without touching the principal, go for it.
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Not necessary to “budget”, but it is very important to track your monthly cashflow. It is important to know where your money is coming from and going to. Track your income and expenses.
Although frugality will speed things up, no need to sacrifice things that you love to do.
If you absolutely love that cup of coffee every day in the morning on your way to work, keep getting it. No need for a scarcity mindset on little items like that. It will provide greater ROI (return on investment) in the long run by putting you in a better mental state. It is a psychological booster.
For significantly expensive items, that might be another story. Buy those with your interest / income from assets.
Your state of mind is the only thing limiting you and if you take good care of it, everything else will flourish.
Run your personal finances like a successful business runs their business. You are the COO of your own company.
MULTIPLE INCOME STREAMS
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Multiple income streams are highly important.
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There are passion income streams and non-passion income streams.
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Multiple income streams are highly important to provide continuous cashflow in case of downturns
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However, you have to choose streams that do not consistently take away much of your time and energy from your passion once set up.
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Great streams of income include: dividend investing, rental income properties, online businesses
If one stream is not doing well or fails, you have the others to fall back to.
A successful business and brand that you have true passion for will outpace the growth of any other passive income streams that you have. #passionincomestream
Non-passion income streams take a lot of time initially to set up. But once fully running on its course, should only be taking a minimum amount of your time.
INVESTMENT
VEHICLES
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Stocks
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Index funds
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Bonds
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Real Estate
Invest in a diversified portfolio in different asset classes:
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Your own business
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Individual value stocks
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Dividend paying stocks
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Real Estate
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Cryptocurrency
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Precious Metals
Important Point As You Grow: "Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth"
- Warren Buffet
It's good to diversify in different asset classes and sectors, but the highest and fastest returns will come from concentrated investments that you truly understand, are currently undervalued, and solves a great problem / provides value to society,
Always do your own research.
Invest in what you know.
There will always be risk, but research mitigates risk.
“Risk and reward are not always correlated” – Benjamin Graham (Warren Buffet’s mentor)
Contrary to popular belief, high risk does not necessarily mean high reward. Low risk does not mean low reward either.
Low risk can mean high reward too. And high risk can mean low reward.
The true common denominator and what will give you the most reward is the amount of knowledge and effort it took you to find your investment. There will always be risk to any investments, but research and knowledge mitigates risk.
MUTUAL FUNDS
NO
NO
Mutual funds have unnecessary fees that significantly add up over time.
Prefer value investing in individual stocks.
INDEX FUNDS
YES
Example: Annual average rate of return of the S&P 500 is around 7% adjusted for inflation
NO (unless the whole index fund itself is currently undervalued)
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More focused in finding undervalued individual stocks and dividends
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Valuation is everything. You make money on the BUY SIDE. Growth is stunted when things are overvalued.
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When you put your money into an index fund, you might be deploying your cash to companies that you really don’t believe in.
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When investing in index funds (during overvalued territory), there is a huge opportunity cost that people tend to ignore because the hard truth is: they are not willing to do the research.
"Risk does not equal return. Work=return"
- Benjamin Graham
(Warren Buffet's teacher)
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Prefer to buy great companies that:
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Have strong fundamentals
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Great leadership
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That you believe in
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That adapt to technology
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That are currently undervalued
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If its overvalued, put it in a watch list, have cash reserves read to be deployed, and then when the opportunity comes, buy during the downturns (times of greatest fear) as long as fundamentals have not changed. DO NOT FOMO / "fear of missing out" (greed).
Plugging in this important quote again:
"Diversification may preserve wealth, but concentration builds wealth"
- Warren Buffet
This one might get a lot of heat and you don’t have to agree, but hear me out. As said before, One Blue Land looks at everything in the lens of time. OK, here it goes:
There is a saying that “most people who try to beat the market lose” and that “timing the market is not advised for beginning investors”. Key words are “most people and beginning investors”. Are you going to categorize yourself as “most people” or a “beginner” forever? The thing is, “most people” are not willing to put the effort into researching the market and their finances and as a result, emotions come into play. But this is also why “most people” are not wealthy. Did Warren Buffet get rich investing on index funds? No. Does he promote index funds? Yes. But here’s a perfect time to plug another quote: “don’t listen to what people say, watch what they do”. His message is targeted for “most people”. Not saying everyone is going to be having success if they invest like Mr. Buffet, but the ultra-rich got rich (fast) by beating the market and/or through their business.
And no, the market does not necessarily always go up - even after decades. It's all about perspective since you have to define your starting point and end point goal. You have to zoom out and look at longer time periods and where you currently are – adjusted for inflation.
https://www.macrotrends.net/2324/sp-500-historical-chart-data
Markets have cycles and bubbles. There are short, medium, and long term cycles. The later you are in a cycle and the more inflated a bubble is, the more your gains are diminished.
Look at the S&P500 index from 1968-1988, the same $700 you put in for 20 years is still the same $700. Remember you have to click “adjust for inflation”, because your true purchasing power diminishes over time. Yes, if you waited even longer the overall the historical annual average rate of return of the S&P 500 is around 7% adjusted for inflation. But the key word is “average”. What if during that 20 year period, you fall into that “less than average” category? And it is A LOT more likely to be less than average if you are starting during overvalued territory. 20 years is A LOT of time. Yes, there are millionaire index fund investors. Not saying you can’t get rich investing in index funds, but it has potential to take a lot longer. That money could have been deployed somewhere else instead of wasting away for decades. There is a huge opportunity cost that people tend to ignore because the hard truth is: they are not willing to do the research.
DEBT
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There is good debt and bad debt.
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There is good debt and bad debt.
You can use debt to build wealth, but you have to know a lot more when handling debt. It is a double-edged sword. Example of good debt = 30 year low fixed rate mortgage in a rental property.
CREDIT
CARDS
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Credit cards are a must but only if you are able to pay it off in FULL every month.
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Agree to put all expenses in your credit card once you have the discipline to do this.
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Use credit cards to gain rewards, points, for travel.
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Use credit cards for expenses
Rewards accumulate over time. It's like getting 1-5% off your puchases every time!
Important to build credit for loans, etc.
TAXES
Tax-deferred vehicles:
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401(k) / 403(b)
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IRA
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HSA
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Roth IRA
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No. (Yes to Roths and HSA only, but only for your longer term goals)
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Prefer investment vehicles with immediate tax benefits, such as business and real estate.
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Prefer utilizing long term capital gains which can applied to assets held for more than 12 months.
Tax deferred vehicles like 401(k) / 403 (b) / IRA are taxed at a regular income tax rate. (10-37% based on income as of 2020). There is also a 10% penalty if you take it out before 59.5 years. Vs. Long Term Capital gains which cap at 0%, 15%, or 20% based on your income.
Regular income gets taxed the most. You are taxed your income tax rate + FICA tax (6.2% Social Security Tax + 1.45% Medicare tax).
Assets gets taxed the least. This is how the rich get richer.
Chances are if you are in a financial freedom journey (depending on your goals), you would be on a higher income bracket the later you are in life. When you invest in a tax-deferred vehicle today, you are essentially planning that you will have less income later on life.
Nobody knows what the future tax rates will be. But chances are, they are only going to go up. Not down.
They key is to build wealth starting now, which will support your short, medium, AND long-term goals all under the most favorable and immediate tax benefits.