Exploring the infinite loop, feedback, and the two arrows

Happy Thanksgiving from the US! I’m grateful for your support and wish you quality, intentional time with friends and family.

Welcome to the Intentional Dollar weekly newsletter — great work taking this small step to move your money forward. I’m Logan, a Certified Financial Planner™, and I’m excited you’re here!

What’s inside?

• One tool to experiment with

• Two quotes from others

• Three questions to dig deeper

• Four lines of poetry for the point

_{One tool to experiment with:}

The Infinite Loop:

Where would you be in five years if you lived today on repeat?

This question allows us to project our current financial and non-financial loops to see the impact with time. These infinite loops are the endlessly repeating routines that run until a new stimulus alters their course.

We’ve mentioned how time amplifies action. Time will always be a factor, and ultimately create one of the three following scenarios:

1. Erosion

2. Maintenance

3. Growth

Bad decisions with time result in erosion.

Inconsistently bopping from sometimes good and sometimes bad results in maintenance.

Good decisions with time result in growth.

This is a helpful tool to examine your current financial actions and zoom out. Did I make a good financial decision today? Was I net ahead financially? Did I learn something new today that will help move my money forward?

When you apply this framework, you can start to question yourself and find small tweaks to change your day so the loop creates a higher probability of favorable outcomes.

Applying this to health might make it more tangible.

Let’s say your standard day is six hours of sleep, two Cokes, one fast food lunch, two hours of TV, and less than 3,000 steps.

If you continue this, you will see erosion of your health faster than necessary. If you occasionally introduce a stimulus like a workout, a few healthy meals, less TV — you will maintain your current health status. If you change these daily inputs and turn this into the occasional day, rather than the standard, you will see a progression of health.

Our money is the same.

Write out a narrative account of your standard day, the news you consume, the things you buy, the people you interact with, etc. Create awareness to your standard and then project it through an infinite loop. Where are you in five years? If it’s not in the right spot, what subtle shifts might you make?

The more details you add to your narrative account, the more variables you will place on paper to tweak. The more variables you have, the smaller tweaks you can make, the smaller tweaks you make, the easier it will be to adhere to your tweaks.

The things we do day to day matter. It’s easy to dismiss today as a one-off, but ensure that it’s not a depiction of your average.

_{Two quotes on feedback:}

Feedback is crucial to course correction. Find a financial friend that will keep you accountable and gift quality feedback along the way.

_{Three questions on the two arrows:}

We often can’t control external things that hit us (the first arrow), but we can control how we respond to them (the second arrow) and avoid inflicting more damage. Dive deeper here.

1. If I have a bad day at work (first arrow), how have I historically responded financially (second arrow) — retail therapy, fast food, etc?

2. When a major expense comes my way, like a car repair (first arrow), do I end up spending more money on something else “because I am already spending so much” (second arrow)?

3. What rules can I use as guardrails to prevent the second arrow?

Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.

_{Four lines of poetry for the point:}

Contact Me:

Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]