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- Exploring the spectrum, controlling costs, and annual reviews
Exploring the spectrum, controlling costs, and annual reviews
Logan
January 02, 2025
In partnership with
Exploring the spectrum, controlling costs, and annual reviews
Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading Intentional Dollar — where we look at old money ideas through a new perspective.
What’s inside?
One tool to experiment with
Two quotes from others
Three questions to dig deeper
Four lines of poetry for the point
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.
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One tool to experiment with:
The Spectrum:
The new year is under way, which means fresh habits and exciting new goals sit front of mind.
This is partly why it’s my favorite time of the year. So many are pursuing positive change with all the right intention — the single-minded focus is invigorating.
Resolutions schedule the work we do in the first few weeks or months of the year. We follow the plan, we save, invest, budget, workout, read. Then, life happens. We mean revert and slide back down to our old actions.
I believe there’s a clear reason this happens, and it’s not that our aims are too high, or that they require too much effort to maintain. These pieces only explain part of the puzzle.
Rather, it’s an all-or-nothing, 100% or 0%, approach to living. An approach where we believe in the delusion that if we cannot commit to the full prescribed effort, then it’s worthless to make any effort at all. All or nothing.
If you find yourself staring at the risk of going to 0, reduce the prescribed load and scale back. Scaling back is not quitting, it is preserving momentum and fostering sustainability. The all-or-nothing mindset is a binary switch labeled do or don’t do. These switches are suboptimal because they don’t leave any room for error.
Plus, reality isn’t a binary switch. It’s much more like a spectrum that has infinite stops from 0 to 100.
100% is great, ideal, and the aim. But 10% is better than 0%, as is 1%. Forward progress.
Atomic Habits author James Clear noted, “Too often, we fall into an all-or-nothing cycle with our habits. The problem is not slipping up; the problem is thinking that if you can’t do something perfectly, then you shouldn’t do it at all.”
So this year, take some of the pressure off by seeing the spectrum of action, rather than the perfect all-or-nothing switch.
What are your money aims this year?
there are many points on the spectrum — just don’t land on zero
Two quotes on controlling costs:
The better you are at cost control, the more durable you become. Costs are a hurdle; a daily, monthly, yearly obstacle to your margin. The lower the costs are, the more optionality and flexibility you own.
“Control your expenses better than your competition. This is where you can always find the competitive advantage.”
“Beware of little expenses. A small leak will sink a great ship.”
Three questions on annual reviews:
What went well this past year that I would like to continue carrying into the new year?
For the pieces that didn’t go well, what were the underlying roots that caused them to happen? (three whys)
Scale the priority list down to one — what one thing will I look back on, a year from today, and say 2025 was a great year because I did, stopped, or committed to X?
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:
When perfection’s not attainable, 100% not sustainable,
Aim for a little more than none.
Think spectrums, not switches,
And your momentum won’t be undone.
Contact Me:
Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]
Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.
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