Welcome to reThinkable - my Sunday newsletter where I share actionable money tips, strategies, and resources to help you make smarter money moves.

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“I don’t have time” kept me stuck for years, friend.

7 years ago, my day looked like this: Wake up. Commute to work. Work 12 hours. Commute home. Feel exhausted. Bum on the couch. Watch TV. Sleep too little. Repeat.

And I felt terrible. 

What I really wanted to do was to escape the mind-numbing cycle of waking up tired, working tired, and coming home tired. I knew I could only do this if I took control of my finances and optimized my savings and investments to safely quit my job.

But I kept saying, “I don’t have time”… until I realized time wasn’t the problem.

I was.

I just wasn’t using my time effectively. So here are 4 strategies that helped me finally make time for my financial goals. 

Find the 2%

You don’t need to dedicate hours and hours to move towards your financial goals.

When I started my YouTube channel, I committed to just 30 minutes a day to it. 

30 minutes sounds like a lot… but is it really?

There are 1,440 minutes in a day so 30 minutes is just 2% of your time.

Once you start paying attention to your day-to-day, it’s pretty easy to find that 2%.

Instead of scrolling through Reddit during my commute to work, I started to listen to podcasts and script out my videos. Instead of spending 30 minutes scrolling Instagram first thing in the morning, I’d make a coffee while catching up with the news.

What’s something you currently do that takes 2% of your day that you can replace with something that’ll help your future-self?

Some other things you could consider:

• Replace 1 episode of Netflix with 30 minutes of focused effort

• Put your phone on “Do Not Disturb” immediately after dinner

• Wake up 30 minutes earlier

Once you see how easy it is to find that extra 2%, work your way up to 3%, then 4%. Eventually, you realize it’s all about taking back the time you were already letting slip by.

Use a proven system

People say it takes 10,000 hours to master something, and who has that kind of time? The good news is, you don’t have to reinvent the wheel.

Find a proven system that works so you can get their 10,000 hours of knowledge in a few minutes.

A system is just a repeatable way to turn effort into results.

If you want to actually take control of your money, you have to make the process easy on yourself. It shouldn’t feel like an uphill battle, it should feel like taking a walk in the park.

Here’s an example of what one-part of my money system looks like:

A portion of my paycheck automatically flows into pre-tax retirement accounts. The rest flows into my “Command Center” account, which further splits into sub-accounts based on my goals. My post-tax retirement and savings accounts automatically pull fixed percentages. My subscriptions and bills are automatically paid for with my credit cards, which my “Command Center” account then takes care of (on autopilot). 

In short? I spend less than a few minutes a month managing my money.

Timeblock

People who time block get 53% more done than those who don’t.

Time blocking is just breaking your day into chunks and giving each chunk a job.

You figure out what you need to do, then actually schedule it into a specific time slot. It’s kind of like being back in school: 45 minutes for math, 30 minutes for homeroom, 15 for recess… 

Same deal here. Except actually put in your calendar and treat it like an appointment.

Fun fact: Benjamin Franklin was a big fan of this strategy. Check out his timeblocked schedule.

Just do it

Remember Newton’s laws of motion from physics class? (No worries if you don’t)

The first law says: A body at rest stays at rest. A body in motion stays in motion—unless something changes it.

Your goals might not be physical objects, but the principle still applies.

Nothing changes unless you make a move. You won’t have time unless you make time. 

Don’t wait until you’ve got it figured out to start. A messy start today will always be better than never starting.

Now I want to hear from you: What’s 1 way you’ll make time for your dreams this week?

Reply to this email and let me know. I can always find 2% of my time to read every response 😉

To making smarter money moves,

— Vincent Chan

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Vincent Chan

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