But wait... there's less!

Here's a superquick way to work out how much money your investments might make. No need for fancy exponential maths . Just simple division and some doubling. Maybe you can even do it it your head. The rule of 72 Years to double = 72 / growth rate That's it. Pretty simple. Just 72 divided by a number. Working out the double-time So a 2% investment would take 36 years to double in value. (72 divided by 2) At 6% it would take 12 years, and at 8% it would take 9 years. How many doubles? Let's say someone is investing $50k for 36 years. At 2% , it would double once. Result $100k . At 6% , it would double three times. (36 years divided by 12 years). Three doubles means it becomes 100k, 200k, then $400k . At 8% , it would double four times. (36 years divided by 9 years). Four doubles means it becomes 100k, 200k, 400k, then $800k . This is astounding I was stunned when I first came across this. I probably still am. It's amazing to think that moving from 2% to 6% changes things ...

Joshua and Ryan (The Minimalists) have a new documentary Less is Now . Their key message - life is better with less stuff - remains the same. This time around they've interviewed regular people, and looked into the causes of our consumerism - and how it hurts us. Here are some of my highlights: S‫imple vs Easy They're not the same. Easy is going with the flow. Buying whatever advertising tells you to. It takes work to be intentional but it's worth the work. Haste makes waste The idea of anything we want being "on your doorstep within 24 hours" sounds convenient. But convenience can be our enemy . "If I can get you to purchase before you can think, I'm gonna get you to buy stuff you don't need". Manipulation Selling is OK - we want the grocery store to sell us food. But what people are pushing is not always compatible with what we need. Corporations are there to make money, make sales, and make more of both. Marketers are "really impressive...