The Financial Independent

Nominally, this blog is about saving money to achieve a speedy retirement, but getting there by cutting your life to the bone is boring. Instead, I got ahead by growing my revenue. There’s many things we can do to invest in ourselves and have that be a source of “dividends” down the line.

Way back when, there was a show about what would happen if you used technology to make a better man. Now, 50 years later, what was once fiction is now reality. You can have super strength, vision, and beauty, and they all can be had for much less than a million dollars.

Appearances Matter

As a guide to saving money, I implore you to not do it at the expense of your appearance. Consider your life as a profit and loss statement, and the MBA in your head decrees: “We need to cut spending and stop wasting time on our looks! That’s free time and money we could get back,” they may say. Sure, you’ll save a few bucks on some things, but your life does not occur in a vacuum. Every day, you’re interacting with other people, and despite some notions to the contrary, those people will form an opinion of you. The basis of that opinion is how you engage and present yourself to them. Do you want a raise? A promotion? Or, hell, are you just trying to land any job? Instead of pinching pennies or just being lackadaisical about maintaining your body, there are trivially small prices for biasing people in your favor.

Hair— Getting your hair done is an obvious expense to cut. The worst idea is doing nothing and letting it grow ad absurdum. But even if you cut it yourself, you’ll never be able to do as good a job as someone else, and this is one of the most noticeable parts of your body. Maybe you can save by not going to a fancy salon, but you’ll look a lot better if someone else does it.

Beard— Is it neat and tidy or fully shaven? There’s a world of products that have built up over the years, and I’ll be the first to say they’re probably a waste of money. But here’s the thing, dear reader: I use a shavette^[1], and my current box of 100 blades has lasted literally years. My price for years of perfect clean shaves? Ten dollars plus shipping. Saving that last 5 bucks a year is not going to make or break your budget.

Vision— Trouble seeing? The financially savvy MBA in us all is probably right that contacts are too expensive. I mean who can stomach an extra few hundred dollars per year? That’s highway robbery! Wearing glasses is the easiest solution, and you’re in luck as there’s evidence that some employment can be biased towards people with glasses^[2][3]. But if you absolutely have to have the no glasses look: consider Lasik; it’ll pay for itself, and you’ll end up with one less hassle down the road.

Skin— Maybe you’ve got acne or you want a tan. No matter: with costs ranging from free to $10, a little love goes a long way, so grab that lotion.

Body hair— Similar to a beard, being tidy is important. Nobody wants to hire a gorilla that escaped from the local zoo, sorry. If clean-shaven is your thing, I again highly recommend the shavette (or straight razor if you’re a total badass, but that is not me). Otherwise, for $40, you can get a trimmer with different length attachments and make quick work of it.

Feet— If you’ve got gross feet, maybe flip-flops aren’t for you—or maybe grab an antifungal cream.

Ears— Got ears that look like they’ve got sludge leaking out of them? You should clean that up. It looks gross. But not only that, but it also diminishes your ability to hear!^[4]

Fingernails— I am constantly confronted with foul nails. Just why? It costs fucking nothing and like 2 minutes to cut them. And sometimes they’re not just too long, but packed with dirt. Yuck!

All this to say, I’m not saying I agree with appearances mattering (except the fingernails one), but if you want to move up in this world, as a rule don’t give people a reason to think less of you. Play into their own biases!

Matter Over Mind

There’s something the early retirement ascetics and I can agree on: eat less. You save on food by buying less, which is great, and you’re fitter and better looking when you’re in a normal BMI range. 70% of the US is overweight or obese, just eating less is a first big step. You could go deeper with counting your calories, tracking your macros, etc, but for most people in this country doing literally anything would be an improvement. But don’t neglect to exercise too!

Working out is a superpower in its own right. You’re stronger and leaner, and beyond that more attractive, live longer, relaxed, and have more motivation. A wonder drug that costs… nothing except some of your time.

The simple fact of the matter is: people like attractive people. Being attractive gets you hired and makes you able to ask for more money. And it helps not just when you get your foot in the door, but even as a good little worker bee, people are more willing to help you, and you’ll command an automatic presence that you wouldn’t get otherwise.

In addition to improving how others see you, your own body will be more cooperative. Now when you do retire, you won’t drop dead of a heart attack or be bedridden with some wasting illness for your last 20 years on this earth. When that stress kicks in to bang out a project before some deadline, you’ve actually got the energy to deliver because you’re no longer constantly bursting at the seams with stress.

Now I’m no superhero, I don’t lie or cheat, but I do play to my strengths. You should always put your best foot forward and make yourself as presentable as possible. You want to climb the ladder and command the big bucks? Just start by giving people a reason to like you.

Questions / Comments, feel free to reach out to TheFinancialIndependent@gmail.com. Cheers!