Notes on Basil Labib

Notes: I Will Teach You To Be Rich by Ramit Sethi

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Tue, 15 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Sethi’s book, at it’s core, is a set of rules and tricks that can be applied by an aware and motivated individual to ensure a life of abundance relative to their current financial standings. Motivated to become rich himself (and hailing from India) at a young age, Sethi learnt from his blunders and noted his successes. He started blogging about his wins which eventually evolved into this book. Needless to say, his advice are well-researched, practical and tested. Do they work? It seems to.

This is my attempt to summarize the essential ideas presented in the book which is bore out of personal necessity as I am sure I will forget half of them (Speaking from past experience) in due course and will procrastinate till the universe cools down to open the book and reread it. Ergo.

Two caveats before we begin:

The book is dated. Use it as guiding rather than definitive. Research is key. Use the rather scant Terms section to look up artificially confusing financial terms.
The book is centered on the average American citizen. Find appropriate / equivalent schemes for your country of residence.

How to get rich in one line: Clear all debts. Choose the right accounts. Spend consciously. Automate money flow. Invest early and aggressively. Improvise and take action.

Rich or Sexy?

Getting started is more important than becoming an expert.
Ordinary actions get ordinary results.
Why do you want to be rich? (Hint: Because it sucks being poor).

Credit Cards

Two components: credit report and credit / CIBIL / FICO score.
Pay your credit bills on time. It’s free short-term loan. Get a no-fee card.
Rewards are important. Two or three cards are fine. Keep them active for long. Get more credit. Offers excellent consumer protection.
Small wins waste time.
Debt: Pay off the highest interest-incurring cards first. Negotiate lower APR. Setup aggressive automatic transfers to pay off.

Bank Accounts

Online savings account (NIYO, RazorPayX, Open) > Traditional savings account > Traditional current / checking account
Savings account: save up for longer-term goals. Less transactions. Current account: for frequent withdrawals.
Credit Unions: like local banks, not-for-profit, owned by customers.
Downside online savings acc: Few days for transactions to clear.
Talk to rep. Effective and important.

Setup investing

Open up 401(k), Roth IRA and an investment account with a discount brokerage firm (Or whatever is your equivalent in your country).
Setup automatic payments. Match 100% with your employee on 401(k). Go to Roth, then come back to 401 if still left.

Spending

Allocate spending money in “buckets”.
Rule of thumb: 60% expenses, 10-20% investing, 10% savings (or debt), 10% leisure (or debt).
Don’t just save - Save for a goal. Track spending weekly.
Increase revenue flow: Invest aggressively in yourself (health, education). Negotiate raise. Switch to higher-paying job. Do freelancing.

Automate

This provision	…should target
Paycheck	Investment acc; Direct deposit to checking account
Checking account	Investment acc 2; Savings acc; Credit card; Fixed costs (like rent); Unexpected
Credit card	Fixed costs; Leisure spending

Investing

Financial magazines, pundits, portfolio managers, advisers are nuisance. Cannot predict market 75% of the time. Manage yourself.
Preference: (Lifecycle funds) > Index funds > Mutual funds > Stocks, bonds
Major predictor of portfolio volatility: your mix of stocks and bonds. Your investment plan is more important than your actual investments.
Index funds: low-management fee (expense ratio). Rebalance allocation every 12-18 months.
Asset allocation: Check Swensen model
W. Buffett - “Be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful”. That is, “Buy low, sell high”.
Ignore the noise.

Terms

credit score / CIBIL / FICO - number between 300 and 850; represents credit risk to lender; higher is better.
APR - Annual Percentage Rate. Interest rate to credit card companies.
Credit utilization rate - how much you owe divided by your available credit.
Life cycle funds or Target date retirement funds - “funds of funds”. managed. assets allocated based only on your age.
Stocks: Large-cap, Mid-cap, Small, cap, International, Growth, Value. Bonds: Government, Corporate, Short term, Long term, Municipal, Inflation-protected (TIPS). REITs.
REITs - Real Estate Investment Trust. Different than stocks or bonds.

Downsides

Okay, this might be a personal rant but the language of the book could have been more terse. This may be a demand my brain concocted from reading classics but formal language never hurts. Foregoing first-person addressing, frequent (and sometimes, redundant) jokes might have helped deliver the ideas in a more concise book thereby boosting the number of prospective readers who otherwise will shy away simply at the page count. As Cicero said, “When you wish to instruct, be brief”.

Maybe, just maybe, I would have been better off reading a classic.

Financial blogs

Get Rich Slowly - interesting
/r/IndiaInvestments wiki - great resource for Indian investors. Check “Recommended Reading” page (Another great collection of resources).
Zerodha Varsity - resource for investors. Newbie friendly.

Notes: The Richest Man in Babylon by George S. Clason

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Tue, 08 Jun 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Notes on “The Richest Man in Babylon” by George S. Clason.

What is wealth?

Wealth is a power. With wealth, many things are possible.

Essential Habits

A man’s wealth is not in the purse he carries. A fat purse quickly empties if there be no golden stream to refill it.
Fate is unpredictable hence untrustworthy. It makes wanton spenders and misers alike.
Every surplus can earn for you. And every revenue on that can earn for you.
Be frugal. Invest surplus.
Take advice about jewels only from the jewel merchant.
Determination is utterly important. If you set a task, complete it. How else can you be confident in yourself to do important things?
Counsel with wise men. Seek advice of men well versed in handling wealth.
Invest with extreme caution. Shady schemes are like sirens.
A part of all you earn is yours to keep.

Cures for a Lean Purse

Make it a habit to put aside a portion of your earning.
Each coin you spend must return 100% of its appreciated value.
Budget your expenses.
Compound Interest.
Security of your principal.
Own your own home.
Plan for the future.
Invest aggressively in ways of increasing revenue. Eg: Education.
Be Respectable
- Pay your debts with promptness.
- Take care of your family earnestly.
- Make a will of record.
- Have compassion over those who ain’t as fortunate as you are.

Luck and Opportunity

To attract good luck to oneself, it is necessary to take advantage of opportunities.
With wisdom, wealth can be secured by those who have it not.
Wealth that comes quickly goes the same way.
In the strength of your own desires, is a magic power. Leverage it.

Principles of lending

Help your friends in a way that does not bring their burden on you.
Emotional/Frivolous/Impulsive humans are not worthy of being lent.
Better a little caution than a great regret.

The Walls of Babylon

We cannot afford to be without adequate protection.
Thoughts of youth = bright lights of meteors that make the sky brilliant. Wisdom of age = steady light of fixed stars that are reliable enough to steer the course of sailors.

Power of determination

Innovation creates value.
Value is measured by wealth.
Wealth determines authority.

If a man has a soul of a slave, he will become one no matter what his birth.

Every woman longs to be desired.

Where the determination is, the way can be found.

Best Friend

Work is your best friend.

Notes: Design for Hackers by David Kadavy

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 00:00:00 +0000

Why Design?

Your biggest asset - “Learn whatever you want to achieve your vision”.
Good designs are timeless. They can awe people of any era.
Fundamental soul of a human creation that expresses itself in successive outer layers of the product.
Designing of a system comes before building it not after.
Affect emotion, build credibility, earn trust.
Don’t draw ponies.
First visual interaction thus heuristic shortcut to judge credibility.
Purpose | Medium and Technology | Aesthetics
Good design choices are a set of ideas that must mature in the mind.
Use user persona to wireframe and prototype.
Memorable and usability.

Typography

Where does that typeface come from? What medium and technology influenced it?
Typeface is what you use. Font is the file which contains the typeface (Am I being pedantic?).
Understand the forces that brought the style into existence.
SEO is design.

Proportions

How size and magnitude relate to each other.
Important and unimportant elements.
Common ones:
- √2 : 1
- 3 : 4
- 2 : 3
- φ : 1

Composition

Arrangement of elements.
Reading direction, guiding the eye.

Principles

Dominance - pulls you in
Similarity
Rhythm
Texture
Direction
Contrast
Application to MailChimp logo

Visual Hierarchy

White space
Type weight
Type size - 3:4 relationship - 5, 7, 9, 12, 16, 21, 28, 37, 50, 67
Color
Ornamentation
Different blog designs and explanation
Application to website
Cluttering design in HTML tables

Color Science

Color in physics
- EMR
Human visual limitations
- Color constancy
- metamerism
- afterimages
Human visual system (biology)
- Rod, cones (3 types), ganglion etc
- Trichromatic theory, color opponent theory
- Color blindness
Color models
- Munsell
- HSB
- LAB
Data driven graphics
- Converging palettes
- Diverging palletes
RGB model
- Color mixing, additive model
- Hexadecimal mental model
- navigating color without using a picker
Cross media color representation
- RGB (computers), CMYK (print)
- CMYK a subtractive model
- Gamuts
- ICC profile
- Approximate screen color on print (previewing color shifts, proofing etc)
- Spot colors

Color Theory

Color association with events for our ancestors
Effect of red on prefrontal cortex
- prefrontal cortex and rational thought
- eg of Target (retailer chain)
- use cases for red
Color and culture
- questions to ask when designing for a foreign culture
- do research
Color Wheel
Expected usage of few colors in culture
- White - backgrounds, trustworthy etc
- Off white - natural feel, not for high traffic site
- Dark - sophistication, exclusivity
- Bright - less content
- Green - success, mark of progress
- Yellow - info
- Red - error, warning, urgent
- Blue - links (generally)
- Accent colors
Interaction between colors
- warm colors pop, cool colors recede
- tint pops, shade recedes
- why monet never used black (explanation of his poplar painting)
- application to typography color, element design
Color schemes
- monochromatic
- analogous
- complementary
- split complementary
- triadic
- tetradic
- variations
Creating mood with colors
- mysterious (exclusive)
- active (youths, zeal etc)
- muted (solemn etc)
- natural
Tools for creating color schemes

appendix A

Consult for table of pairable typefaces to use for different purposes.

appendix B - typographical etiquette

Don’t

Fake bold/italic/small caps
Stretch types
Outline types
Impose background images or textures

Avoid Widows and orphans
Use drop caps
Avoid indenting and leaving a line. Redundant.
Use smart quotes (” “ ” “ ′ ″ )
&hyphen; (‐), – (–) and — (—)
Ligatures but not widely supported.

Notes: Habits by James Clear

gs454236@gmail.com (Basil Labib) — Fri, 26 Feb 2021 00:00:00 +0000

My Notes

Introduction

Majority fail in making habits because they try to make changes the wrong way.
It is easy to get obssessed with the result.
Never overestimate the importance of one defining moment and underestimate the value of making better decisions on a daily basis.
Don’t focus on the destination. Focus on the path.

Habits

Pattern of every habit:
- Reminder ( trigger )
- Routine ( the action itself )
- Reward ( the benefit )
A good reminder makes it easier for you to start your habit by encoding your new behavior in something that you already do, rather than relying on getting motivated.
Set a visible reminder and link your new habit with your current behavior.
Reminders are specific to you and your habit.
Things that you do everyday without fail, even unconsciously.
“Make it so easy you can’t say no” - Leo Babauta
start small
consistency is key
Reward yourself, atleast with positive self-talk.
Make habits that are important to you, not what you are told.

New Identity

visualize yourself being the better you.
Grow more confident in your new identity by getting approval from others.
All your actions is a reflection of who you think you are. Change your image and you change your habits.

Motivation is unreliable

Define life-goals := tiny, daily behaviors that are repeated until success becomes inevitable.
“Plant the right seed in the right spot, it will grow without further coaxing…”
“Focusing on motivation as the key to habits is exactly wrong…”
“Pick the right small behavior and sequence it right.”
Don’t dive into the deep end and drown as the initial impetus fades.
Dream big, but start small.

Just Do it

The problem: We set deadlines, not schedules.
If we don’t achieve, we feel like failure - even if we improved.
It’s not about always doing your best work, it’s about doing the best you can on a consistent basis.
Stop focusing on result. Focus on consistency.
Don’t refrain when the Muse sings to you. But don’t rely on them.
The focus is on doing the action, not achieving X goal by a certain date.

Keystone Habits

A keystone habit is a behavior that naturally pulls the rest of your life in order.
Eg: Fitness, Work out, morning run, daily meditation.

Get back on track (quickly)

Best strategy isn’t to avoid failure, it’s to plan for it.
Must have a plan to get back on track before you get off track.
Be specific about your habits. When, where, exactly how are you doing to do it?
Stick to your schedule, even in small ways.
This will prove to yourself that you can achieve even when the circumstances are not favorable.
Have a person as an incentive.
Design your environment for success.

Overcome Bad Habits ASAP

Bad habits are a way of dealing with stress and boredom.
Bad habits can’t be eliminated. They must be replaced.
Choose a substitute that provides a similar benefit.
Cut out as many triggers as possible.
Join forces with somebody.
Visualize yourself succeeding.
You lived without the bad habit before. If you could then, then you certainly can now.
Be aware of your bad habits.
It takes perseverance but it isn’t impossible.

Conclusion

Knowledge is useless without action.

Footnotes

This post is a condensed form of the most essential ideas from the book “Transform Your Habits” by James Clear . My objective has been to ensure that a single read through this post will revive all the keystone ideas in the book, thus optimizing the time for reading yet another book.

My intention has been to propogate productivity. All copyright belongs to the owner and I hope he will understand the good nature of the work presented here.

As always, suggestions are welcome.

To infinity and beyond.