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Dear Meditators

Welcome to another day in the crypto and global markets. 

? There’s so much to learn and gain. But as with almost all things, without a plan, you are less focussed and your energy is less targeted. 

Today, we share part 2 of our budgeting series. Make your plan for building wealth using it. 

? We are also delighted to be sharing our podcast with Bryce (@brycent_). Bryce is a streamer of the popular NFT game, Axie Infinity and runs social gaming community Loot Squad.

? We also share the hottest market news and analysis. 

For 6 free wealth building newsletters a week, consider joining the Market Meditations community ?

Delighted to say this article is brought to you by FTX. Make sure to use our link to get a 10% discount. Based in the U.S? Here’s a discount link for you: FTX.US.

⏰ In A Rush?

Here’s 5 things you should know about the crypto markets today: 

• ? ‘It’s fine’ to buy Bitcoin as gold substitute, says Trump ex-Treasury Secretary Mnuchin
  What seems to be a full reversal on a previously hostile Bitcoin stance is tempered by Mnuchin, who added that he still wouldn’t buy BTC himself.

• ? Italian Regulator Says Binance Is Unauthorized
  Italy’s financial regulator, CONSOB, said Binance is not authorized to provide investment services in the country.

• ? Crypto Derivatives Exchange Bybit Expands Into Spot Trading
  Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange Bybit has launched a new spot trading platform as a complement to its core derivatives offering.

• ? BIT Digital is migrating 14,500 bitcoin miners to the US amid China crackdown
  Nasdaq-listed BIT Digital is migrating 14,500 bitcoin ASIC miners from China to the U.S. after China’s crackdown on the bitcoin mining space.

• ? Bitcoin network node count sets new all-time high
  Bitcoin’s node count has achieved another all-time high milestone with almost half of the nodes running on Tor. 

? Budgeting Part 2 – How to Spend Your Money

Welcome to part 2 of our budgeting series. In part 1 we discovered how to understand your current financial position. Today, we will be looking into the future, thinking about our goals and creating a budget to reach them, whilst making sure you can spend money however you want.

? Your Goals

Everyone has different goals in life. Some want to make enough money to support their families whilst others want to achieve extreme financial success – there is no right or wrong answer. To plan our budget, we need to know the purpose of the budget. Whatever the goal, there are three key components:

1️⃣ Purpose – what is this goal?

2️⃣ Amount – how much money do I need to achieve this purpose?

3️⃣ Timeline – when do I need this money?

To leverage an example let’s consider financial freedom:

• What is the purpose? To stop needing to work for money. 

• How much do you need? This is dependent on your lifestyle but can be calculated using the 4% rule – that is you will be able to earn 4% on your assets every year. Let’s say my desired lifestyle costs $40,000 a year, I will therefore need to accumulate $1m.

• When do you need the money? Right now the “standard” retirement age is about 65 but you may want to reach financial freedom earlier.

? Your Investment Plan

Now you have set your financial goals, let’s find out how to reach them!

The key is to always pay yourself first. Work out how much you need to save on a monthly basis to hit your goals in your required timeline and then view this as a monthly cost – automatically moving these funds to savings or investment accounts.You can use this resource to work out exactly how much that monthly amount is.

Pro tip: Before investing it is key to build up an emergency fund of 3-6 months of your expenses in cash. Without this, you could be forced to sell your investments during market downturns, completely invalidating your investment strategies. If you don’t have this, it should be your first financial goal.

? Your Budget

Combined with the costs you worked out in part one you should now know:

1️⃣ How much you need to spend to live

2️⃣ How much you need to save to reach your goals

3️⃣ Your total monthly income after tax

With these three numbers you can now put together your budget. The only thing we have not covered is discretionary spending. This is the amount left over from the income after components 1 and 2 have been deducted.

To help we have provided this budget resource– all you have to do is fill it in. Not only does this help you work out your current costs but also how your savings goals will progress through time.

? Earn More

Unfortunately, the results of this calculation may show that you do not currently earn enough to reach your long term goals. If you are just starting out in your career this may not be an issue (just check out average salaries in your industry). Regardless, you have options!

1. Negotiate a higher salary – check out our guide to earning more

2. Learn a high value skill such as coding or copywriting – you can then sell this skillset to your network or though websites such as Upwork and Fiverr

3. Start a side hustle – this can be related to an existing skill or hobby such as photography or can be something completely fresh. Often the hardest part is simply starting.

4. Start a business – Whilst you may want to start a side hustle first, if you’re confident in your idea and ability to execute – dive straight in!

However, we want to emphasise that there is no point stripping yourself of all the things you enjoy in life to reach a financial goal. The journey is just as important as the end destination and if you make yourself miserable to get there, firstly what is the point and secondly you are less likely to continue your journey and reach your goals!

? How to Spend Your Money

Now let’s talk about discretionary spending. If you earn enough to reach your long term goals, this could be equal to the excess amount after essential spending and saving. If not you still may want to assign an amount to discretionary spending so that you enjoy life whilst you focus on earning more!

Think about what you really love. Maybe you love food and travel. Maybe food is less of a priority but you love photography! Write down 2-3 areas that you are passionate about. Now look at your monthly expenditures and see if these passions are what you actually spend money on. This exercise will likely reveal that you are spending more money on things you don’t enjoy compared to your passions.

Envisage money as a series of dials that represent categories of spending. By being conscious of what you actually spend money on you can optimize these dials, turning up your passions to 10 and lowering everything else to 1.

The key here is be deliberate about what you are spending on. If there is an activity you don’t enjoy and don’t receive any value from it – stop spending money on it! If there is an activity that you love, spend more money on it! This sounds simple but without the relevant data it is impossible to make the required decisions.

Conclusion

And there we have it meditators – you should now have a full budget that allows you to spend on the things you love whilst saving the required money to reach your goals!

You may be thinking, there’s supposed to be three parts to this series – what’s next? Just as with trading, your system is only half the battle, executing and updating your strategy is the other half. Next week we run through strategies to make sure you stick to your strategy and to account for new information whether that be a salary increase or an unexpected cost.

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? Bitcoin Debit Cards

Visa has just approved a Bitcoin spending card for an Australian startup. But what is that startup called?

1. CryptoCash

2. CryptoSpend

3. CryptoIsTheBest

❌ SEC Fine ICO Rating Website 

According to The Block, the SEC has fined an ICO rating website for taking money from issuers in exchange for better reviews. 

• Yesterday, the SEC unveiled settled charges against UK-based Coinschedule. 

• Operating from 2016 to August 2019, Coinschedule was a platform that reviewed upcoming initial coin offerings, providing what they claimed to be an objective perspective as to which ICOs were more or less likely to be a scam.

• They stated that their mission was to make it easy and safe for people around the world to join ICOs.

• In actual fact, Coinschedule was taking payment from issuers in exchange for more favourable reviews! 

• The charges were actually rather limited. Coinschedule’s operator goes unnamed in the SEC’s charges and the fine is around $200,000.

? Examples such as this convey the upside of some regulation in space. Many projects are scams or are liable to attacks from scammers. This can hurt retail investors! So more protection is welcome. Remember to always do your due diligence when getting involved with crypto projects. You may want to consider reading our ? Project and Financial Metrics Guide. This covers reading whitepapers, tokenomics and other important decision making criteria when it comes to crypto projects.

? How He Made $1,000,000 in Three Months with @Brycent_

? Click Here to Listen

Bryce (@brycent_) is a streamer of the popular NFT game, Axie Infinity and runs social gaming community Loot Squad.

2. CryptoSpend

CryptoSpend is a Sydney based debit card company that allows Austrailians to use Bitcoin on their regular spending. Users have a physical card they will use to spend their hard earned Bitcoin, and Visa is expected to confirm their approval next week. The timeline for the product hitting Australian wallets is currently September.  

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Not financial or tax advice. The content in this newsletter is for informational purposes only. Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. We are not financial advisors. Every investment and trading move involves risk. Do your own research when making a decision. See our important security disclaimers here. 

Disclosure. Some of the links we’ve included are affiliate, they give you rewards and discounts and earn us a commission. Additionally, the Market Meditator writers hold crypto assets. See our investment disclosures here.