Huw Davies On Financial Freedom, Business And Social Media
Huw Davies tried many different traditional jobs and while he gained experience with each one he never found the work he wanted to do for life. This was especially clear when the manager he aspired to be like told him that he will end up stuck doing work he would rather not do if he kept on that path.
Huw literally searched ‘how to make money online’ and came across a ton of different side hustle ideas. He tried selling on EBay, investing, flipping, and eventually found some success with selling digital books.
Huw created a crazy and inspiring schedule to help him keep his day job and build security on the side. He was getting up at 5 Am, putting in work on e-books until he had to head to work and spent every break and evening he could writing. In the first year he managed to create over sixty books. Between these products and his investing he had financial promise. At this point his day job started getting in the way.
As he discovered the FIRE (financial independence retire early) community and knew he was making some reasonable solo income he decided to go all in as an entrepreneur. The important thing Huw did was ensure he had some financial success starting to scale, reduced expenses and stayed productive when it came to creating money making opportunities that allowed him to increase his investments over time.
We got into talking about death and how powerful its reminders can be. There is a certain part of society that focuses so much on pension, retirement and future living. But what happens if we don’t make it there? At the same time we need to be able to pay bills, and fulfill certain duties, so how do we strike a balance and live our best life now?
Huw shared quite a bit about his path to early retirement. We heard about stock selection compared to index funds, building passive income and the wisdom that anyone can apply to become financially free. Most of it is common sense, but really clear and quite possible for the majority of people.
One of the most interesting conversations was about minimalism. Both mental and physical clutter can bring about so much more stress and anxiety than necessary. Huw shared his resources for learning how to be more minimalist and how he applies it. The real truth is taking things away actually adds to our life if we do it right.
Clear evidence of growth mindset was a big part of this episode. I really appreciated how Huw shared the fact that he never saw himself as creative. He did an exercise at work where he ranked not only lowest of everyone at his company in terms of creative ability, but he actually scored a negative. Yet, he now creates content for a living and has really developed many creative strengths.
Lost in all of this potentially is how many incredible tips Huw gives when it comes to being a content creator. He told us how little experience he had. He told us how he was introverted and struggled with comfort on camera. He shared the fact that as his platforms grew he received more and more hate. What is very clear though is that he is good at growing a following, so his ideas were very helpful.
So much edutainment. How to build creative confidence and become a content creator. How to retire early with financial freedom and how to be a successful entrepreneur. How to use grief, death and the challenges of life to make us better, not worse.
9 Tips For Financial Freedom
- In any endeavor, you can find people who have accomplished what you want to accomplish and model your efforts after them. Learn from them. Read books, take course, and network with them if you can.
- Try side hustles. There are hundred of great ideas. But pick one, or pick a few and narrow it down to one. Once you pick one, go all in as much as you can in your spare time.
- If you can, focus on some of your passions that could be monetizable. Look at the insight of Ikigai and combine your interests with something the world needs.
- Realize it’s ok if you are bad with money. I was terrible with money. But that’s when it’s really important to start learning about how to grow true wealth. Be open to learning and improving your money mindset, whether it’s making more, saving more effectively, or investing.
- Learn from the FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) community about how to grow your wealth and find financial freedom. Being part of a community of people making this effort can be really motivating.
- Learn to love delayed gratification. Nothing worthwhile will be accomplished overnight. So you might as well enjoy the process of really hard work and figuring it out while the results are still far away. But, remember that it is going to pay off.
- When it comes to investing focus on index funds, something that combines a bunch of steady and stable, yet growing companies. Not specific, single stock selection. Investing in markets should be a very long term play.
- Build a budget based off of your needs, not your wants. Continue to find ways that you can reduce spending and increase income.
- Appreciate that if you succeed in retiring early you are not just one of the lucky ones, but it will be because you did not give up. The majority of people just give up because it becomes too much work. So expect to feel like giving up, but be ready to build habits to help you push on.
Memorable Quotes
“Death is shit. But, it’s one of life’s most powerful teachers. It gives you the power to remember to live for the moment and do that thing you want to do.”
“I’ll work my tits off and be very uncomfortable from delayed gratification, because I know how great I will feel afterwards and I realize now, that I am the weird one.”
“The goal of life is to try to close the gap between who you are and what your potential is, and you’ll never, ever reach it, but the pursuit of it will give you true fulfillment in life.”
“When you start to chase luxuries, there is no end.”
“I die, or I get to a million subscribers. So only two things could happen there.”
Guest Bio
Huw Davies became financially independent in 2016. Since then he has built an impressive investing portfolio, both in traditional stocks and real estate.
Huw is an entrepreneur who is currently growing his social audience. He uploads weekly videos about life topics such as business, wealth, and personal development.
Huw struggled with his weight, health and money. But life turned around when he focused on his finances. From budgeting, to growing income and re-investing with a FIRE (Financial Independence Retire Early) mindset he was able to get out of his 9-5 mentality and technically retire within ten years of setting that goal.
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