11 Things I Buy As A Millionaire

Sharon Tseung 0:02
This is the digital nomad quest podcast, Sharon Tseung. teaching people how to build passive income, become financially free and design their best lives.

Hey guys, is Sharon from digital nomad quest and today we’re gonna talk about living things. I’m happy I spend my money on as a millionaire. Now if you guys know me or have seen my videos, you guys probably know that I’m a pretty frugal person. Like, you can check how much we spent on our wedding like that video, you can tell how frugal I can be, I usually only spend money on things I need or things that are in line with my values, like experiences and stuff like that. And you could also see my video on how much I spent traveling the world. And you can see that I only spent around $1,400 A month while traveling. So I’m good about budgeting and making sure that I don’t overspend because I’d rather put that money into my investments, because those things will give me more money and more freedom and time where I can put it into the things that actually matter to me. But I actually decided to come up with this list and examine what are some things that I’m really happy I spent my money on. And because of these things, I have noticed that I’m more open to spending money on these things where in the past, maybe I didn’t know that some of these things mattered so much that I didn’t want to spend money on those things. Maybe this will make sense to you. So I’m gonna go into each of them today so that you guys can understand what I’m talking about right now. So let’s just get right into it. The first one is my used car. I bought this 2012 Nissan Sentra back in the day, and I’m actually really proud of that purchase. And you guys might not know this, like my parents wanted me to buy a new car or lease a nice car, right. So it was kind of against my parents wishes for me to buy this used car. But I kept telling my parents look, I really don’t want to spend a lot of money on a car, I don’t care that much about driving anything nice. I was happy even buying something really beat up, I ended up buying this red Nissan Sentra, like I mentioned. And to me, it’s a really cute car, other people will think it’s old and whatever, janky I don’t care. But I’m really proud that I purchased this because it actually was in line with my values. And I didn’t just listen to what my parents told me to do. Because I think a lot of my life, I was like, I want to make my parents happy. I want to make other people happy, and please other people. But ever since you know I traveled the world, build passive income and did all these different things that a normal person wouldn’t do, I feel like I really got in tune with who I was. And that made me really proud of myself. Ever since then I was more confident to purchase something that was more in line with my values, like this used car. And why I’m also happy about this was that this car was $6,700 It wasn’t super expensive or anything like that. I bought it on Craigslist. And I knew that cars are depreciating assets, once you drive a new car out of the lot, it actually loses value right away. So cars lose value over time. So that’s especially why didn’t want to buy a new car. And I felt like if I got a lease, then I would be paying monthly extra on something. Whereas I could just buy something really cheap and not have to continuously pay monthly except for that auto insurance. So that’s why I actually do recommend for people to purchase a used car all cash so you don’t have a monthly loan that charges interest and you’re buying something that is decreasing in value over time. So that’s why it was really in line with my values around personal finance and like how much I cared about how I spent my money right so this was a very happy purchase for me. Second is my MacBook. So I have built a lot of side hustles through my Macbook and it’s actually another purchase that I wouldn’t have done if I didn’t travel the world for two years. You know, I always had Windows computers, I had Android phones, I didn’t want to upgrade this technology because I thought it does what it needs to do. It’s fine. But when I traveled the world for two years as a digital nomad, I needed to make sure I had a reliable computer that I knew what to expect with the computer and that it wouldn’t just die on me while I was traveling because this computer would be my livelihood while I was traveling because I would be building my passive income side hustles through it I needed to make sure it was high quality with my previous work experiences I had used a MacBook I use a Mac Mini so I knew the quality of Mac’s and I was like you know what, I will drop the money for this because I know it’s really important to have something reliable and I’m so happy because that MacBook I bought in 2015 Still works to this day and 2022 I’m probably going to use it more for music now. I ended up buying my work laptop where you know I got laid off like two months ago and I asked them hey, can I purchase this macbook instead of shipping it back to California because I had moved to Dallas they let me buy it for essentially how much apple would credit you if you were to turn it into Apple and it was like 320 bucks. I was like yes that’s a great deal. Let me buy it for 30 to 20 bucks. So I have this nice MacBook Pro and I have the other MacBook Pro I bought in 2015 where I can use that for music. They both are reliable machines where I built all my side hustles on them Alright, so I built my Etsy shop on it, I built my blog on it, I built my youtube channel on it, I didn’t merch my Amazon on it, like I’ve done so much work on it that’s made me a ton of money that makes up way more for the cost of these machines. So make sure to have high quality products that can actually make you more money back. So I’m all about investing in the right equipment now investing in my business, investing in assets that actually make money back for you. So that’s why the MacBook has been a game changer for me. Now third is a better studio and a nice camera. So I decided to invest in a Sony ASICs 500. And now the Sony A seven C that I’m using currently, and then I also upgraded my studio. So back when I was living in California, I would just plop down this Canon G 7x camera that was mainly for travel and blogging, but I just put that down on my desk and I just started recording didn’t matter what kind of lighting, I would just talk to the camera, I didn’t really care enough, it was when I really upgraded everything and became more intentional with that the videos ended up being way higher quality that I was getting more subscribers, more views. And again, it paid me back immensely because I do get ad revenue now. Whereas before, when I was using that camera, like I wasn’t making much per month here, I’m actually making some money from this YouTube business. So again, like I mentioned, invest in your business, invest in nice products that will actually pay you back. And I wanted to note that like you don’t have to do it right off the bat. So again, I was already starting to make YouTube videos with a cheaper camera like a $500 camera or so which is still kind of pricey, but you know, it was good enough. And it did the job right, I had a mic I had the camera, I made a decent quality and then basically upgraded when I felt comfortable enough that I knew it would give me a lot of value back. So make sure when you’re buying those products, make sure that it is going to give you a lot of value back for me. Now, if I were to upgrade from the Sony ASM and see I don’t think it would make much sense for me, because this is already a great camera. And I feel like there would be more value in understanding camera features and things like that, that would actually improve the quality with just having this device versus always trying to upgrade to the best thing. So I’m not about like upgrading all the time, right? If the thing works, and it actually does a job, well, that should be good enough. But if you think that upgrading will give you a lot more value, then maybe that’s right for you. So always evaluate the amount of value it will bring to you if that makes sense. I also want to add that the better studio did make a huge difference. So I did take this course that taught me how to improve my studio. So you have the practical light, the background like here, some plants and things like that some nice decoration to make the studio look a lot nicer. I think we can still make this look nicer if you guys have suggestions, let me know. But it definitely gives a more professional vibe. And people probably listen more because I upgraded these things. And again, that ad revenue really came when that quality went to number four is courses and books. So in the past, I actually was like, You know what, I don’t want to buy courses because I can learn everything for free online. And I was very stubborn about this for the longest time until I read this book that mentioned to invest in yourself and your education. And it said to invest 3% of your income into that which was very mind blowing for me, because that’s kind of a lot of money. But then I read in the book some examples of people who followed the advice and ended up making more money. So they decided to put more money into their education to up their percentage up to even 15% of their income into self development and into these courses in books and conferences. So once I really read that it resonated with me and I was like I’m gonna spend money on conferences, on courses on books, because those things will get me to the next level. So I’ve spent 1000s of dollars on these different things that have changed the game for me. And that’s how I’ve been able to make more money through my side. hustles be a part of some really cool masterminds that have helped me a lot and things like that. So I highly suggest to invest in the right courses, books and conferences to get you to the next level. Now number five is real estate. So as you guys might know, my husband and I have 33 properties that actually cashflow for us so that we get passive income every single month. This changes the game for you right it gives you a lot of time and freedom because you are removing those financial restrictions. I love purchasing cash flowing rental properties if you guys are interested you guys can check out remote route riches in the link in this description here if you guys are interested in getting your first rental property, but basically it changed the game for me it has changed my life. I’m happy I purchase cash flowing assets for me, instead of just buying stuff that actually like doesn’t make me money. Maybe it loses value over time like cars, I really focus on the things that will provide more freedom for me or provide more value in like self development or in helping me pursue my goals and stuff like that. So I highly recommend investing in real estate. Now also, with investing in real estate, you want to make sure you’re purchasing properties. In appreciating markets. You don’t want to just buy properties that look pretty or seem to look good on a cash flow side but don’t evaluate if the housing price As will increase over time, because appreciation has grown my net worth dramatically and and helped me become a millionaire. Actually, number six is my iPhone. So same thing with MacBooks. Like I didn’t want to spend money on it. But essentially, the iPhone is really useful for my tiktoks and reals because the Android phones honestly are not going to perform as well for tick tock as iPhones and I understand that completely now. So anytime people try to record with an Android, I think it’s not going to do as well, if you’re going to try to build a personal brand, if you’re going to try to use those videos for your social media, it is not going to do as well. So it has changed the game for me to record these videos and put them on tick tock put them on Instagram and has grown my community immensely. And not just that it’s very efficient, very durable, just like MacBooks. So I’m all about getting something long lasting and something that can work really well. Number seven is I pay VAs now again, I thought I can do everything by myself for having editors and VAs helped me with my project, I can only handle maybe like 40 hours a week, right. But if I have multiple people handling their own 40 hours a week, then I can potentially beat on my competition who’s only by themselves, it can be hard to trust other people with tasks in your business. But you might find that some people that you hire could be better at you in different things. Like I feel like my video editors are better than me a video and I didn’t want to hire out for my thumbnails, for example, because I thought you know, I do it this certain way, no one else is going to be able to replicate it. Now I have someone who does that for me too. And I find they can do a great job at it too. So try to trust people in helping you with their business, if it makes sense, if you think it’s going to provide you a lot of value, and then you can focus on working on the business incentive in the business. So that’s something I always talk about you focus on growing the business, while other people help with managing the day to day number eight is actually items that helped me complete my bucket list goals. So I have been working towards this list of 101 Bucket List goals, I think I’m at 85 or so right now I’m still trying to write it out to 101 goals, it’s a lot harder than you may think, because I’m trying to find the ones that I actually really care about. But some of the things that you guys might think is weird that I want to do is like I want to learn how to build a tiny house, I want to learn how to go fishing and start doing that more regularly. I also want to grow a garden. So these are some of the things as an example that I want to do. So what I did actually was I bought these hydroponic systems and I’m close to kind of crossing this bucket list item out because if I start growing my own food and eating it, that’s actually what one of my goals is with the fishing and the gardening, right, if I can catch my own fish and grow my own vegetables and start cooking with it, I’ll be super proud of myself. And I can cross these things off my list. So I bought books on both of those things as well. I even bought books on how to build tiny house and a course around it, it just makes me happy that I’m moving closer and closer to my goals, because this is something I have wanted to do for the longest time. And now I’m putting money into like learning these things. Same thing with music, I want to be able to create an album. So I purchased a MIDI keyboard recently, I’m going to start getting back into music. My husband and I are going to travel more next year. And one of my goals is to hit 100 countries by 100. So I’m happy to spend more money so that I can cross off these items. Because something I really care about is not living a life with regrets. I want to make sure that I do all the things that I told myself that I really wanted to do and just go after it instead of letting fear stop me number nine is actually my gaming desktop. So a lot of people like to just work, work and work just like Gary Vaynerchuk style for me, I’m more in the mentality of let me enjoy my life, but also create that freedom for myself. So I’m not all about just working all the time. If you guys know me, I play a lot of video games, I watch a lot of TV. I do think that because I’ve gotten to this point, I’m more allowed to do that in a sense that I created these side hustles I built this passive income for myself that generates money for me so it does allow me that freedom to do stuff like this because when I was pursuing these things, I just stopped watching TV I like focused and worked really hard and I didn’t play games but now that my life has changed tremendously over these seven years, I have that freedom to kind of play video games and stuff like that. It’s actually a great shared activity with my husband so we play video games a lot and honestly I do recommend it because it’s fun as a bonding experience with your partners. I’m not all about just working extremely hard and never having fun because you might just pass through your life and regret that you didn’t go have fun more often. So that’s why I’m happiest spend money on my gaming desktop number 10 is travel I’m spend money on travel but I am conscious of how much I spend like I still fly on frontier spirit. I don’t really care as much I haven’t flown first class. One of the things is I worry that if I did fly first class I’ll start getting used to that lifestyle and then want to just keep upgrading everything in my Life. So that’s kind of the thought of lifestyle inflation, right? I think there’s something cool about not just like continuously increasing your comfort level to the point where you have to be super comfortable and pay for all these extravagant things. In order for you to be content, your baseline just keeps getting upgraded over time, if you are constantly used to buying the nicest things, and being extremely comfortable in these luxuries experiences, travel has changed my life because it’s taught me a lot of things. So during my two years of travel around the world, around Europe and Asia, I met a lot of people from all walks of life, who taught me that there is no one correct way to live. And some of the happiest people are making like 600 or $1,000 a month, you know, around the world that I’ve met, they were just passionate about being present in the moment. And there’s just so much to learn when you talk to people from different cultures, different backgrounds, and again, I value experiences on experience as much as I can before I pass away, and 11th is giving back. So I actually have regular donations every single month. Right now the campaign I’m donating to is around planting trees to help with hunger and poverty. And also I want to be able to give back to my friends and family. I think it is important to give back because what is the point of having all this money, like I want to be able to give it to my kid or give it to you know, causes I care about so hopefully as I increase my passive income, I’m able to give back more and more and see different ways I can volunteer or give back because I think it is important to give back to the community and leave a legacy when you die for example, as you guys can maybe see there’s a recurring theme that I’m trying to live my life to its fullest potential before I pass away because I think that is very

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important. So I hope you guys enjoyed this episode. Please make sure to rate review and subscribe. It really helps our podcast grow. And thanks again. I’ll see you guys in the next one.

Transcribed by https://otter.ai