How Bird Poo Can Teach You More About Money Than Any Finance Book
Automate Your Way to Prefect Finances
Imagine yourself walking down a busy sidewalk in the most beautiful city you can think of. Life is great. Sun is shining. Then all of the sudden, plop. A bird poops right on your head.
What happens next?
You feel disgusted and embarrassed. You look and think, “Everybody saw that.” So you yell. You wipe off the poop to save as much dignity as you can, but now more people are staring. Some of them even pull out their phones. Now you are angry. You march over to slap a phone out of someone’s hand. Next thing you know, you are in a sidewalk brawl. Then handcuffs. Then jail.
With bird poop still on your head.
All because one little thing triggered the next, which triggered the next, which looped back around and made everything worse.
Money Works the Same Way
That loop is how money moves. The money version of that loop has four steps: get it, stack it, invest it (or flip it), then spend your profits in a way that brings more money back.
Most people only focus on the first step(getting money from a job). They never set up the rest of the loop to run automatically. That is why a raise never feels like enough. That is why you can work 50 hours a week and still feel stuck.
The good news is that you don’t have to manually push every step. You just have to start the loop. Here’s how:
Step 1 – Make Your Money Moving Without Thinking About It
Open your investing app like Robinhood or Stash. Then set up an automatic transfer(even just $1) into something that grows over time.
Three easy ways to do this:
Stock market – Set up a recurring “auto-invest” for an S&P 500 ETF like VOO or SPY. You can do this in almost any investing app. Start with $5/week.
Bitcoin – Use an app like Robinhood or Cash App. Set up a similar “auto-invest” for $5/week. Treat it like a tiny bill you pay yourself first.
Roth IRA – Open a Roth IRA at a brokerage like Vanguard, Fidelity, or Charles Schwab. Set a small recurring transfer from your bank account to the brokerage. Then set another “auto-invest” so that the app takes whatever is in your Roth IRA and puts it into an index fund without you thinking about it.
And if your job offers a 401k with a match, enroll in it. The money comes straight from your paycheck before you ever see it.
Step 2 – Stack It Without Temptation
When the money lands in your investing or retirement account, leave it alone. Don’t treat that account like a savings account you can dip into.
Better yet, use a separate app or bank for investing so you are not tempted to spend it. Out of sight helps a lot.
A trick I used is to create very very very random passwords for my investing accounts and write them down in a notebook that I store in a timed safe. The only way I can open the safe is to call the safe company and pay a fee for them to open it for me. This stops me from dipping into the money in my accounts at the first sign of financial stress. I got the safe on Amazon.
Step 3 – Let the Loop Keep Spinning
Once you set up automatic buys, the rest of the loop runs on its own. Your money gets invested. Over time, it may grow or pay dividends. If you turn on automatic dividend reinvestment (most apps have this feature), those profits buy more shares automatically.
When you reinvest, that’s the loop completing itself.
You don’t have to be a finance expert. You do not have to check the market every day. You just have to start the loop and let time do the heavy lifting.
Your One Next Step
Open one app right now whether it's your bank, your brokerage, or even just Cash App. Set up a recurring transfer of one dollar. Choose an asset (stock ETF, Bitcoin, or a Roth IRA). Schedule it for weekly.
Then close the app and go live your life.
In a few months you will check back and be surprised at how much the loop has done for you.
No bird poop needed🤣.