16 Mar Hobby Hack – One Time Investments That Keep Paying Off

We all need hobbies and there is a great quote about everyone needing a hobby for each of the following, to make us happy, health, and wealthy.  In some cases, you might make all 3 hit in one category but unfortunately the best I can do is get 2 in one.  If I’m being honest I consider our family’s path toward FI a hobby, I love this stuff and when we successfully found our two rental homes they brought us happiness at the time of purchase, happiness when the rent checks hit the bank and so far they appear to be projecting us toward wealth.  When it comes to healthy I think this can be a struggle, but in any case I have started running in the last 90 days and have found myself enjoying it but I also Cross Country Ski, Roller Ski, and even just cutting grass and other chores that many complain about can in a sense count as getting our steps in and check the health category box.

Hobbies can get really expensive and add up in a hurry, but as I’m sure you know if done right can be very affordable.  I own a $125 craigslist purchased bike from 8 years ago.  I bought that specific bike because I wanted something nice enough that I wouldn’t feel too embarrassed being seen on it, and because I hardly ever use it.  Good thing that’s what I spent because I’ve used it about 25 times in 8 years.  I’ll use it more soon here as my son now rides a bike and we go to trails, but he’s so slow on his little bike that I opt for my roller ski’s instead to easily keep pace with him and feel like I’m getting a little bit of a workout in.  If you are a cyclist as a hobby it can check 2 of 3 boxes pretty easily if you enjoy it and it makes you happy, great, and the healthy part takes care of itself with every pedal.  The beauty is you could also argue it makes you wealthy if you take up biking in exchange for something else like an expensive gym membership or any other hobby that might require regular access passes or further ongoing expense involved.  When I consider jumping into something new like biking I always find myself going the $125 craigslist route because I have no idea if I’m going to like it and how long I’m going to stick with it.  The way I see it is I’d rather buy the cheaper option, make sure I’m going to stick with it and then I if I love it, go ahead and spend $500-$1,200 on a bike if its going to fit the need and you I’m going to get years of use out of it and sell the other one on craigslist.

For me, its all about the cross country skiing and roller skiing. This was an initial setup cost of maybe $500-$750 all in but before spent that I went and rented cross country ski’s a few times and made sure I enjoyed it enough to stick with it.  Once I knew I was good to go I bought my setup and was good to go for what has now been 4 years of usage and anticipate easily getting a 5^th out of it.  While there are cross country ski trails that are free access, I have no interest in them because they aren’t groomed daily and thus make for a rough ride and could be damaging to my skis so I stick to the paid for trails which cost me a whopping $75 a year for unlimited access.  This is an excellent way to get me out of my house and outdoors in the winter time regardless of the temperature (I typically give up if it is near zero or heading below, but that’s not incredibly often), and I find myself skiing through rolling hills surrounded by trees, deer come and go, it’s a beautiful view and incredibly affordable.

I took up skiing which was allowed me to drop a membership to one of two gyms I’ve worked out at off and on, one being a specialty boxing gym worth $125 a month that I absolutely loved but the class times were hard to attend so I only got about 8 classes a month in, or a YMCA type membership for other general gym use.  In any case, skiing is affordable, I love doing it, and it offset some membership fees! In the summer time I have roller ski’s and I end up rolling through the neighborhood or sometimes will drive out to paved trails and ski there while bikers fly by, in any case, its free to go.  A hobby that is healthy, check! A hobby that makes me happy, check! A hobby that makes me wealthy, sorta-check!

I mentioned that our journey to FI makes me happy and of course wealthy is a natural attribute of FI, but I genuinely view all of this as a hobby.  Writing this all down is a piece to the puzzle, albeit I didn’t begin this until a couple years into finding the concept of FI, it does make me happy to write this every day and provide documentation of our path for others to view and my son to always have.  I also love the hunt to find the next asset.  While it can be stressful to find that next house that meets the criteria of a good cash flowing rental house, I do love looking and making all the pieces come together.  The same goes for the hunt to buy a laundromat or existing business, there is something about the hunt that I just love.  In the end not only does it help me build wealth to be on the hunt for properties or a business, I do find joy in it most of the time while experiencing periodic headache when heartbreak happens and a deal is dead after something unfavorable is uncovered.  On top of all of that, the pursuit of FI keeps me reading, listening to podcasts and talking with others about that which I’m learning and working toward.  Keeping mentally sharp and expanding brain power is a good thing and nearly counts as a check in the healthy box.  Otherwise in the FI journey I have the happy box checked as above and the wealthy box is self-explanatory even if these posts never earn a single penny.

Last and certainly not least I struggle to say is a hobby but eating top notch quality food is incredibly important to my wife and I.  I’m not sure she’d label her cooking a hobby necessarily but in any case we are food snobs and love to eat well day in and day out.  It makes me happy, makes her happy, it makes us both healthy since we eat about 90% Paleo while pairing it with intermittent fasting, and it contributes to our wealth since we eat at home instead of going out to expensive restaurants.  There isn’t much more I can say about food other than we eat incredibly well, different rotating recipes and depending on the meal even on work nights she pulls it off in just 30-45 minutes of total cook time in most cases.  Health, Happines, and wealth boxes checked!

As much as I’d love to say that every hobby I have checks multiple boxes, I can’t say that is the case.  While playing golf does indeed contribute to my health when I get outside to play, it certainly doesn’t contribute to my wealth for as much as it costs and while I do enjoy playing, I’m not always happy after an errant shot.

As with many things in life there is a balance and we need to find that balance to achieve happiness, health, and wealth building even while throwing caution to the wind and splurging from time to time.  If however you are the FI journey and need to find an expense to cut and replace with a fixed cost, take a look at your gym membership or something else you have a reoccurring expense on and see if you can find yourself suitable replacement.  It doesn’t have to happen all at once, you can rent, borrow, or buy cheaply to test the waters and make sure its going to be a long term fit that doesn’t radically change your joy or satisfaction in life, if it doesn’t, by all means continue to splurge on that reoccurring expense and find something else to cut to speed up the FI path.