9 Things to Automate Right Now to Get Rich

[0:00]There are nine things you can automate today that can help change your financial life. If it's your first time here, hi, I'm Yidan. I reached financial freedom in my 30s and one of the biggest lessons I've learned along the way is that building wealth isn't only about setting goals, because you don't rise to your goals, you fall to your systems. So, today, I'm going to walk you through nine things that you can automate to build your systems, so your money growth even when you're not thinking about it. Let's start with the easiest one, automate your bill payments. I'm talking about the essentials like your rent, your mortgage, your credit cards, utilities, or insurance. Because if you miss a few payments, that's one of the fastest ways to lose money. Why is that? First, you get hit with late fees, very straightforward. Second, your credit score drops, and that makes everything gets more expensive. Because lenders see you as higher risk, so they charge you a higher interest rate. And when it comes to interest rate, even a small difference matters. If you're not buying a home but renting a place, it can still cost you more because landlords may ask for a larger deposits from someone with a lower credit score. Or worse, you might not get approved at all. So, this first one, automating bill payment is a no-brainer. But there's one catch here, because for this one, we're only talking about things that you need to survive. And this does not include subscriptions. In fact, subscriptions are one of the most dangerous things to automate bluntly. I once subscribed to a fitness app, it had workout videos, training plans, and things like I needed to exercise at home. At first, I used it a lot, but over time, I started watching workout videos on YouTube instead. Then slowly, I stopped using the app completely. But here's the problem, my subscription was on auto-renewal, so I didn't notice the cost. I didn't feel the payment, and I ended up paying for months for something I wasn't even using. In fact, according to surveys in the US, over half of people pay for subscriptions they don't use every single month. Maybe it's a streaming app, a digital tool, a shopping membership, a learning app, or even a free trial that quietly auto-renewed. So, here's what I do now. For most subscriptions, I turn off auto-renew or I cancel auto-renew right after I subscribe. I'll usually still keep access until the end of the billing cycle, so nothing changes in the short term. But later, I get to make a conscious decision. If it's still adding value to my life, I can renew. If not, I save the money. And to be honest, most of the time, companies will even offer a discount for customers to come back. Once your bills are handled, we move to the second thing to automate, your retirement contributions. In some countries like the UK and Singapore, this is already built into the system. You're automatically enrolled into a retirement plan and money is taken out of your paychecks, so contributions happen whether you think about it or not. But in the US, it's different. You usually have to enroll yourself in plans like a 401k or an IRA, and if you don't set it up, nothing happens. So, if you haven't, enroll in your retirement plans, then automate your contributions directly from your paycheck or bank account. Set it up so money gets invested before you even see it. And here's a big bonus. Many employers offer a match, and that means that for every dollar you contribute, you employers more. It's essentially free money, but you only get it if you're contributing. Now, a lot of people think, once I contribute, I'm done. But that's not true. Automating contribution only gets your money in the account, but where your money is invested, that's where the real growth happens. In some retirement plans, your money goes into a default option. Sometimes that's called a Target Date Fund, like a 2050 retirement fund. These automatically adjust over time, like more stocks when you're young and more bonds as you get older. That's okay for many people, but in other cases, your money might just go into a money market fund that's very low risk, but also very low return. And over time, that can seriously slow down your money's growth. So, instead of just defaulting to whatever your retirement provider picks for you and hoping for the best, take control. Choose intentionally where you want your money to go. You can pick a few funds that you're comfortable holding for the long-term funds with solid performance and lower fees. For example, you can have 25% of them go into S&P 500 index fund, 25% go into a total market fund, and another quarter go into an international index and the rest go into an emerging market index. And then automate it. By the way, the allocations here are just an example, not financial advice. The idea is that if auto-investment is set up, then whenever a contribution hits your account, the money gets invested exactly how you want it. Retirement accounts are powerful, but they come with rules. In most countries like the US, UK, and Australia, you usually can't access that money without penalties until a certain age. So, if you want flexibility or even early retirement, you need a second layer, and that's where a brokerage account comes in. What you can do is to automate a percentage of your income right after payday into a brokerage account. Then set it to auto-invest into ETFs, index funds, stocks, or REITs of your choice. This way, you're building wealth in two ways. Money for later, which is through your retirement accounts, and money that you can access earlier, which is through your brokerage account. And when you put them together, that's your freedom fund that lets you live life on your own terms. So now your money is invested, but this next automation can help it grow even faster. And it is automatic dividend reinvestment (DRIP). When you invest in stocks or ETFs, some of them pay your dividends. Normally, that money shows up as cash, and then it just sits there. But with dividend reinvestment turned on, that cash doesn't sit there. It goes right back into the investment and start buying more of itself for you automatically. Think of it like a snowball. Let's say, you have 100 shares of a ETF, and they pay out $1 each, and that's $100 in dividends. So, instead of spending that cash, you can use it to buy more shares. If the price of the ETF is $50 each, you just added two shares for free. Now you own 102 shares. Next year, you're getting paid on this 102 shares, not 100 shares. And that bigger check buys even more shares, which makes the next check even bigger. Eventually, the snowball just shows on its own. You're not even adding money anymore. Your money is busy making more money for you. So far, at this point, your investments are compounding on their own, but what happens when a good opportunity shows up? If there's a market crash, there's a recession, and assets are on sale. Are you ready to act? This is why there should be an opportunity fund, because opportunities don't wait. Discounted stocks, real estate deals, business ideas, they show up fast. And if you don't have cash ready, you miss them. So, the solution is simple. Set aside a separate pool of money just for opportunities, and automate moving money into this fund consistently over time. So, when the moment comes, you're ready. Now with automated your regular income, but what about money that comes in unexpectedly? And this one is what most people overlook. When extra money shows up, a bonus, a tax refund, RSUs, side income, it feels like free money. And because it feels free, it's very easy to spend. If you don't want that money to disappear and instead want it to grow and multiply, the key is this. Decide what to do with the money before it arrives. Because once it hits your account, your emotions take over. And here's one way to do it. First, create a separate windfall account. Any extra income goes there first, not your main account. Then, automate what happens next. Any money getting there will be split automatically. For example, 50% goes into investments to grow, 30% goes into your opportunity fund, and 20% goes into your spending account to be enjoyed. This way, every time extra money comes in, it follows a system, not your mood. Okay, the system is automated, the money is moving, but how do you actually measure the success? Let's talk about the best way to know your wealth, which is to track your net worth. Most people have a rough idea of how much income comes in every month, but never think about their net worth. Surveys show that over half of Americans don't know how to calculate their net worth, and most don't track it at all. But net worth is probably one of the most important personal financial indicators. That's money that stays and eventually gives your freedom. So start tracking it if you have not, and even better is to make it automatic. And there are many tools that you can use to connect all of your accounts, your bank, your investments, credit cards, loans, everything, updates in one place. This way, instead of guessing, you can see your full financial picture at any time. But if you don't want to link accounts, a spreadsheet works here too. Just set a monthly reminder, and spend 10 to 20 minutes updating everything like all of your numbers like cash, investments, real estate, and debt. And I'm actually in the process of building a free template for you to track your net worth, and I'll add the download link in the description below as soon as it's ready. So make sure to subscribe to this channel, so you don't miss it. Another way to track your money is to see where it's actually going. Remember the fitness app that I told you about? I only caught it because I was tracking my expenses. If I wasn't keeping an eye on my spending, my money would have just disappeared without being noticed. And again, the solution is automation. Use apps that connect to your bank and credit cards. They automatically categorize your spending and show you where your money is going. And if you don't want to link accounts, a spreadsheet works here too. This is another free template that I'm building so you can track your monthly spending. Again, I'll drop the link below when it's ready. At the end of the day, the people who built wealth are not the ones who try harder. They're the ones who built their systems and automate better. They make sure that their income turns into investments, their investments keeps compounding, and they always have capital ready when opportunities come. If you're enjoying this video, you might like this one as well. I'll see you there.