Are you getting the right returns on your investment
/$30 MILLION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
There it is! A massive sign advertising this weekend's jackpot that is hanging out the front of every single newsagency outlet across in the city. It's in bright green and yellow colors. It really gets the imagination flowing doesn't it. How good would life be if you won the lotto? I know what I'd do with that much money. It offers the one thing we all want. FREEDOM. In Australia, you don't even have to pay tax on your lotto winnings. It's all yours. If you win, you no longer have to worry about mortgage payments, terrible bosses, and forced socialization with colleagues. You can buy a new car every month if you want and go on holidays. The ultimate freedom is to work because you want to and not work because you have to.
All it takes is for you to get nine right numbers out of 50. It seems such a simple thing to do. Just nine numbers out of 50, or 1.8% of the numbers. The best part is, for the small price of just $12 a ticket, you can have 12 games at picking the combination of nine numbers. If that's not enough and you want to push the odds to your favor, just buy another ticket. Heck, if you get too busy, you can buy a QuickPick and a computer will select the nine numbers for you at random across the 12 tickets. How great is that!!!! You don't even have to think. I read a recent statistic. In Australia, the average spend on lotto per week is around $43, and this spend is likely to occur on a weekly basis. Of course, the spend goes up dramatically, when the jackpot goes beyond $20 million. The largest jackpot in Australia ever won was $90 million. It went to a Gold Coast couple. They must be living it up right now.
But then my mathematical brain started thinking. $43 per week for 52 weeks. That's $2,236 a year on lotto tickets, where you have bugger all chance of winning. To get 12 numbers right out of 50, there are over 45 million permutations. You have a 1 in 45 million chance of getting it right. Technically, that means if the jackpot goes over $50 million, and you can generate 45 million unique entries, then you are guaranteed a win. But if somebody else also wins (by luck) then you have to split the jackpot and you'll be down $25 million.
Buying a lotto ticket gives you hope. It gives you this false illusion that there is a possibility of improving your life. But it's just an illusion for 99.99% of us. In reality, we get no return on our money from buying lotto tickets.
But, there is a way where spending the same amount of money will actually give you a genuine path towards improving your life. It might not be as instant as a lotto win. But it will definitely give you much better odds than 1 in 45 million and the improvements will be sustainable.
Imagine if you spent the same amount of money ($2,236) on books or attending TED sessions? Imagine if you spent that money attending a Tony Robbins course (or equivalent). If those motivation courses are too "out there" for you, how about using that money to do something more practical like:
A professional photo for your CV or for your Linkedin profile. One that isn't cropped from your family photo where you were wearing a stained white polo top, with messy hair. A professional photo will set you back around $300 but I guarantee, it's worth every dollar when potential employers look at your profile on Linkedin. PS, if you don't have a professional photo, it's better not to have a photo at all.
A professional course on how to communicate better, how to speak with confidence, how to articulate your points with clarity, and how to breathe so that you don't speak at a million miles an hour. This kind of course can set you back about $700.
How about spending the money on a nice suit or dress. One that is tailored to you so that when you wear it, you feel more confident, and if you have to attend interviews, you will stand out. I don't mean a flashy white suit with white shoes. I mean a nice professionally tailored suit.
That leaves you with about $500 left to do smaller things like buying two or three books such as Influence or the Subtle Art of Not Giving a F*ck to change your mindset.
Think about it. By committing the same amount of money ($2,236) each year to doing the above activities, you will have a guaranteed return on your money and improve your life. If you then follow the advice of this blog, which is to truly understand the key messages from one or two books a year and then put those recommended actions into place, then you are setting yourself up for sustained long term success. Your improved profile, confidence, and communication skills will lead you to a better job that hopefully pays more or at the very least, propel you into a role where you feel valued and are contributing. Your confidence means you have the freedom to change employers at will.
Sure, guaranteed and sustained self improvement is not exciting as winning a lotto ticket. But at 1 in 45 million odds, I wouldn't hold my breath. There aren't enough weeks in your life where you can explore the 45 million permutations of the winning lotto number.
So the key takeaway is this. I'm not saying don't buy lotto tickets at all (heck, when the jackpot hits $50 million, I'm putting some money into that sucker). But think about how you can reallocate some of the money into investments that are guaranteed to improve you. We hesitate at buying books that cost $30. We look for free versions or check on multiple online sites. And we don't even buy books that often. Yet we don't hesitate at spending $43 on a lotto ticket each week. So let's reset our priorities here. Let's have some fun with lotto tickets, but also invest some money in improving ourselves.
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