I’ve been looking for some different ways to help you become debt-free faster.
If you could get a 5% pay rise by taking a 10-minute nap each day, and nothing else, would you take that offer?
…what everybody is thinking right now:
For more than a decade I’ve been determined to understand my sleep habits, tracking and improving my sleep.
It started because of struggles I sometimes had with my mental health and I’ve since seen all areas of my life improve significantly.
And it got me wondering, is there any research that links sleep with making more money? And would it be realistic for people to achieve without a lifestyle change?
The results were surprising, and not that hard to find.
10 minutes of extra sleep per day could help you earn more money
Research published in the Journal of Sleep and Sleep Disorders Research found that 1-hour of extra sleep per week leads to:
- an increased salary of 1.5% short-term, and;
- a 4.9% increase in the long-term, and;
- if you want to go a bit more hardcore, 1-hour of extra sleep per night leads to a massive 16% increased salary.
The increased income could come from a number of factors influenced by sleep, but the bottom line is, everybody has 10-minutes extra per day they could find. Probably all you’d have to do is set the alarm on your phone to remind you to go to bed and turn off the lights sooner.
Get paid $1 per minute for sleeping?
At the time of writing, the average Australian income was $90,800. An increase of 4.9% is equivalent to $85.56 per week, less 32.5% tax.
Net gain would be $57.75 per week or $0.96 per minute (after tax).
Save $122,846 off your home loan
For the average $500,000 mortgage in Australia, with extra repayments of $250 per month ($57.75/w) the total cost of your home loan would reduce by 5 years 3 months and saving you $122,846.
If you need help achieving this sort of impact by managing your money, check out last week’s article, Bad Tastes and Free Money.
For the hardcore, get an extra 1-hour sleep per night and increase your salary by 16% using the same methodology and your loan reduces by half. Reducing a 30 year loan down to 15 years 1 month, and saving a whopping $318,425.
Some of the things I’ve done to get more sleep
- Decide I want more sleep
- Track my heart rate, body temperature and other things during sleep using Oura ring. This led me to stop eating fried foods every now and then, because the one time I’d lash out I’d get to see how bad my sleep was that night
- Create a bedtime ritual – they work but are sometime’s difficult to stick to when living with others
- Little or no alcohol before bed
- No food before bed (aim for no eating at least 2+ hours before bed)
- No screen time before bed (or having a gap before going to bed, bedtime
- Stop drinking coffee after the lunchtime brew (coffee doesn’t affect my sleep much anyway)
- Hot shower or bath
- Get the world’s best ear plugs – Mack’s silicone earplugs
- Window 100% black-outs (cheap and easy to buy online from Amazon or wherever)
- Eye mask – get a good one, I got the MZOO.
Other benefits of more sleep
- Healthier (physically and mentally)
- Happier
Loads of resources out there, here’s one place to start, Mat Walker. Perhaps the worlds leading sleep specialist: https://podcasts.apple.com/ca/podcast/the-matt-walker-podcast/id1578319619
Why you should listen to me
I’m no sleep doctor, but with my storytelling ability, I’ve proven quite capable of putting folks to sleep (bi-product of unintended boredom)…
Articles and other things I thought you’d like because you’re interested in some things sometimes…
Sick of Your Home Loan Repayments Increasing?
Recently I wrote about why I’m pissed about all the interest rate rises. According to data we receive there is $264B of home loans on fixed rates expiring in the second half of this year. If most of these loans were fixed at around 2% and are coming off in to roughly 6%, that’s a 4% increase (yes I can do math’s haha). Anyway, that works out to be about $10.5B in extra interest payments, a lot more than what would normally impact the economy. Will be interesting to see how this plays out. Book a call with me if you need some help.
What will happen with interest rates over the next few years?
I discussed this in more detail a few weeks ago over here.
How 100% of economic/interest rate experts get their predictions wrong 100% of the time. Always predicting something different for this quarter or two than they were last year. So I gave a few tips for trying to work out what will happen and whether to choose fixed or variables.
Quote to think about for life, investing, when you’re arguing, or in just about any situation..
“Live as if you are living for the second time and acted as wrongly the first time as you are about to act now“
– Viktor Frankl, from his book “Mans search for meaning”.
Important Economic Announcements from this week
RBA Minutes: Contains in-depth insights into the economic conditions that influenced this month’s interest rate decision. Some of the RBA’s considerations for this month’s interest rate increase:
- The economy is on a narrow path in which inflation comes back to target while the unemployment rate is so low, with significant risks and uncertainties.
- Inflation to stay higher than desired for some years, with Australia taking longer to lower than many other developed countries.
- Acknowledged the considerable uncertainty and financial stresses facing some households.
- The full article is over here.
The MI Leading Index: Designed to predict the direction of the economy, using info related to consumer confidence, housing, stock market prices, money supply, and interest rate spreads.
Index has fallen for 10th consecutive time
- Several important economic factors have deteriorated over the last month – job confidence, dwelling approvals, global growth, and commodity prices.
- You can read more about the report over here.
Other topics Coming Soon
Business owners can access 100% of property value without interest loadings
Simple way to determine your purchasing power
Compare Max Loans: Bank A $100K, Bank B $1.5M, exact same financial data