Welcome to another edition of my newsletter.

We have been going on a lot of play dates recently for our son to meet friends from his daycare class. And it’s such a delight to see all the kids, play and learn together.

I finally watched the Oppenheimer film and I was a bit underwhelmed. For starters, the explosion didn’t feel as massive as it was made to believe from the trailers. Then the movie itself was too long and felt stretched. And finally, the part I liked the most had nothing to do with the actual creation of the bomb but the interrogation that followed. It’s a good film but could have been so much better.

The personal training with my trainer Steve is going really well. I have been lifting weights regularly now and made lots of progress since the beginning of this year. My max. lift with a barbell and dumbbell are really high now and I feel that strength training is helping with my running, cycling and injury prevention. I have also increased my protein intake but without supplements so far. Also, my blood tests have come out normal, except I am slightly anaemic for which I need to take regular iron tablets now. I’m really happy with the progress I have made despite turning vegan. I mean, I have never been stronger or faster than now.

Also, we have booked tickets for our son’s 2nd birthday in Istanbul. It will be his 5th country and I keep joking with my wife that he has travelled to more countries before he has turned 2 than me before I turned 30. Such a life right!!!

My USA trip is coming up shortly and I am excited to meet my college friends whom I have known since 2002. It’s a short trip but hoping to have a good time. Hope the weather stays nice.

Also, my Parkrun tourist streak is now complete. I have now run a different Parkrun for my last 6 runs. And I’m planning to do so for the time being. It feels great to explore the different parks and areas of London around me.

☀️ Solar power

Recently MKBHD did a review of the Tesla Solar Roof with the Tesla Powerwall and it was a really well-documented effort to highlight how solar power works and how much it costs. He has broken down the usage per season and then covered his overall costs. MKBHD, based on his current annual usage, would recover the cost he spent on his installation in roughly 10 years’ time.

Now I really want to install solar panels in our house but the cost of installation and the return on investment doesn’t justify the up-front spending yet. Plus we normally don’t use a lot of electricity. Our gas consumption is higher than our electricity consumption as we use it for heating our house in winter.

So here is my calculation to justify my reasoning for not getting a solar panel, for now.

Currently, our electricity tariff is

Based on our estimated annual usage, the electricity bill comes to

• Usage cost → 2390.4 kWh x 19.791 p/kWh = £473.08

• Standing charge → 365 days x 18.700 p/day = £68.26

• Total cost → £473.08 + £68.26 = £541.34

In Sep-2023, we are moving to the below tariff

Based on our estimated annual usage, the electricity bill would now come to

• Usage cost → 2390.4 kWh x 29.61 p/kWh = £707.80

• Standing charge → 365 days x 47.21 p/day = £172.32

• Total cost → £707.80 + £172.32 = £880.12

Our electricity bill would go up by £338.78 annually.

The most recent quote I got earlier this year for a solar panel installation with a battery and an inverter was around £15,000. This is based on a 4.8 kW solar panel system with a 6.5 kWh battery.

So, based on our annual usage, our return on investment will be in

• £15,000 / £880.12/year = 17 years.

If our electricity bill went up to £1,300/year, then our return on investment will be in

• £15,000 / £1,300/year = 11.5 years.

If our electricity bill went up to £2,000/year, then our return on investment will be in

• £15,000 / £2,000/year = 7.5 years.

But let us do another calculation. Let’s say the cost of installation falls down to £8,000.

With an electricity bill based on our annual usage, our return on investment will be in

• £8,000 / £880.12/year = 9.1 years.

With an electricity bill of £1,300/year, our return on investment will be in

• £8,000 / £1,300/year = 6.2 years.

With an electricity bill of £2,000/year, our return on investment will be in

• £8,000 / £2,000/year = 4 years.

So solar panels only make sense if our electricity consumption is very high or the cost of installation is low.

🛂 Travel authorization

Let’s say you have a passport that is visa-exempt for many countries. For example, you have a UK passport. Now you don’t need a visa to go to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand or any country in the EU. But you still need a travel authorisation document.

European Union

USA

UK

Canada

Australia

New Zealand

The reason for this analysis is that even for visa-exempt passports, the above countries have still figured out a way to earn money. People don’t have to deal with the hassle of applying for a visa but they still need to shell out money. And over a 10-year period, a person would pay $105 on ESTA and $185 on a B2 visa for the USA, at current prices. The difference is not a lot but I hope you can see what I’m trying to say.

💰 How to Get Rich

We recently saw this series on Netflix and loved some of the ideas shared in it by Ramit Sethi.

The title is a bit cheesy but the ideas and the psychology behind it are very relevant.

One of the ideas I loved from the show was around the Conscious Spending Plan instead of budgeting.

For example, when we receive our salaries, we divide them into the following categories

1. Fixed costs - Mortgage, utility bills, insurance, groceries, etc.

2. Investments - Pension, ISAs, Index funds, etc.

3. Savings - Emergency fund, holiday fund, wedding, etc.

4. Guilt-free spending - dining out, movies, drinks, shopping, etc.

The idea is to allocate, roughly, the below percentage from your monthly take-home income

• 50% for needs (e.g. rent, groceries),

• 20% for savings and investments (e.g. pension, savings goals),

• 30% for wants (the stuff you feel guilty about spending money on)

The other idea was around designing our rich life. What do you want and by when do you want it? That will enable you to make decisions towards your goals.

My rich life would look like this -

1. Eat nutritious food to optimize my health. This would enable me to not stress too much about my protein, carbs or macros. And it would also help me have a life full of energy and less worry. I would love to have a cook, with the help of a nutritionist, who can do this for our family every day. Good food means good overall physical and mental health.

2. Do regular exercise/workouts to stay strong, flexible and with lots of stamina. As my son grows, I will be growing older. So I need to stay at a certain fitness level to enjoy many things with him. Personal training and yoga have been really helpful and I would love to invest more into these.

3. Enjoy nature yet enjoy the perks of city life. I love our current house, as it’s close to the countryside and yet not very far from the city. This enables me to go running, cycling, hiking, etc. while also enjoying watching movies/plays, eating out, drinking, etc.

4. Travel to a new country every 3 to 6 months and explore the culture, food and people. Our 5 months of backpacking trip to South America completely changed my mindset about travelling and exploration. Of course, I don’t want to stay in cheap hostels anymore but rather stay in a comfortable hotel which offers the best amenities for my family.

5. Have richer experiences with my family. It could be going out on a holiday or trying a new experience locally. It could be signing up for a challenge or building something together. It could be eating something new or learning a new skill/language. It could be overcoming a fear or starting a new business.

6. Spend more time with our parents. As they grow older I realize that we will have less and less time with them each passing year.

7. Spend more on others than on ourselves. I have been really lucky with my wife who is a very generous person and I want to be more like her and pay it forward. We are who we are because of the people in our lives. So it’s a way of saying thank you to them while also showing we value their presence in our lives. Be it family or friends or even strangers.

8. Stay mentally sharp - Exercising regularly does help to stay mentally fit but I would love to do something else to keep it sharp. Learning a new skill or language does help and I would love to do that regularly. At least 1-2 new things every year.

So the idea now is to plan my life around these major expenses. Things like a career will only help you earn more but what gives it meaning are the things you do with that money.

This show really helped open my mind around my own psychology towards money and how differently I see it compared to my wife.

❤️ Things I enjoyed

This section has been inspired by Ali Abdaal’s wonderful newsletter.

📝 Article - The little search engine that couldn’t talks about how difficult it is to build a search engine from scratch and replace Google. Some amazing insights into how Google Search dominates the web search industry.

📱 App - what3words divided the world into 3-metre squares and gave each square a unique combination of three words. It’s the easiest way to find and share exact locations. It’s such a powerful idea and is already being adopted widely.

📝 Article - It’s Not a Computer, It’s a Companion! is a wonderful article about how AI is trying to replace human companions, be it coworkers, friends, family members, or even lovers. It’s going to be a crazy future where people will feel more comfortable talking to a voice chatbot than actual human beings. We recently did a podcast on this topic.

📺 TV show - Foundation has both me and my wife hooked on it. We are into its second season and it’s a roller coaster. The dialogues are engaging, the vision is mind-blowing, and the scale is astounding.

🌐 Website - BaiRBIE is an amazing web app that will take a picture and convert it into your favourite doll from the Barbie world. I absolutely had a ball playing with it.

Thank you so much once again for reading my newsletter this week. Please feel free to Buy me a coffee if you are enjoying what I am sharing.

If you want to follow me around the internet, then please do so here.

Until we meet again next week, invest your money, eat healthily, rest well, and be bold.