Hey, it's Rachel—

Everyone is looking for things to be easy, but...

Being a beginner is hard.

Most things in life are simple and can be easy, but you have to put in a lot of energy upfront to get results.

For example, in business, once you have a consistent client base and past customers refer you, it’s easy!

But getting there is hard and takes time. You've got to invest in building relationships.

With money, once you have a large pile of investments, compounding interest works its magic, and you can make money by doing absolutely nothing.

But getting there is hard and takes time. You have to spend less than you make and have the courage to invest the difference.

In chemistry, they call this phenomenon activation energy.

It basically refers to the minimum effort required to create a chemical reaction.

For example, it takes a certain amount of energy to activate the molecules that make a chemical fizz in a test tube, but once that initial energy is exerted, it takes far less energy to sustain those same bubbles.

If you want to have insane results in life, it's important to remember that sometimes, the activation energy to get started is high.

In the beginning, there’s a lot of effort with little results.

A lot of mixing and no bubbles.

But if you stick with it, it does get easier.

Next week, I'll give you a tip for speeding up the process.

(P.S. If you ever struggle with sticking with things, you're not alone. I struggled with this problem for years, but once I studied positive psychology and shifted my mindset, everything changed for me. If you want to the research-backed methods for shifting your mindset, check out this course.)

In today's email:

• Idea of the Week
• Resources of the Week
• Advice Corner

Idea of the Week

I have a confession to make...

There are many weeks that I don't get questions from you all to put at the bottom of my email.

(So, if you want to hit reply and send one, there's a great chance it will actually get answered.)

But, I did do a survey around a year ago, and you guys asked a ton of great questions, so I pull a lot of questions from there.

Since it's been around a year, I thought I'd send the survey out again to better understand how I can serve you.

And I'm even giving away 3 special prizes to randomly selected survey participants.

>>Check out the prizes and take the survey here.<<

Resources of the Week

• Something to Inspire You: Progress in a Picture​
• Something to Make You Laugh: Giggly Babies!​
• Something to Talk About: The Best Thing That Never Happened​

This Week's Email is Sponsored By:

Meme

That's Just 4 Things

Something New

Advice Corner

Q: Hey Rachel! I usually unsubscribe from weekly emails such as yours, but for some reason, I really like Money Hacking Mama. I always find little tidbits to tuck away for future reference. So thank you for that.

Anyway, I'm curious: What would you say is the time frame for how long it takes to hit certain milestones? I get everyone is different but it would be nice to see what are some realistic goals and expectations just to have a starting point.

A: Oh boy. This is a great question. And as tempted as I am to tell you "it depends" (because it does - on a lot of factors), let's use math to come up with a formula you can use to estimate how long it may take because I know "it depends" is NOT the answer you are looking for.

Step 1: Determine goal

Step 2: Guess/research how many hours it will take to reach the goal (Google it, or base it off of people who have successfully achieved the goal already and how long it took them)

Step 3: Figure out how much time you have to dedicate every day/week/month toward your goal

Step 4: Do the math to determine how long it will take you to reach your goal or milestone.

Here's an example:

Step 1: Goal: Learn to play the guitar 👩‍🎤 🎸

Step 2: Google says 1,500 hours to be an intermediate player 🤳

Step 3: I decide I will practice 1 hour a day. ⏳

Step 4: 1,500 hours/365 hours a year = 4.10 years to reach goal 💩

Do you have a burning question related to passive income, personal finance, or positive psychology that you need answered? If yes, hit reply and send me an email with your question. If you're lucky, I'll answer it in this section of the next newsletter.