How to Make a Self Study Plan (that you don't give up halfway)

Hey guys, how's it going? Welcome back to another video. So I was recently doing, or more like redoing, my personal finance study plan. And then after I did that, I rewarded myself by watching an anime called Dr. Stone. While I was watching it, I was like, hmm, this is actually a pretty good analogy for designing a study plan. So in this video, I am going to illustrate how to design a good study plan using Dr. Stone, which is now one of my favorite animes. It's a shounen anime, so I'm going to try to not give any spoilers, but honestly, it's a shounen anime. You kind of know what's going to happen and who's going to win in the end. But it's seriously actually really good, so you should definitely check out that anime after this video. Okay, so here is the premise of the anime. This guy was about to tell his childhood crush that he loves her, but alas, somehow this mysterious green light shrouded the world and everybody freezes and becomes stone. So everybody's just kind of like, you know, being stone and stuff. And then 3,700 years later, after modern society has completely just like degenerated into nothingness, this super genius science guy called Senku revives and instead of giving up and moving to Nepal to live as a goat, as a normal person would. I'm therefore leaving immediately for Nepal, where I intend to live as a goat. He instead decides to rebuild the world using science. So first thing he does is that he revives his friends using magical science stuff from the droppings of bats, which if you actually watch the show, it actually makes a lot of sense. Like the science of this show is probably the best part of the show. But anyways, he revives his best friend and then things transpire and then he was also forced to revive his new enemy called Tsukasa, who is known as the most powerful high school primate. Like the guy literally wrestles and beats up a tiger. So they kind of got along for a while, but then Tsukasa was like, the old world is corrupt because of capitalism and the old people who are feeding upon the young, blah, blah, blah. It doesn't actually make that much sense, but pretty much we should not revive the old people and we should instead build a world without science. But then Senku was like, hell no, science is the best thing ever, so you cannot possibly do that. So pretty much that basically sets up the scenario where Senku has to fight Tsukasa using the power of science and Tsukasa has his stone army, people who are very strong. Now, doesn't making a study plan sound so much easier? Okay, so let me first explain all the ingredients that go into making a good study plan. And then I will actually talk about how I use these ingredients to craft my personal finance study plan. By the way, so this is actually really interesting, but the anime Dr. Stone, the name of Dr. Stone comes from the idea of soap. Because in the stone world, there's no antibiotics or medicines and things like that. So soap and preventative measures is the doctor of this world. So hence the name, Dr. Stone. And one more thing before I get started. So I have a newsletter called Boops Keyboard in which I talk about coding, talk about life, productivity, as well as basically how to get your ---- together. So if you're not subscribed already, you should check it out over here, also linked in description. It is free! Okay, okay. Let us get started. So ingredient number one is to plant the seeds of war and get as much information as possible. So Senku's ultimate goal right here is to come up with the ultimate plan to beat Tsukasa and like his gang of super strong people using the power of science. So not only does he have to make that plan, he also has to execute it, which is crazy hard because he has to build everything back up. Like remember, this is the stone world, but there is absolutely nothing and he has to build all the science things from scratch in order to come up with something that can beat Tsukasa. So in order to do this, Senku has to plant the seeds of war to, first of all, be able to get information about what Tsukasa is doing, and then also plant the seeds so that when he does like the power of science stuff, he's able to execute properly. So he planted his friends to basically be like, pretend to be cool with Tsukasa and like go undercover, provide information and just like lie in waiting. Second ingredient of making a good war plan is to have a deadline. So Senku plans to execute his plan in the spring because that's when the snow melts because you don't want to be invading Russia during winter time. So with that deadline in place, he like knows how much time it is that he has to devise this plan and execute on it, which then leads to the plan itself, which is the third ingredient of a plan for war. Draw a map with checkpoints leading towards your ultimate goal. So he knows that his ultimate end goal is to win this war and preferably without bloodshed. So he takes that goal and then he works backwards from there. Like what are the components that I need in order to accomplish my goal? So he made this plan in order to build like the ultimate thing that is going to help him win this war. But I'm not going to spoil that for you. The first important thing to note here is that there are checkpoints for materials that he has to get. For example, coal, iron, phosphorus and glass. Also along the way, he designed in specific things like items that he will build along the way. For example, a katana, a light bulb and ramen because clearly ramen is very important. As I'll talk about a little bit later when I'm talking about my own personal plan, this way of designing a plan is really good. So it allows people to see the progress that they're making and have little rewards along the way while they're doing these like really, really difficult things. Stuff like making the ramen, the cola, the cotton candy. These served a purpose of making the ultimate thing, but it also serves as a really important function of boosting morale for people and also convincing other people to join his plan. Very smart guy, this Senku. And another reason why this plan is so well designed is because it provides clarity beforehand like what are the concrete, deliverable things that need to be achieved. So he's able to figure out where the parts of the plan that has the most amount of uncertainty, which then leads to the next ingredient, having a plan B or like plan C and maybe even plan D. So from your plan, you know that there's places that there's a lot of uncertainty that you might need to like find an alternative way. But except for that, you also have to account for the fact that things go to ---- in general because of Murphy's law, which states that if things are going to go wrong, if things can go wrong, then they will go wrong. For example, bamboo is not strong of a material when you're trying to make a light bulb. Or for example, you're trying to coerce people by making this guy pretend to be this girl over here, but you're not doing a very good job. So you got to make sure that you have a plan B and maybe a plan C or even a plan D in order to substitute out if necessary, which is important so that you don't lose momentum. And also you don't get stuck and then ultimately discouraged because even if you are the smartest person in the world, you still can get discouraged if things don't work out the way that you thought they would. And the next ingredient of designing a good war plan as well as a good study plan is to not do it alone. Maybe you fall into a pit while you're trying to collect rocks. Will you be a little screwed if somebody wasn't there to help you get up? Or maybe you need to get a poison gas to do your thing and then you need someone to help look out and like make sure that the poison gas doesn't kill everybody while you're collecting it. Pretty much like the buddy system. And also because you have this really hard plan over here and there are some things that each person is better at than others, right? So instead of trying to do everything by yourself, you divide and conquer. For example, if you're trying to recreate the light bulb, you have Senku over here who is kind of like overseeing things, kind of like the project manager as well as the program manager. And then you're going to have one person who's going to go and collect materials. And then you also have someone who's a craftsman who's able to take that class and then mold it into the shape of a light bulb. So you guys are doing the things that you're best at doing and then you all come together, assemble things and also teach each other. And finally, it's just more fun. Like, do you want to be sitting there and spinning a wheel because you have to create a water dam by yourself for like 48 hours or would you rather do that with someone else? This is like the saying that misery loves company. Like if you're studying for an exam, do you want to be the person who's just sitting there by themselves suffering or do you want to suffer together? There is also one more ingredient, which is not really in this anime because it's a shounen anime and like Senku is OP and he knows everything. But if you're not a genius scientist, you probably want someone to also look over your study plan. Preferably someone who has more experience or has done something similar. So with all of these ingredients in place, Senku has now designed the ultimate plan of war for the kingdom of science. A good plan starts prior to even making a plan. You gotta do your research, plant your seeds of war so that you're able to use them later. You also gotta think about execution because your ultimate plan is nothing in theory. Like you actually have to be able to execute on it. So that's why it's so important to have very clear goals in mind as well as checkpoints that show progress. Like making cola, making ramen, because this is just as much about the human element and making sure that everybody is motivated. Which Senku knows very well and he uses this extensively to get people to go onto his side and do labor for him. A great plan is also very focused on collaboration because by the Gisalt principle, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. And finally, you gotta have that foresight because Murphy's law, if things can go wrong, then they will go wrong. Okay, so now you know what is a good plan to go to war, let's talk about the example of creating a study plan which also follows these ingredients using my real life example of designing a study plan for personal finance. So first ingredient, do your research and plant the seeds. Like Senku, I spent a significant amount of time doing initial research. Because you don't want to go and completely reinvent the wheel. There's nothing that you have to really just build completely from scratch, especially something like personal finance. It's been around for ages and ages. So by spending that initial time doing your research, you're actually saving yourself a lot of problems like when you're trying to do trial and error. And then you're also able to stand on the back of giants, if you will. No, stand on the shoulder of giants, yes. So the first thing that I did was actually watching a bunch of YouTube videos to try to find something that resonates with me, something that makes sense to me as to why I'm even trying to pursue personal finance. And I think this is something that each person does have to like figure out for themselves. Because that's why it's called personal finance, not just called like finance. And then from that, I learned about the fire movement, which in the beginning, I was like, wow, like this is this is really great. But then I kind of realized that it really wasn't what I was going for. But that's like another video. I also read quite a few books on this topic. And the book that has really resonated with me the most is a book called The Millionaire Fastlane, which I talk about in detail. I can link the video over here. So after doing my research and then understanding people's different points of view, I was able to craft a vision that really resonated with me, which is being able to travel and do whatever it is that I find the most meaningful. Like, for example, one of the top things in my bucket list is to actually travel around the world and go to the most beautiful libraries. While you're doing this research as well and taking note of what other people have done and trying to incorporate that into your own plan. Another thing that you develop along the way is a deeper understanding about yourself. For example, a lot of plans that I see from other people was about aggressively cutting costs. But what I realized for me is that if I tried to do that, that would just be really stressful for me. Like I don't want to be sitting there crunching numbers and try to like budget everything really closely. And I also learned things like what kind of investments I was interested in doing, what kind of investments I wasn't interested in doing. And then another really key thing is realizing that I really don't like the idea of debt. Even if it's considered good debt, where people go and buy real estate using debt, that was still something that I didn't personally feel very comfortable with. And I also discovered a bunch of other things, which I'll talk a little bit more when I'm talking about my actual plan. Okay, so after I do this research, then the next thing is to set a deadline for myself. So for Senku, he had a pretty natural deadline. Because the war is probably going to happen when spring comes when all the snow melts. But for me, I had to kind of like introspect a little bit more to determine what deadline makes sense for me. And I decided it should be by the time I'm 30 years old, because that's the time in which I would like to potentially think about starting a family. Is this goal going to change? Maybe even like probably, but it's really important to actually set that deadline ahead of time. So you know how to plan for achieving this goal by that deadline. Or else if you're anything like me, you would probably just never start. The next ingredient that I built into my personal finance study plan is to draw that map with checkpoints that lead to my ultimate goal of financial freedom. Senku's ultimate goal was to defeat Tsukasa. So for me, I have this vision for myself for what I want my life to look like, and in turn what my personal finances to look like for me to achieve that life. And from doing all that research, what I realized is that it really ultimately just boils down to one simple equation that determines your personal finance, which is your revenue minus your cost plus investments. There's obviously like a lot of different iterations of this, like different things that people add, but I honestly feel like most people overcomplicate personal finances. Like for me, I'm like okay with just this general formula. So with this formula, there's three obvious components to it, right? There's the revenue and then there's the cost, which means what can I do in order to reduce my costs? And then finally, there's investments. What should I be investing in and how should I be investing so that I'm able to generate income from my investments? And similar to Senku, I tried my best to design in these checkpoints. So I'm able to evaluate myself and go like, okay, I've achieved this milestone. For example, for that revenue part, I know that I've achieved this when I no longer need to hold down a traditional job and I'm not relying on a single source of income. And another one of my checkpoints is around 50% of the income that I generate is considered passive. Although honestly, there's no such thing as like truly passive, but by passive I mean is disassociated from my time. Remember previously how I talked about along the way of the research, I learned to understand stuff about myself. I learned to understand what resonates with me, what I feel comfortable doing, what I don't feel comfortable doing. So I tried to design this into my plan as well, because again, similar to Senku, we're focused on execution. So let me give you an example of what that actually looks like in my plan. So for me, I don't really like the idea of trying to reduce costs as much as possible, right? So in order to balance out this equation of revenue minus cost plus investments, it means that I will need to focus more on the revenue portion. And I realized the way that I want to generate that revenue is through business. In terms of the reducing cost side, obviously you can't just like not care at all. So what I've decided on is optimizing for simplicity in this case and not having to spend a lot of time on it. Which means that I'm okay not having the most optimized way in order to reduce my costs. And I'm okay hiring good lawyers and good accountants, even if that costs me more money in order to make sure that everything is in place. Some other things I care about a lot, so then I design into my plan, include the idea of not liking debt. Like in terms of investments, I don't like the idea of having to go into debt to purchase real estate and like being kind of shackled to that. By the way, not financial advice, I'm totally fine if you're into that. I'm just saying like me personally. That's not something that appeals to me. I also care a lot about freedom and self-agency, especially since I grew up in China. I've discovered some things that can occur if you don't kind of plan to have that freedom and agency as a core part of your financial plan. If you do actually want to see a video on this kind of like my entire plan and more of like a detailed breakdown of it, do let me know in the comments. I will do it if you guys are interested. Okay, so now let's talk about the next ingredient, which is having multiple backup plans when ---- hits the fan. Like what happens if the economy goes to ----? What happens if an accident happens? What if YouTube demonetizes me? Please YouTube, don't demonetize me, but what if they did? So it's really important to design in some leeways for yourself and backup plans for yourself. Like for example, instead of depending on a single source of income, have diversified different streams of income and also depending on the government for your pension funds and things like that. I don't think that is a good idea personally. There's like a lot of research that goes into potentially things running out in the future and I don't want to put my own future in the government's hands because I don't have control of that. So for example, I get a pension or whatever, then excellent, great, right? But I'm not depending on that. I have a plan in which I am making sure that I can retire by myself without having the government. I also work pretty closely with an accountant and a lawyer, uh, specifically like small business lawyer. So I'm also able to design kind of like defensively, um, to make sure that certain things I am protected against, if God forbid it, it occurs. Okay, so next ingredient, don't do it alone. Have friends. Okay. So the way that I do this is that I have a group of friends that are also interested in personal finance, um, in financial freedom when we obviously like don't all follow the exact same path to doing this. Um, but it's really nice to have people to talk to who are also interested in achieving the same things. Similar things. We do a lot of divide and conquering. Like for example, somebody does more research on crypto size and people do more research on like how to budget. Um, and then we come together and teach each other these things. Another thing that I do is that I share my newsletter, the progress that I'm making. Like I'm not really teaching people about this, um, by just sharing what it is I'm thinking about, what it is I'm learning along the way, I found that there has been people that resonate with this. So we're kind of like going along in this journey. We celebrate this progress. We share different tips with each other. Um, and we encourage each other when ---- hits the fan or like something, something not great happens. I feel like there's a saying for this, like celebrate the wins and the losses. I don't know. Um, there's probably a saying, but I think I made, I just made that one up anyways. So final ingredient is to have someone check over your plan. Preferably someone who is more advanced than you. What I do is that I am very lucky and I have two mentors that are more successful than I am. And they also have a similar thought pattern in achieving financial freedom. One of them has already like very much achieved it and the other person is far closer to it than I am. There are people who are also primarily driven by using business work to generate more revenue as opposed to cutting costs. People who don't really see investment as a way of generating income, but more so in retaining value. I also showed this to my mom who is obviously far more advanced than I am, but she is pretty savvy with the personal finance stuff. And she was basically like, yeah, that makes sense. Um, but she's more of a risk taker than I am. So she did give me some suggestions for how I can take more risk. I'm probably not going to do that. Um, I don't know, like have you guys realized as you got older that there are certain things about your parents that are very, how do I say, like unconventional things about them? You know, like certain, like for example, more, they're like much more risk-taking than other people. Like I realize this a lot now that I've grown up, but like, anyways, I digress, um, pretty much like, you know, show your mentors these things, um, get the feedback from them, but obviously don't go and follow them blindly because again, personal finance is personal. There you have it. This is my personal finance study plan. Now, if you're interested in self-studying data science, then you should be interested in what I'm going to tell you now about today's sponsor, 365 Data Science. 365 Data Science is an online learning platform where you can learn about data, business, and of course, data science. I partnered with them last year to make my SQL course for data science and tech interviews, which goes through my five-step framework on how to approach interviews and 10 realistic mock interviews with real interview questions and the real interview style. I think a lot of people have this idea that they can just like grind interview questions and as long as they're able to do the question right, then they should be fine for the interview. But in reality, interviews are so much more than that. It's also about just how you approach a problem, how you communicate your approach and talk through your solution, and how you answer follow-up questions as well. This is why some people are really surprised when they answer an interview question correctly, but they still don't pass that round of interviews. I'm also working on another course on how to grow your business using data science, which should be coming out pretty soon. So in addition to these two courses that I have made, 365 Data Science also offers a variety of other courses. You can choose individual courses as well as define career paths and certificate programs, which is especially helpful if you're in the beginning of your career or if you want to change your career. I really like 365 Data Science platform because it's designed to be engaging and helping you succeed to land a job. For example, within the platform, they have resume builders and once you're qualified, you're given the option of joining a group of candidates, which 365 Data Science will connect you with that company and the company can directly choose to interview you. I think the idea of actually taking care of these students and putting them to the next step instead of just like trying to sell you courses is something that's very distinct about 365 Data Science. If you're interested in my SQL course specifically, the link is in the description. There's also a link for a 57% off discount for their full data science training, which is a very good deal. All right, so that is the end of this video. Let me know in the comments what you think about this video and what you think about Dr. Stone, whether you have already watched the anime or now you are inspired to watch the anime. I will see you guys in the next video or live stream.