Over the last few months I’ve been compiling some ideas into a list of things that I think are worth spending our hard earned money on.

After all, money is getting tighter and tighter, leaving us with 2 options:

1) Save money where you can - public transport instead of Uber, eat more home cooked food, cancel lesser-used subscriptions. The truth is, we waste a lot of money on things we don't really need or things that don't benefit us, at least in proportion to how much they cost.

2) Or increase how much money we make (payrise, second job, charge more). This is really hard. When was the last time anyone got a payrise?

But this mainly focuses on getting money and keeping it. And it got me thinking... what's actually worth spending money on? Like the point of this email, they focus on improving health, happiness and productivity. Today’s focus: spending money to improve fitness.

💪🏻 Personal Trainer / Nutritionist

Here's an interesting thought experiment that I want you to try. For the following problems, would you pay an expert or try to do it yourself?

• Boiler breakdown

• You're having internet speed issues

• You've got a flat tyre

• You need to design and build website

• A leaky roof

All of these issues are fixable - you'd most likely call someone out, they'll give you a quote, you pay it, off you go. They aren't particularly life changing, nor do they directly affect your health, but we'd still pay someone to do it for us.

So why do many of us go it alone when trying to become fitter, start in the gym or train for a big event?

Getting fit, losing fat, learning what to do in the gym and how often - this is all really hard stuff. It makes sense to pay someone to teach us and constantly optimise in order to keep the focus on gaining strength and losing unwanted body fat.

Note: Not everyone needs a coach. Simple changes like 10,000 steps per day, having a calorie deficit by tracking calories using MyFitnessPal to lose fat and a basic off-the-shelf program 3x per week in the gym will have huge lifestyle improvements. Plus, the information a coach will share is readily available online in many forms. But, the structure, guidance and accountability that a coach provides, in my opinion, is worth spending on.

I speak from experience having tried to go it alone using YouTube for several years. After 3 months with a trainer I'm the strongest and lightest I've been.

A good online coach that can do the above should cost anywhere between £50-£200 per month (not including existing gym memberships etc). Mine is £100 per month, which equates to:

• 17 pints of beer (4.25 per week)

• 17 Pret Tuna sandwich + Can of coke combos (Mon - Thurs for a month)

• 4 x late night Ubers home from town

Easy to see where the value lies.

You can also draw easy comparisons for all different types of coaches that can help with:

• Career growth

• Learning skills e.g. languages or an instrument

• Confidence

As ever hopefully this was helpful! Let me know if you have any thoughts.

This week I'm: ⬇️

🎧 Listening to Fred again.. on Rinse FM - probably listened to this 20+ times and counting, great to get you in the zone

📺 Watching Geoff Marshall's Elizabeth Line videos - he's a self-confessed train nerd and makes funny and interesting videos about the London Underground which, when you think about it, is an unbelievable feat of engineering and the new line is the latest element of this

📚 Reading Tweets about the Elon Musk's Twitter buy 🍿

As always, thanks for reading. Pass this email to someone else and share the love - and of course reply with any thoughts / opinions.

Cheers!