“Money has no real value until it is put into something that matters.”

Akash Goyal is working a full-time job while building a portfolio of micro-SaaS products to support — and improve — his lifestyle. He’s currently building product #1, watext.me, so it's early days.

Let’s take a peek at his finances to see how it’s going. 👇

Do what you love, spend on what matters

Akash wants to build things he loves. Things that matter. And he wants to spend on things that are impactful for him and the world.

💰 ”Money, as a number, has no real value until it is put into something that actually matters.” —Akash

And the way he sees it, money follows enthusiasm.

💰 ”Money will come as a byproduct if you are doing what you actually love.” —Akash

How? He says that if you enjoy doing a thing, you’ll want to learn and improve. And that enthusiasm can take you to a new level of productivity, quality, and income.

💰 ”If you truly enjoy it, you will become the top 0.01%. And that means something.” —Akash

Living paycheck to paycheck

With that mentality, it's no surprise that he's working hard to transition into work that he loves. That way, he'll reach new levels, make more, and do impactful things with the income.

In the meantime, he’s living paycheck to paycheck. But maybe that isn't such a bad thing.

💰 ”Living paycheck to paycheck is scary, in a thrilling way. It works as a motivator for me to keep experimenting.” —Akash

He has a bit of cushion — about three months’ worth — so that helps to decrease the stress that he feels. Let's take a closer look.

Hard numbers

Akash is working full-time as a marketer, making $10k/year. His company, which he’s building with his cofounder, Piyush Puniya, is pre-revenue.

• Watext.me revenue: $0

• Founder pay: $0

• Full-time job: $10k/yr

• Personal savings: Undisclosed (enough to get to the next paycheck + cushion)

• Business savings: $0

He says his business expenses are pretty much non-existent, but here are his personal expenses:

• Grocery and food: $300/mo

• Debt payments: $100/mo

• Rent: $0/mo (company-provided accommodation)

• Misc expenses: $200/mo

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Keeping expenses low

Akash’s full-time salary, $10k/yr, is quite high where he lives in India. He says the average salary is probably somewhere around $6k/yr.

But he lives minimally, as you can see from his $600/mo expenses. That’s pretty low, even there. He has to keep expenses low, thanks to the whole paycheck-to-paycheck thing.

To that end, he has a monthly budget on Notion, and he checks it every two weeks to make sure he’s on track. One day soon, he'd like to loosen up the reins.

Investing in himself (and micro-SaaS)

For now, Akash invests a bit in crypto, mutual funds, and ELSS.

He has about $1k in crypto; mostly BTC. And he has a few hundred in mutual funds and ELSS. He likes ELSS because it offsets his income tax.

But while he likes to dabble with financial investments, his biggest investment is time. He’s investing it into his micro-SaaS portfolio in the hopes that it will pay dividends later.

💰 ”Micro SaaS provides fast execution and I can test what works and what doesn't in the long run.” —Akash

It's also worth noting that one thing he is not investing in is his retirement. He says he’d rather invest in himself for now.

💰 ”Investing in myself has a higher ROI than investing for retirement right now.” —Akash

So he buys things — impactful things — here and there to better himself.

Buy impactful things

To Akash, an impactful purchase is something that either A. Helps him to improve himself, or B. Allows him to travel.

💰 ”I love trying new things and learning. Skill. Tool. Anything.” —Akash

He’s specifically into learning about crypto, “philosophical shit”, the theory of everything, the psychology of writing and selling, how to write fiction, and a lot more. Pretty well-rounded.

He'd also like to spend on high-end tech that would make him more efficient.

💰 ”Money can make you more efficient as a human being. You get free of short-term survival mode and can focus on long-term growth mode.” —Akash

And then there's traveling. And as anyone who has traveled knows, that often leads to self improvement as well.

💰 ”I love to travel. Whenever I’m traveling, I forget about budgeting.” —Akash

Don’t not have money

💰 ”More money might not be the answer, but less money creates problems that are just not needed.” —Akash

Akash doesn't need a lot of money. He just needs to have some money. And yeah, he would love to get rich from indie hacking. But at a certain point, gaining wealth will no longer interest him.

💰 ”The goal is not to have it all, but to avoid not having it.” —Akash

And that’s what this is all about, after all. Making more by doing what he loves so that he can stop living paycheck to paycheck. Let’s see where it goes.

💰 ”It's my 1st experiment, let's see what I can do next!” —Akash

Check out Akash’s product, watext.me.

Please note that the above are opinions. This is meant for informational purposes only. It is not intended to be financial advice.

And if you'd like to be featured as a guest in a future interview for this series, let me know in the comments!

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