In this Part we’ll move to the next level of Maslow’s hierarchy of needs - security. Specifically: income.
Let’s get started:
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Summary
Health Foundations
lack of money is a stressor
baseline income
dream income
income vehicles
This one is pretty raw for me.
I’ve been building Prompt Entrepreneur for the last year. And for the majority of that time my income has been severely low - basically living on credit cards until the business “hit”.
Thankfully this paid off and we’re now secure.
After the 6-figure launch we had a few weeks ago I cleared out my debt.
Living with money challenges is a stressor. It’s always there, in the background. And increasingly it’s affecting more and more people globally.
In Maslow’s hierarchy right above physiological needs (health, shelter - basically staying alive) are safety needs.
Safety needs include employment, property, money, job stability etc. I’m going to simplify this to “income” for ease.
Baseline
Before we can dream big (we’ll get to this don’t worry!), we need to understand our baseline. What does it actually cost to keep ourselves afloat? This requires a thorough audit of our finances.
Boring yes. And maybe painful. But AI can make it much quicker and easier.
Many of us shy away from this step because it can be uncomfortable. This is one of my personal weaknesses too - I totally understand.
Here’s a first prompt to get a baseline figure:
You are a skilled financial advisor. Conduct a comprehensive audit of my financial needs for basic survival. Ask me detailed questions about my spending, budget, income, and country of residence (for tax calculations). Cover all essential areas including housing, food, utilities, transportation, healthcare, debt repayments, and basic personal needs. Ask one question at a time and wait for my response before proceeding. After gathering this information, provide a summary of my monthly and annual financial requirements for comfortable survival. Account for tax using country of residence.
This’ll run through a set of questions and help you work out your minimum for base comfort. Keep hold of this - we’ll use it shortly.
Happy money
Once we know our survival baseline let’s move onto what’ll take us from surviving to thriving.
Lots of people when asked how much they need just make up a number.
They’ll either pluck a number from their head like “$1 million”. Or they’ll repeat some internet guru figure like $10,000/month.
Instead let’s actually work it out properly. Here are two methods.
i) The "Double the Average" Approach: Studies have shown that happiness tends to increase with income up to a certain point, after which additional income has diminishing returns. This point is often around double the average income of your city or region.
Obviously this depends on where you live! Thankfully this is an easy request:
So if the average in my city (London) is £41,866 then ~£84,000 (~$110,000) is an optimal “happiness” income.
Grab the average figure for your location and double it to find your local optimum.
This approach provides a useful benchmark, but it's important to remember that everyone’s needs and desires are different. For that we can employ the next method.
ii) The Dreamline Approach: This involves envisioning your ideal lifestyle and then calculating the income required to support it. It's more personalised but requires more detailed thinking about what truly matters to you.
We’ll use a prompt:
You are a financial planning expert specialising in lifestyle design. Help me calculate the income I need to support my dream lifestyle. First, ask me detailed questions about my ideal life, including my location, housing, family/children, travel, hobbies, personal development, and any other important aspects. Then, based on my responses, estimate the annual income required to support this lifestyle. Consider factors like taxes, savings, and potential lifestyle inflation. Ask one question at a time and wait for my response before proceeding
This will run a detailed audit of what your dream lifestyle will actually require.
When I get people to run this they are usually surprised by how little is needed.
Unless you have a hankering for private jets and Bugattis a lot of dreams are more affordable than we might assume. We just tend not to actually sit down and work out the cost. Hell, if you really want a Bugatti you can lease one via a business for less than you’d expect. The main thing is that you capture this cost in your dream income so we at least know what we need.
Income vehicle
Once you have your target incomes, it's time to explore ways to get there.
Depending on what the figure is there will be different method to get there.
Career advancement, saving and investment may be enough, depending on your industry and the average salaries. This is (probably!) the safest lowest risk route.
If you need to get to a higher figure you’ll likely need to look at entrepreneurship. This could be supplementing your 9-5 with freelancing or contractor work. Or it could be starting up a business yourself.
Thankfully it’s now easier than ever to start a business thanks to AI. It’s dramatically reduced start up costs thanks to having expertise at your finger tips that would have previously cost you a lot of money!
Let’s use a final prompt to start thinking about the best ways to get to our goals:
You are a financial advisor helping me look at income generation options I need [baseline] income to survive And my goal income is [dreamline figure] My current income is [income] which I make via [explain where income comes from] I have skills in [list as many skills as possible] Based on this provide me with ideas to I) hit baseline income II) hit dream income
Remember, the best approach often combines multiple methods and aligns with your skills, interests, and values.
This prompt will get you started with thinking about how to reach that dream income. Obviously the real route will be more complex but having ideas for the first step remains valuable.
In the next Part we’ll add in yet another layer - relationships.
