LPT: Start a "Make Life 1% Better" Fund

A few years ago, I was inspired by a quote that said something like "If you are just 1% better at something every day, by the end of the year, you'll be 38 times better than when you started". Small changes add up over time, and I decided to start myself a "Make Life 1% Better" fund. For me it was $50AUD a week - Roughly $30 USD. Probably a bit higher than necessary, but it was an easy number before inflation made everything tougher.

The purpose was that every Saturday morning, I would think about anything that bugged me, and see if it could be solved for under $50. Over a year and a half, I made about 70ish changes to my life, that genuinely has made it easier. Some examples:

1. Used to have just 1 phone charger in the bedroom. Got an extra one in the living room, so my phone wouldn't go flat while watching a movie.
2. Hated hanging up my jacket when I got home, so got some hooks for the back of the door. Used the left overs for a key rack so I wasn't spending time looking for my keys as much.
3. The main reason I was doing laundry every weekend was I was out of shirts. Started getting more shirts and doing two loads a fortnight instead of one load a week.
4. This one was free - I used to just send emails to myself/have my wife message me as reminders if we needed anything at home. Switched to Google Keep notes and turned on time and Location based alerts - Made a shared shopping list with my wife and put the location to trigger the reminder a couple streets before the turn off to the supermarket. It gave me enough time to see if my wife had added anything, and stop if I needed to.

Not one of these made a significant change to my life. But over time, I felt like life was less frantic. The key wasn't spending the money - it was the ritual of thinking every weekend "What can I do to make my life just a tiny bit better." I didn't have to come up with any great ideas, put in a lot of effort for major renovations or changes. But over time, it just made life smoother and easier. Give it a go, and if you have any tiny tips like this, share them!