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Foundational Life Skills

By Tasneem|

My Framework For Finding My Foundational Skills

I see foundational life skills as the building block competencies that empower us to live the life we want.

My personal framework for choosing and investing in my Foundational Skills is simple: health, wealth, love. But, yours will be different! It’s about understanding what you care about.

Here are some examples of skills that I’ve been investing in:

  • Health: Cooking healthy quick meals, working out consistently
  • Wealth: Understanding personal finance so that I can use money as a tool, doing work that I enjoy and is pushing me to be better, writing and speaking concisely and clearly
  • Love: Living close to my friends, learning to connect with my parents as I get older, being loved by and loving my husband.

Learning requires sucking

When I started my first job out of college, I knew nothing about finances outside of don’t spend more than you have. Armed with a pretty decent first-principle, I tried my luck learning how to “invest.” I very quickly hit a bunch of brick walls. What books should I read? Are blogs better than books or YouTube videos? Should I start with personal finance or dive straight into investment strategies? The jargon alone was overwhelming – 401(k), Roth IRA, emergency savings, rate of return, bull markets, etc. Each topic I looked up seemed to lead to ten more threads that I didn’t understand.

But, the biggest wall was a feeling of it’ll take forever for me to understand this stuff, and I don’t think I’ll ever be good enough at this.

I’ve had this feeling every single time I try something new: playing piano, learning to code, trying to cook healthier, sending a cold email. I’m bad at it, and this feeling always leads me to: is this worth it?

The Long View

My turning point came unexpectedly from a Facebook comment in a Financial Independence Retire Early (FIRE) group. A woman posted looking for a financial advisor to outsource her finances. The comment said “Your finances are with you for your whole life, so you might as well learn about it.”

Out of all the financial content I’ve consumed, this random FB comment was the one that stuck with me. I wish I had started learning about personal finance years ago, and a year from now, that sentiment will still stand. So, I should invest now.

This long-view approach applies to all foundational life skills. For example, my journey to consistently working out has taken 8+ years. If I had known it was going to take almost a decade, I definitely would not have started. Paradoxically, I wouldn’t have stuck with working out if I hadn’t recognized the importance of my long-term health.

Compounding

One of the under appreciated aspects of developing foundational life skills is the power of compounding. Just as compound interest grows your investments over time, consistent practice and application of skills also leads to compounding in proficiency.

My personal finance journey started off with small steps. I learned about a 6 month emergency fund, why putting money in your 401(k) matters, and how to invest in index funds. 7 years later, I can look at my whole portfolio and understand why I’m investing in index funds, how to rebalance, and how to think about a balanced portfolio.

Outsourcing

Anything that I don’t deem to be a Foundational Skill or a priority in my life, I outsource.

To my Bangladeshi immigrant mother’s great disappointment, I’m really bad at creating and maintaining a beautiful home. If I was to describe my interior design style, it would be “functional.” I’ve never invested the time into learning how to do it, and don’t plan to, which is why I have outsourced this to my amazing cleaner. Her brain picks up where mine fails.

I’m pretty ruthless about this in other areas of my life as well.

Take dining out, for example. Even though I live in one of the best cities in the world for food, I don’t care about trying the coolest new spot in New York. If I’m on the hook for choosing a dinner place, I will ask my friends who identify as true foodies. Or, you’re just going to get the first thing I see on Google Maps.

By limiting the time I spend on things that aren’t important to me, I free up more time to focus on my Foundational Skills and investing my energy where it matters the most.

I’ve been using the idea of Foundational Skills as a framework for focusing on what’s important to me. By identifying and nurturing your foundational skills, you’re literally building the foundation for the life that you want. So invest in them, and watch as your investment compounds into the life you’re building.