Perpetual Optimization Plan
What is Perpetual Optimization Plan (POP)?
The idea behind this plan is simple, that is to attack. Perpetual Optimization Plan, or ("POP") is largely a behavioral mode that one needs to be constantly in, to not merely manage their finances, but to intentionally position yourself to be in an upward trajectory.
It is a self-directed financial agency where contributions to savings, investments, and debt repayments must be deliberately increased over time even by the smallest value.
When dealing with money — and assuming you use banks and, by extension, have a social contract with them — constant, active escalation is necessary. Otherwise, sooner or later, the bank takes the steering wheel.
This document is not some doomsday warning or anti-bank manifesto where I would advocate for cryptocurrencies. The last thing I need you to be doing is transitioning into a trustless environment where it would slowly erode the one thing that can't be measured; our hope in one another.
Instead, it lays out why POP is necessary in the modern world.
Why Now?
If you have not figured it out by now, POP is a behavioral change that I implore you to make. If there's one thing I am obsessed with is to always find a better way.
Banks are not villains, but they fundamentally exist to make money. Just like other businesses. That is fine. Making money is good. It drives economic productivity and improves quality of life, proportionate to how much you contribute.
The problem now however, is that the very institutions that want to make money are also the ones that create, manage, and control the money itself.
Now the question pivots to how do banks make money? That is easy, financially the main instrument is through interest. But the actual, underlying way, is through your inaction. Your inaction is turned into a data point, tracked, and modeled to quietly and incrementally exploit your lack of agency. Whatever default options they offer — basic term mortgages, low-interest savings are there to support (1) institutional stability and (2) profitability. The longer you stay in this path, the trajectory laid out to you will benefit them more than you.
Inertia has always been and will always be their most effective tool to create profit. Accurately knowing this gives us much leverage in picking the right antidote; motion.
This is where POP steps in.
Applying This into Practice
I hope by now the idea on why is clear to you. Now, I will show you how. There isn't anything complex to it. It is simply — a perpetual game of improvement, where you must outdone the previous month by RM1 or however much you're comfortable with. The amount does not matter here, but consistency is.
Your consistency to incremental improvement scrambles their predictive models and is the silver bullet to reclaiming agency.
Savings & Investments
The following equations apply whether you're saving cash, investing in unit trusts or even stocks. The key here is whatever you're saving, not paying.
I'll be the first to admit that it looks simple, but many have fallen to the trap of plateaued-investment where they would save the same amount over the next 2 years. Sure it compounds, but it is not active. Anything that is not active, designed to attack, will get predicted.
Anyway, It goes like this:
Where:
Example - Savings: |
|
January |
1000 |
February |
1001 |
March |
1002 |
Debt Repayment
Now for the inverse, POP is especially effective in debt repayment because even tiny overpayments inks the clear estimation the banks have generated. In other words, it stains and makes them anxious.
Same thing applies:
Example - Debt Paydown: |
|
January |
1118 |
February |
1123 |
March |
1128 |
Over time, your debt repayment and savings are in symphony — they complement each other and becomes the antidote to stagnation.
Here's a hypothetical graph that should drive the point I'm making:
Conclusion
Obviously there are nuances that I am hoping that you're smart enough to realize after reading this like don't pay your credit card more than your statement etc. POP is not about recklessness. It's about making small intentional actions that shift control back to you from Big Brother.
Yin and Yang. For the world to be a better place, you must fight back. It's what the universe demands.
Always more. Always Moving