Keeping up with an annual tradition, I’ve put together a list of my favorite purchases of 2018.
Below, you’ll find a list of the best things I’ve bought for my business and personal life, as well as the best books I’ve read over the course of the year.
Last year, I did the same and people seemed to dig it, so here we go again…
Business Purchases
Yubikey
The Yubikey is a physical 2-factor USB key.
I’m not even that big of a geek about cyber-security, but I fell in love with this thing.
Let me explain some of the applications.
Do you completely avoid LastPass, because someone might hack your LastPass password and get access to the entire vault?
If you hook up LastPass (or Gmail, Zoho, or even your computer) to Yubikey, if they don’t have the physical key on their person, they don’t get in.
My friend Ashe Oro got me onto this thing, and I’m all about it now. Even if my laptop got stolen, no one can get in it.
Management Consultation from Mads Singers
LeadSpring (my affiliate agency) had a company retreat on the island of Koh Samui, and I decided to fly in Mads Singers for a custom consultation on management training.
I’ll put it like this…
My team and I liked it so much, I rolled this out to all of my other businesses.
We learned a ton about delegation, hiring, firing, motivating, personality types, etc.
I can easily say that it paid itself off within the month.
Google Fi
Fi is Google’s worldwide mobile phone network.
Whenever I land in a new country, it automatically connects to their local systems and I have data running right away.
You need a Google phone to use the service. I got a Pixel, which is pretty good.
The added bonus for me is that it’s a US phone number so I can receive verification codes from PayPal and my bank.
I no longer need to bother my family back in the states every time to try to send a wire.
Schedule Once
If you frequently schedule meetings and you don’t live in 2004 and require a secretary to set up everything for you, try Schedule Once.
Your clients and potential partners can browse through your available times and book an appointment.
It’ll sync up to your calendar so you don’t forget and send email reminders.
Super convenient for paid consultations.
Personal
Chase Sapphire Reserve and Priority Pass
In my humble opinion, the Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card is the best card for travelers… and especially for digital nomad type business owners that travel a lot.
You get a huge signup bonus, and nice point perks whenever you spend on travel.
Plus there’s no fees for using it with a foreign currency.
I’ve actually had the card for a couple years and I love it, but never got around to having them send me the Priority Pass.
The Priority Pass pretty much gets you into a VIP lounge at any airport.
Tired during a long layover? Ok, take a shower, eat good food, drink some wine, and shut up.
Apple AirPods
I originally thought these things were so stupid and that they’d fall out of your ears.
Got a recommendation from a friend to get them and I was so impressed.
This is easily Apple’s most under-rated product.
Makes phone calls, workouts, and pretty much everything else, easier.
Dihydromyricetin
This is a hangover pill that actually works.
Now I’m no doctor and I don’t want to fall into the trap of recommending ingesitbles to people, so take my word as next to useless…
Alcohol digestion normally slows down to a halt when you’re sleeping… which is why you wake up feeling all crappy.
This DHM stuff helps to digest alcohol when you sleep so you wake up without all these toxins and cortisol pumping through your brain.
Will it totally prevent hangovers?
Absolutely not, but it will definitely help you dodge some bullets.
I refuse to drink without this stuff.
Lego Millenium Falcon Collectors Edition
If you like Legos and you like Star Wars, then this really shouldn’t even be a decision you need to make.
I’ve probably put about 16 hours into this thing already and I’m still not done… milking out those last few bricks.
There’s something meditative about Legos… and productive as well.
If you find it hard to unwind after a crazy day of SEO, then Legos are a good bridge between the productive and the playful.
Books
Principles – Ray Dalio
Amazing book by the founder of the Bridgewater Associates, Ray Dalio.
Ray is a unique and extremely intelligent individual that likes to apply principles and algorithms to both personal and business decisions.
I can’t even count how many nuggets I’ve gotten out of this book.
Here’s one:
“If you look back on yourself a year ago and aren’t shocked by how stupid you were, you haven’t learned much.” – Ray Dalio
Web Copy that Sells – Maria Veloso
Writing is a “meta skill” which benefits you in nearly all aspects of your life.
I got this book on recommendation from Gregory Elfrink from Empire Flippers, who pretty much spends his whole day writing.
Picked up a lot of solid tips for affiliate content copy, sales pages, lead generation, and email marketing as well.
Really enjoyed this one.
The Land – Aleron Kong
This is a “Lit-RPG” book.
What is that? It’s an emerging style that is usually characterized by the main character entering a game, leveling up, and getting stronger in the context of a game-like world.
It’s complete fantasy-smut.
But absolutely entertaining, and mindless, if you’re looking to completely decompress with a nice nerdy ready.
Fair warning… don’t expect awesome writing here.
This is all? No tools or anything else for amazon marketer? :/
It’s a list of my favorite purchases of 2018. If I didn’t purchase it or it wasn’t one of my favorites, it didn’t end up here. 🙂
Got it now. So can you please share your fav purchase list of aff related tools/product? 🙂
Here you go: click here.
You got some nice stuff. All of above i Liked Dihydromyricetin and Google Fi.
Thanks for sharing something off topic.
Regards
Nice – I wasn’t aware of the USB thingie – that definately makes a lot of sense.
Hey, I’m interested in the Yubikey, but don’t know much about them. If you lose it, what’s the recovery mechanism to get back into LastPass?
To be honest, I don’t even know. Which is why I bought 5 of them and duplicated the functionality on each. Two travel with me. 1 is in a safe. 2 are at home.
Hey Matt, thanks for the reply. Not sure why I didn’t get an email alert (maybe an email typo on my part) – anyway I checked back and saw it 🙂
Ah, okay! I wondered if it was possible to duplicate the keys. So that’s probably the best approach then – purchase multiple and have backups. Sounds excellent for when security is paramount (high value business etc).
Thanks for the recommendation!
Is the Chase Sapphire Reserve available only for US residents?
Think so.
Ha! Hilarious, love the call to actions on the buttons! 🙂
Sold a couple of Millennium Falcons from my site. Pretty expensive at $800, not too many sales. Hoping more will sell close to Christmas.
Nice!
Last year I bought Sapiens after a recommendation from you. Loved it. Google Fi is something I’ve not heard about, gonna have to give that a look. You do make an awesome list, I hope you make one the next year too. Enjoy the month and all that you’ve got planned, I like reading your monthly goals on the LAB.
Nice. Thanks for stopping by.
The Sapphire Reserve is the best! The annual fee scares a lot of people away, but you easily get 5x the value. I’m going to have to check out that DHM stuff 🙂
Litrpg is so good. Totally poppy culture stuff but totally worth it. Magic 2.0 is similar and more mainstream for those who want to dabble in litrpg, but not really .
I’m onto book 2 in that Land series. It’s kinda terrible and kinda great. The quirks in his writing are probably a bit worse than Dan Brown, but not by much.
Kinda terrible and kinda great. Love it.
I know you’re not going to believe me, but this book is incredible. I’m not joking. The whole series is amazing.
Well I’m on book 3 of Land, so despite the bonkers cover art of this latest thing I’ll give it a go.
Please report back.
I’ve done all The Land series, and all the Morningwood too. Thanks for recommending them! I had a great time with both series.
Have you come across any more in the meantime?
That I’ve read? Only Ready Player One.
Have you tried Revolut?
Paying $450 per year for a card seems a bit excessive.
Nah, I haven’t.
Bought the Web Copy That Sells book. Just browsing through it is unbelievable how much value is in there. Great recommendation. Not so much into Legos but definitely into the book 🙂
Enjoy!
I thought this is worth sharing for the lazy people/time sensitive among us. It’s a professionally produced summarisation video of the principles of ray dalio’s book. No pun intended.
https://youtu.be/B9XGUpQZY38
Been looking at the FI solution too.
It’s awesome.
Hi Matt!
Just wondering how do you find the time to run multiple businesses, hanging out on FB answering questions, travelling and even reading new books )))
It’s not going to be sustainable when the baby comes into the scene.
Priority Pass sucks in the domestic US market, such as ZERO lounges in Chicago’s O’Hare domestic terminals- and just a few in the international terminal.
My Amex Platinum comes with Priority Pass and 2/3 of the time there are no accessible options for me. Amex also has a growing list of Centurion mega-lounges, which are nice. And, when flying Delta, Amex allows you access to their lounge network. So, membership has its privileges. 😉
I also have an American Advantage Citi Mastercard for the free bags. Together, they cover most situations.
Also, my Chase Ink biz card is where I put all online advertising expenses- earning me 3x on advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines including Facebook and Google AdWords.
Need “SEO tool/SEO course favorite purchases” post
Here you go: click here