The most interesting thing about a life worth living would be a million dollars in the bank account, and retiring, right?

I grew up watching stories of how digital nomads would earn money through affiliate marketing, live life on the road, retire by 30-35-ish, and only work when they needed to.

But, the mindset behind this was to save money, accumulate as much wealth as possible through the concept of building assets (financial, online blogging websites, businesses, and more).

Those assets worked for them to allow them to live a life on easy mode after hustling hard for a few years.

That hustle meant secure, well-paying jobs/ multiple income sources, possible DINK (Dual Income No Kids), and more.

But that part of the creator economy seems to be especially silent these days. I used to read blogs from Nomadic Matt, and a few other photographers, digital nomads, and it defined my teenage years into a shaping experience.

There was no Hormozi. No Joe Rogan. No LinkedIn Influencer. No courses, SaaS building hype, except just following the default route and figuring out your way to not "have to work" your whole life.

The creator economy in 2025

Fast forward to 2025, everyone wants to achieve the same goals, but the threat of "AI" as if it's the most advanced thing humanity has invented is changing everything.

Anyone can "steal" * cough * copy from someone else and try to build their own online presence, 30+ blogs a month, and a lifestyle worth living, right?

The creator economy continues to shift towards what people think the masses want, without fully understanding/nailing the basic psychology of their consumers, because most creators ultimately serve everyone but themselves.

• Thinking AI would be a cool product to sell for people who can't think/do/scale fast enough.
• Thinking social media would be a good use for small businesses/creators/consumers to show what they're doing, building, day by day, endlessly. Unlimited scroll for the unlimited consumer.
• Thinking courses would fix the one thing that keeps you from taking action.
• Thinking you need diet plans when you need self-control.

Creating and living in the consumer world

There is one thing that will never change, which is 24 hours of time on this planet revolving around an early-stage star, making your body's circadian rhythm fixed around the day-night cycle scattered across 25 hours.

This is the world we live in, unless we become interplanetary and can stay away, function for longer hours, and don't need to "work" a job, tend to chores, things to do, and much more we work on in 24 hours.

But maybe that's the issue. The grind makes most people wish they had more time, more things they could do, but the reality is this box you live in, which cannot be broken.

A million, or a billion dollars, can't help you extend this law to create time. You create time by eliminating things you can't do. Things that are in your control.

That means no endless consumption, creation, doing, or needing anything that's not based on your values today.

Yes, a million dollars would save a lot of pain, solve financial issues for those who need it, help you buy some cool stuff, maybe a home today in some cities (remember when a million dollars could buy so much more?)

Well, I'm a millennial, so I can't visualize a million dollars buying me anything except for avocado toasts to make The Greatest Generation angry about how to spend and save it all. (kidding)

I can't visualize the life a million dollars is supposed to buy because things shift so fast. It's a reels world, and we're being taken on a ride. The goal posts keep on shifting.

But what if the way to go about a million-dollar lifestyle was beyond this financial or material thing that's sold to you? To chase that piece of cheese endlessly, and never live "today" well enough. To go to sleep knowing you did your best and wake up tomorrow knowing you have a million-dollar lifestyle, whether you have a million dollars in the bank or not?

The cost of a million dollars

Your parents today, they may be in Gen X, they may be a "boomer", they lived in a different economy. And the life they lived was a very different one. They can't imagine the work you need to put in to "get" work.

All you had to do was either stand in a queue, or pass grad, maybe even postgrad, or become a doctor in "something", and live life that way.

But their projection of how they lived their life continues to be a frame for society today. The same college system, job system, and housing, which is everything a growing adult expects to live in today.

1. Get a good job, a stable income.
2. Get a good education, and help others.
3. Have a roof over your head, nurture yourself, and live a happy life.

These things aren't "gone" or "dead". You can still get them, if you play the game with the cards you've been served, orr twist the rules a bit, and go from there.

Make your own game, your own rules, your own deck for everything, and your own rewards. You may have already done it with your deck of Uno cards, but maybe not in life. Because that's harder, and not as easy, because the time frame is extended from changing rules in a second to living them in years.

So, the cost of a million dollars or a million-dollar lifestyle is up for you to decide. How you get it, how you live it, how you play the game. There are endless tutorials, endless ways, but only 24 hours as a box you can't break.

If you break the less than 7 hours sleep rule, that has a cost sooner or later.

If you break the rule of not working a single minute in your day, that has a cost sooner or later.

If you break the rule of not exercising or moving your body, that has a cost and a major penalty that affects every other rule. Because you only get one.

These are the rules, and you have roughly 16, maybe 10-12 hours left after chores and other tasks.

So to get the million dollars, you can spend 10, maybe even 16 hours working in your 20s, maybe even 30s if you follow/swear by a hustle bro.

You can play it smart and start a business. Let it consume your life, and make it your new 9 to 5 for a couple of years.

Or you can work for someone else, hop from corp to corp, moonlight, be loyal to a single job or gig.

What will you do with a million dollars?

This is going to get a bit spicier.

Buy a Lamborghini, a house, and build an image as the "rich guy"?

Buy a good home, invest, save, and build assets with it?

Buy more hours, delegate your work, open an agency, and run a business?

Work a job, as if you don't have a million dollars in your account, with a "F you" attitude at your work?

It's anybody's rules, since it's anybody's world. But most people today have an illusion that money buys everything. It does not. It buys a lot, but not everything.

It can't buy loyalty.

It can't buy deep connections. Yes, it can buy good connections if you're opportunistic.

It can't buy a time machine.

All because your mind has everything you already have framed your life to be like. Money enhances who you are. If you're used to stress, you'll buy things that cause stress.

If you're a consumer, you'll buy things that make you want to "consume" more.

If you're an investor, you'll do that.

I can go on, but if you're not happy with your lifestyle today because of a "lack" of a million dollars, it won't buy happiness.

If you don't have a good lifestyle today, you can't buy a good lifestyle tomorrow with a million dollars. Material things come and go, people, values, and "you" stay.

The million-dollar day: A new lens

Over the past month that I've been away, I've been dealing with some things related to my work.

Anxiety. Panic about the state of things. My routine was the only thing keeping me centered. At least I get to do my exercise. At least I get to do things I love to do.

But I've also found my million-dollar lifestyle and a million-dollar day for me.

No matter what happens with work, with finances, with anything, what would I be doing with or without a million dollars in my bank?

→ Go to the gym/ get physical exercise in one form or another.

→ Go about my hobbies.

→ Go about consuming material and talking with people I have in my inner circle.

→ Solving problems that give long-term stability.

→ Have good, clean food, a disease/condition-free life.

The thing is, all this needs work. Active work. Not a million dollars, but work.

You have to work for your physical movement with discipline.

You have to work to accommodate the needs of your family, friends, and your social life.

You have to live/work in things that interest you and fire you up to keep working at it, day in and day out. No 16 hours of hustle BS.

I realized I'm already living my life in ikigai, minus some things I'm working to secure.

What I realized when I spoke with my inner circle was that most of them don't have hobbies, a long-term vision, or anything they're excited to work on the next day. Yes, I'm talking about entrepreneurs here. And this was shocking to say the very least.

The million-dollar hobby

Lately, I've rediscovered what it means to love something purely for the joy it gives me.

I've gone back to reading more, getting absorbed in books without worrying about productivity or monetization. I've returned to photography, exploring the world through my lens, enjoying the slow process of framing, capturing, and editing. I'm choosing to engage with activities simply because they spark something within me.

Yes, this newsletter is going to feature more photography soon-ish!

Here's a small sample of what's coming:

That's the thing — we’ve collectively forgotten this feeling.

How many people do you know who have an activity they genuinely love to do, regardless of how stressful work or chaotic life becomes?

When was the last time you truly immersed yourself in something that had no end goal, no metric to track, no "ROI" to calculate?

Having a hobby isn’t just about filling spare hours; it's about creating a refuge within yourself. It's about crafting a little corner of your own universe that's insulated from external judgments, algorithms, and endless hustle-culture noise.

• Maybe your million-dollar hobby looks nothing like mine.
• Maybe it's playing an instrument, baking, gardening, woodworking, sketching, gaming, or simply walking in nature.

But what matters is that you have something that ignites curiosity, joy, or calm; something that nourishes your inner world no matter what happens outside of it.

In conversations with friends, I’ve consistently noticed something surprising and, frankly, a bit worrying: most people are disconnected from what they love.

They struggle to name a single pursuit they're truly passionate about beyond the daily grind. But here's the catch — when life inevitably presents you with those tough stretches at work, the endless bills, the dramas, and existential crunches... your hobby becomes your sanctuary.

It's a gentle reminder for all of us (myself included) that your ideal life → your genuine million-dollar lifestyle — is made richer when we carve space for something that exists purely for our personal joy. It may not revolve around showing off on social media, it may not revolve around creating things for work or adding work to work. It's you, at your inner child's best.

If you're not already rich inside, you won't be rich outside. It doesn't get any simpler.

So if you don't yet know what hobby lights that spark for you, that's perfectly okay.

Just allow yourself the freedom and gentleness to explore without expectation. Your million-dollar hobby might quietly whisper rather than shout. But when you hear it, you'll know — because your days, no matter how exhausting or frustrating, will feel just a bit brighter and more yours.

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Till next time,

Ankit