My ladders of wealth creation 2025

I wrote this same time last year about my ladders of wealth creation in 2024.

A lot had changed in a year, so I thought I could map it out again to see where I’m at:

Ladder #1 - Time for money aka a job

• No 9-5, and gave up applying for jobs since last year.

Ladder #2 - Service business

• Freelance gig as a frontend dev for a local tech startup Podseeker.
• Freelance gig as a social media manager/customer support for Carrd.
• Another freelance gig incoming - technical customer support for Carrd.
• Dropping design consulting altogether this year.

Ladder #3 - Productized services

• Dropping Outsprint design sprint packages.
• Offered a custom plugin development package for Carrd, but no takers.
• Needs substantial marketing effort to make productized services work.

Ladder #4 - Selling products

• Digital products, one-time payment – Carrd plugins, Lists Kit (+ SaaS Starters, Directory Starters directories), and other info directories like Keto List SG, Blacck Friday.
• SaaS/social network with MRR – Lifelog.
• No physical products/ecommerce/marketplaces.
• Looking to build more digital products and SaaS this year!

After a few years of being on all ladders for anti-fragility, I’m making a switch to focusing on just the bare minimum of 2 ladders now – #2 service business and #4 selling products. Freelance to keep the runway going in the present for as long as it needs to, and SaaS for the future towards $10k/month.

Still diverse enough for resilience and survival, but concentrated enough to have enough bandwidth to move the needle on my dreams. Why the shift? I really really want to get more substantive progress on #4 this year. Passion and interest for the other ladders had waned too.

Ultimately, I feel the ladders is a helpful perspective on thinking about diversity and focus, and just 2 ladders does that job for me right now.

Onwards to $10k!