defensiveness. that's a good way to start one of these... one my uber-nerdy hobbies is looking at charts (or making my own like i did today thanks to Claude Code - which is magic, btw). specifically, macro-economic trend charts. i'm interested in the decades-long story, not the recent trends. recent trends are helpful too, but i am interested in where we've been and where we're going, and i genuinely want to know if things are getting better or worse. the chart i asked Claude

i kept calling it recharging. but man am i good at lying to myself... as my therapist often reminds me, "your brain is not on your side." a saturday on the couch. phone in hand, three episodes deep. another slice of pizza, then a fourth. then a fifth. polishing off that "almost empty" bottle of wine that had three pours left. telling myself i earned it. and i had — the week was a lot. action items, fire drills, kids, hobbies, health, self care, the bear, guy's grocery games n

it was happening again. i was spinning out. my brain wouldn't stop. one problem became two. two became five. everything was wrong -- my re-fi was delayed. my kid got in trouble at school (man, i'm such a bad parent). my start up was almost out of money - how was I going to pay my bills? would my career be over because i was a cfo who couldn't raise money? my wife was mad at me. my son was mad at me. i was mad at me. stop. stop. STOP! i called my friend Jay, as i often do in t

no matter what i say, my kids only watch what i do. when i say "no desserts before bed!", as soon as i am in the pantry sneaking a piece of ghiradelli sea salt caramel, there they both are, hands out, ready for their piece. it's like they have supersonic hearing... it's why, when it comes to money, there are a few habits i try and model. there is plenty of advice out there about which high yield savings account to use, or which version of the debt snowball is best, or how to

the older i get, the less interested i am in investments that make my portfolio bigger, and the more interested i am in investments that make my life better. in march of 2022, i received a voice note from my 6 year old son. "dad, i have a genius idea! genius idea. how about.. um...how about you and me.. just you and me... go on a trip together. okay? love you." kids today don't say bye; i think because characters on tv don't say bye (try and unsee that now that i mention it).

in my 20's, all i wanted to do was be a people manager. i must confess, it wasn't because i wanted to help people in their careers, or have more impact, or "be a leader". i wanted to get promoted and paid more, and that was the quickest path. at that age, if you told me the fastest path to a bigger paycheck was being bald, i would looked like lex luthor by my next one-on-one. and i was bad at being a manager (ask any of my team at the time - i have. they laughed so hard one o

i need to start with some bona fides - i have a degree in stock picking - yep, a whole undergraduate degree (look at me!). discount cash flow models, reading 10-Q's, options trading strategies, geometric brownian model prediction models, portfolio design and optimization - all the tools you need to invest in equity. and i used to think investing was supposed to be exciting. my friends all have stories about buying nVidia at the right time, or day trading oil or the latest IP