Here are some of my takeaways from watching the video above:

Having wealth is not about looking rich. It's not about wearing $1,000 shirts or bag, or driving a $100,000 car. Having real wealth is about having the freedom to do what you want to do, to live the life you want to live, to take care and leave your family a lasting legacy. And you do this by not being a slave to debt.

One sign that you might be fake rich, is wearing expensive clothes but not having enough money in your savings account.

What's the point of buying an expensive car? To look good in front of other people? Those people, who you probably don't even know, are not going to help you pay your car payment. They're not going to help you pay for gas for your car. They're not going to help you pay for your car's maintenance and repairs. So once again, what's the point of buying an expensive car? Just so you can look good in front of other people?

Buy the car that you want, but save money to buy it outright. Don't finance the car, because that means you actually cannot afford it.

^ I have to say, this is perhaps the hardest challenge in personal finance; buying a car with cash.

A Credit Card can also be thought of as a Debt Card. And getting rewarded with Credit Card Reward Points are akin to being rewarded with debt; because you could only get them by using a Credit Card.

For instance, free airline miles on credit cards are not really free, considering the fact that you actually have to buy something using a credit card, thereby acquiring debt to get your free airline miles.

Tags: #PersonalFinance

The Three-City Problem of Modern Life — interesting read and social commentary about the lives we live today. We either live in the city of reason, of faith, or of technology. Living in one city isolates us from the rest of the world and that makes us feel incomplete.

7 Tips to Stand Out And Land The Job — has great advice for job interviews.

A Roth IRA is one of the most powerful wealth building tools that the average person can use to become extremely wealthy... — good info on ROTH IRA accounts.

^ This is probably only applicable to US readers, as a ROTH IRA is a specific tax-advantaged account offered by the government. But if your country has a similar offering, then some of the info might still be useful.

On Social Media

Social media is like a sandbox where you can observe mimetic theory and mimetic desires in full display.

Staying off social media while you know all your family and friends are there, is like missing out on a party that you're invited to, a party that goes on 24/7, every day of the week and year.

Some people, actually most people, can't resist the urge to join the party. That's because we humans have this need to connect and to belong to a tribe. That's what the creators of social media figured out and made use of. It is one of their crowning achievements. They've fabricated this need, this desire, to be online all the time, to browse the news feed and like and comment on every single interesting post that comes our way.

Parenting

My kid just texted me 🌭 — great tip on the use of family code and passwords. I didn't even know this was a thing.

Perhaps the reason teens isolate themselves when they're overwhelmed instead of coming to us... — seems like great parenting advice on not shutting out your toddler when they're having a tantrum.

The Research Behind Picky Eating — it looks like, the more you pressure a child to eat something (like say veggies), the more they will not want to. And it doesn't just stop there. Research seems to indicate, that if you continue forcing this issue, the kids will end up not liking the food even when they turn into adults.

Quotes

Sometimes to touch the light, you must first touch the darkness. ~ Galadriel, Rings of Power, Season 1 – Episode 5

This might just seem like a good quote to be shared online, but I think it is a deep theological observation. Have you ever wondered why wherever there's good, there's evil? Wherever there's light, there's darkness?

It's because evil is a parasite that latches on to the good.

Now read that quote again and hopefully you'll gain a new appreciation of it.

Spirituality

Choosing to follow Christ means choosing exile, but the flip side to it is that the key to living a joyful and happy life, is to follow God’s will. So by choosing exile, you still ironically find the path to living a joyful and happy life.

Feeling stressed out? Feel like you can't keep up? Feel like you're drowning in anxiety? Talk to God and lay it all out on Him. If you put God first, then everything else will fall into place.

Misc

I finally have a reason as to why walking in nature is better than say, walking in a parking lot, even if that parking lot is surrounded by trees.

Before you read my reason, just know that I am a car guy.

Taking walks in a parking lot makes me look at cars, which then gets me thinking about my car, and wondering why is it that I'm driving an old car, when I could be driving something new like this one over here, or that one over there. Walking in a parking lot basically has the potential to distract me with thoughts of wanting to buy a new car. That goes away when I do my walks in nature, because well, what am I going to think about, wanting to buy a new tree?

One of life's mysteries is this itch, want, need, to buy new books even while the number of unread books in my bookshelves keep on increasing.

This is why I'm putting a lot of effort into clearing out my online to-read list, as well as dropping a lot of the RSS feeds I follow. If I want to make progress with reading all the unread books in my bookshelf, I need to let go of reading all these interesting articles and blog posts on the internet.

Tags: #JournalEntry #Bookmarks #PersonalFinance #SocialMedia #Parenting #Quotes #Theology #Spirituality #Christianity

You think you love your car when it's brand new? You'll love it even more when it's paid off.

Did your car just get dinged? Oh no worries, it's already paid off. 😉

Does this mean that after paying off your car, you won't get tempted into buying a new one? Absolutely not 😄

So then what's the point of this post? Stay with me for a bit.

As a car guy, I struggle with this since I'm always enamored by cool new cars. However, the experience of not having a car payment, will make you think twice about signing up for another car loan. At least, it does for me.

Going on a short tangent here...

What's the average monthly car payment nowadays? Over $650 a month in the US? Imagine the kind of things you can do with an extra $650 a month.

• A road trip or vacation every few months?
• Dinner at Saltgrass Steakhouse every weekend?
• A new video game console every month (if you can find one in stock 😀)?
• A new pair of Adidas Ultraboost every month? How about two pairs of Ultraboosts every month? Or how about two pairs of Ultraboosts plus a pair of Onitsuka Tiger Serranos?

On a more serious note, you can do so many good things with an extra $650 a month. Build up your retirement savings, get out of debt, help out people in need, etc...

So anyway, the past few months I've found myself looking at new cars every once in awhile. When I find one I really like — a Mazda3 Hatchback Turbo AWD or a Dodge Charger Scat Pack — I usually end up on a car payment calculator. And every time that happens, the fact that I don't have car payments right now just hits me in the face.

Imagine a hand extending out of my monitor, then slapping me silly while a dismembered voice says, “You do not have car payments right now, why would you want to have one again?”

While I would love a brand new car, I absolutely do not want a monthly car payment right now.

So, go out and drive your paid-off car and have fun with it. Nothing beats driving a paid-off car.

Tags: #Cars #PersonalFinance

After two days...

We got our 1st dose of the Moderna Covid-19 vaccine. I thought it was going to be a drive-through setup, but it was not. And so we had to bring Davin and Caleb along with us, as we fell in line with other people. Had I known it wasn't a drive-through, we would have left Davin and Caleb at the babysitter.

Thankfully, once we got into the vaccination center, we found it to be a very organized event.

I started to feel some side-effects from the vaccine, 3-5 hours after getting it. I'm not sure how to describe it, other than I didn't feel 100%. My eyes felt like it wanted to close. I felt more tired than usual. I was already sleepy at only 6pm.

After a few more hours, I noticed that I was getting a little lightheaded every once in awhile. I felt better after laying down on the bed for a bit. But I was generally tired the whole night.

Next day, I was up and felt pretty good, minus the sore shoulder. I was able to go to work and didn't really feel any more side-effects then.

But that was just the first dose. For the second dose, I actually plan on taking the next day off. The side-effects for the second dose supposedly hit you harder than the first one.

Instead of sharing photos online, how about printing them and sticking them inside a family photo album? This will allow me to print photos of Davin and Caleb but not have to share it online. This idea actually feeds into my desire to take more photos of them since they are growing up so fast. But at the same time, it avoids the urge to post said photos on social media.

This idea was inspired by Olli Thomson's post that I found via Colin Devroe's post.

I mentioned on my previous Weeknotes post that I was taking a break from watching TV shows. But after some constant coaxing by the wife, I decided to follow the “Happy wife, happy life” adage and started watching Vincenzo on Netflix. And I'm glad I did because it's a really good show!

It has this great balance between being serious and hilarious at the same time. The main character is a very serious guy. But he's surrounded by all these wacky and funny characters. It makes for an entertaining show. The plot-twist at the end of Episode 4 was awesome! I was already hooked before then, but now I'm definitely looking forward to watching more episodes of it.

Here's the trailer to the show in case you're interested:

Almost to the end of The Light of All That Falls. I'm relieved and sad that it's almost done.

I'm relieved because it's a very long book. Finishing it means I get to read something else. But at the same time, I'm sad because it feels like I'll be saying goodbye to the book's characters pretty soon. What a journey it has been, for the characters in the book and for me as the reader.

A day passed and...

Finally finished the book. What an ending! One big takeaway from the book is this idea that I translated into my own words:

To be angry at God because he took away a loved one as part of his “Grand Plan”, means to acknowledge that as part of his “Grand Plan”, God gave you that loved one in the first place.

If a repair bill cost more than half the value of your car, it's probably time to consider replacing it.

I've spent some time doing the calculations on trading in my aging Mazdaspeed3 for a new car. Why? Because it's back at the shop for what looks like a transmission leak. And just to give some more context, last year I spent a lot of money to get the suspension replaced. The year before that, spent money on a new clutch. And before that, brakes and other maintenance items. So yeah, trading in my car has crossed my mind lately.

But anyway, I've come to the conclusion that I just don't want to spend over $300 a month on a car payment anymore. I think it's too much. I could use that money to pay off some other debt. This also means that I'm leaning towards just paying for the repairs, instead of trying to trade it in for a new car. I'll get a new car when we're out of debt.

I have forgotten how to post on Instagram. I have an account for my Speed3 that I created to try and maintain some interest in the car. Like other than sharing a photo, what do I say? Do I have to say anything? Most people seem to come up with these cool quotes or captions. I have nothing nowadays. Just a picture of my car. Sometimes it feels like every post is a performance for the Instagram crowd. And this is one reason why every once in awhile, I get this urge to create an Instagram replacement photo-blog.

I was able to watch some parts of the NBA 2021 All Star event. Couldn't really focus on it because of daddy duties, but what I was able to watch was entertaining.

Amazing to see the range that Damian Lillard and Steph Curry have nowadays. They can shoot from the half-court no problem. And I enjoyed the alley-oop plays they ran for themselves. First was an alley-oop to Damian Lillard. Then the next play was an alley-oop to Steph Curry. And the third play was an alley-oop to Chris Paul! I was ecstatic when I saw that haha.

I'm also not sure what happened, but Team Lebron was stacked. Their starters were Luka Doncic, Nikola Jokic, Steph Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Lebron James. I mean that's like a modern day international dream team right there.

Took Davin and Caleb to a park over the weekend. We intended to just do laps around the trails — with Davin on his balance bike, me and Coney on foot, and Caleb on the stroller. But Davin wanted to go to the nearby playground, so we did.

Most of the parents and the kids at the playground weren't wearing masks. That was highly disappointing. Thankfully, the playground sort of opened up when Davin started playing. But still...

Anyway, Davin can ride his balance bike at a faster pace now. Simply walking behind him is not good enough to keep up. I think the next time we do the same thing, I have to bring my own bike. And since Caleb is at an age where he can now ride on a front-mount child bike seat, we should be able to go on family bike rides soon. Exciting!

Tags: #Weeknotes #Basketball #DigitalMinimalism #PersonalFinance #PublicHealth #TheLightOfAllThatFalls #TVShow #Vaccine

Why did I pick up this book? I don't exactly remember how I heard about JL Collins' book, but somehow I did and that lead me to reading the first few pages of his book. I liked what I read and decided to purchase the book. Before picking this up, I was looking for another book on personal finance that is mainly focused on getting out of debt. That wasn't exactly what this book focused on, but I liked it nonetheless.

What did I like about this book? Everything. I liked everything about this book.

• Reading this book is like getting financial advice from your dad or your trusted uncle. It is direct, straight to the point, no bullshit financial advice. It comes off that way because the book was actually inspired by JL Collins giving financial advice to his own daughter.
• The chapters are short, bite-sized chunks that you can read in less than 15 minutes or so. This means that if you have a very short time to read, you'll still end up finishing a chapter and learn something in a short amount of time. I found that this encouraged me to pick up the book again any chance I could get.
• While the chapters are short, which might make you think they are just generic information, they are not. Most of the information provided in the book seems well researched and most are coming from experience. What I mean to say is, they make sense to me.
• This book is mostly focused on how to use investing to build your wealth and be financially independent. I would say 90% of the book covers investments and the stock market, while only 10% is general advice on personal finance issues. This was a good surprise for me because it answered a lot of questions I had about the stock market and how it relates to 401Ks and retirement planning.
• If you wanted to learn how best to utilize your 401K or other tax-advantaged accounts with regards to building wealth or planning your retirement, this is a good book to read.
• If you wanted to learn the simplest way to invest in the stock market to build your wealth, this is a good book to read. He really does makes it simple. There are only two types of funds to invest in and both are index funds. His advice on portfolio allocation can't be any simpler.
  • He focuses on Vanguard and their index fund offerings, however he offers advice on which fund to invest in if you don't have access to funds from Vanguard.
• It answered a lot of my questions on how retirement works, like:
  • What are Required Minimum Distributions? When do they take effect?
  • How do they affect the tax bracket you are in when you retire?
  • How to make sure you don't burn through your retirement savings before you pass away?
  • How does Social Security factor in during your retirement? And more...

What I didn't like about this book? Not really a dislike but more like a surprise. When I got this book I thought I was getting a book about how to get out of debt and build your wealth, but as I've said above, the majority of this book focuses on investing into the stock market to build your wealth and less about how to get out of debt. Again this is not a bad thing, just not what I was expecting.

For international readers, note that this book is mainly catered to US readers. Most of the discussion on 401K accounts and the tax system might not be applicable to international readers. The concepts and ideas he shares will carry over, but not the specifics that the book discusses.

Rating I give this book a 5/5 rating. The author really did share a simple path to wealth in this book. Not saying this is the best path to building wealth, but a path that should be considered because it really is simple.

Tags: #JLCollins #BookReview #PersonalFinance