peaks and valleys (2/9)

spirit

Today, I want to talk about anger and frustration. Something that we both experience maybe as often as every day. For some people, anger is a really common emotion; they think and achieve with anger, and, for the most part, there’s nothing wrong with that.

I believe that I’m someone who lives pretty intertwined with anger. I wouldn’t say I’m always angry or even frequently angry, but anger and frustration are often the first emotions that I feel in many negative situations. It’s almost always that I get angry first and then reel it back in to act. This is almost never the best way to go about situations.

I once was speaking with a very wise man who has all my respect, and when talking about his relationship with his wife, he told me that the hardest person to be married to is an angry person. Obviously, he prefaced this by saying that it is not comparably as bad as an abuser or an alcoholic but said that the most difficult person to live with is an angry. person.

It has been nearly two years since I was told this, and it’s always lurked in the back of my mind. And while I’m very aware of this anger that I feel on a daily basis and I know that this anger is a natural feeling and therefore not a bad feeling, it is, not the way that I wish it was.

I wish that when speaking to people that I love about things that have upset one of us, I didn’t have to view the situation through a lens of anger-tinted eyes. And even if the picture remains clear, it is a constant in my mind, reminding me to not be angry, making me feel, at some points, ingenuine.

While I know, or rather hope, that most people would say that I’m tolerable and seldom angry, easy to be around and laugh with, it does not change how I feel inside. Something that I can only work on through time is how to tame that anger into thoughtfulness, as many of us should. Not thoughtfulness tainted by anger.

development

The true enemy of the world is silence. It is when communication stops and we are forced to or decide that it’s a better decision to remain silent than face the consequences of speaking up.

Last week, we talked about the importance of learning new languages and how it may benefit you to even know little bits of languages, phrases, and quick sentences. But how does that benefit anyone if we refuse to speak to each other anyway?

It is often said that the enemy of democracy is silence, but silence is reality is the end of many things. It is the end of growth and intellectual thought; it’s the end of citizenship and the end of community. Did you know that just short of a birth certificate or a naturalization certificate, the most common and recognizable way to determine if someone is a citizen is if they speak the native language?

And with “cancel culture” dwindling and access to social media for so many people being near limitless, you may think that the amount of conversation we’re having with people must be at an all-time high, and you wouldn’t be wrong.

But think about this: when is the last time this information was a helpful informative post followed by civil and productive discussion?

I bet that’s difficult. It sure is for me.

Now, think of the last time you saw a useless video. Either complete nonsense, extreme violence with no purpose, hate speech… now I’m willing to be you could open your phone and find that in a matter of seconds.

People today are still so scared of getting a title. Of being called something that they aren’t. And this stigma doesn’t make people feel comfortable to talk about difficult things that we SHOULD be talking about. This conception that our peers will view us in a negative light or that we will no longer fit in or belong is incredibly dangerous and is something that we must fight together, even if we’re fighting just for the ability to fight more.

finance

Last week, we talked a lot about investing and financial freedom gained through targeted, goal-driven passive income, analyzing expenses, and setting realistic expectations. Now, this week, we’re going to cover a few basic ways that this could be possible, the pros and cons, so beginning next week, we can talk about putting some of these strategies into action.

Some of the areas where I have more experience are the following:

Real Estate

Long term rentals

Pros

• More stable than most investments

• Valuable and appreciating assets

• Consistent monthly income

Cons

• High upfront cost

• Difficult to acquire

• Lack of cash liquidity

Long-term rentals are rental properties with long-term tenets. This is your more traditional rental scheme where a tenant pays monthly and has contracts upwards of 2 years. They are great for many reasons but, in today’s market, can be very difficult to acquire profitably and have a large upfront cost.

Short term rentals

Pros

• High potential for income

• Valuable physical asset that appreciates with time

• Established marketplace

Cons

• Riskier than long-term rentals

• Frequent tenant turnover

• High upfront investment

Short-term rentals are rental properties that often utilize established apps like VRBO or Airbnb to book rentals that are oftentimes between a couple days and a month. While short-term rentals have the potential to make more income than long-term rentals, they also have the opportunity to be vacant for long periods and can be seasonal, while expenses are not. They also require much more management on a day-to-day basis.

Stocks

Growth Stocks

Pros

• Large potential for growth

• Easy to access and easy to take out money quickly

• Requires little upfront investment

Cons

• Medium to High Volatility

• Medium to High Risk

• Requires lots of prior knowledge and must remain “in the loop.”

Growth stocks are what most people think of when they think of investing in stocks. They are just single companies that you can choose to invest in or not, that you simply gain success or… don’t based upon how well the company does. Growth stocks tend to be relatively volatile due to the limited amount of diversification but do tend to see year-over-year growth within large companies —we will talk another time about the life cycle of companies and how they are becoming much shorter than they used to.

adventure

Bucket lists are some of the most cliche and overused ways to dream about adventure. But I love them. I love that people will make a list that is so outlandish it can only be written simply, top to bottom, and are often so out there that they are truly dreams. But what I don’t love is that they are so often just left to be dreams, with no intention of being completed.

Bucket list is a very sad concept. To have a list that you want to accomplish before you kick the bucket means that if you died tomorrow, you wouldn’t have accomplished everything that you wanted to. And, oftentimes, these bucket lists have a much earlier expiration date than you do. I promise you aren’t going to climb Mount Everest when you’re living in an old person’s home.

But I don’t think that’s the point. I think a bucket list gives you hope and something to look forward to, which is something we could all use. So I think that everyone should have a bucket list, and you should have it easily accessible and check in every once in a while to check your progress, but there should be some things different about this bucket list than others.

First of all, you should write the list in order of priority. You don’t want to begin checking off your list only to realize you missed the most important one to you. Now, often the most important thing will come to you first, and the more you write down the more difficult it will be to keep coming up with more, so naturally, they get less important to you.

Something important to note here is while making your list, don’t put anything that doesn’t truly excite you; this list should be like gold. Please continue to add to it, but don’t think that you have to craft it within 30 minutes today. it should be a fluid list, adapting to who you are and what interests you.

Secondly, I want you to date it. I don’t mean that you should write down, “climb Mount Everest (June 21st, 2028)," but simply put an expiration date on these ideas. Give yourself some urgency because, otherwise, it will always just be next year.

And lastly, don’t tailor this list to anyone but yourself. Don’t make it specific to your current financial situation, don’t do things because you know other people want to do them, nothing like that. Just make a list of things that you want to do someday, just to ensure someday will occur… someday before it’s too late.