As a teenager in the 80s, many things stick into your core— into your expanding nature, and your nurture—just as anyone teenager’s decade.  But I never realized such a simple connection existed between terminology and its definition over the past 40 years.

While traveling (driving) around the Pacific Northwest area I listened to a LOT of podcasts.  I would say close to 100 hours of incessant speaking.  One topic—combined with reading— struck me as an ah-hah moment. 

I ask you the question: Do you find awe in your days?  Do you see the wonder in your day?  Do your days just flow from beginning to end—morning to night— without much amazement in between?  Do you experience awesome?  Or as I like to hack my words—awesomeness?

Somewhere along my drive, or visiting school friends, I heard the word “awesome” and then realized the root of the word is “awe.”  I never made the connection between the valley girls of the 80s and the amazement of awe.  It just made sense all of a sudden.  At 51 years old a lightning bolt struck.  The state of awe is awesome.

Even if you already are well aware of this, be absolutely sure that every day you take some moments to realize the awe in your life.  Life is (Spicolli) “Awesome, Totally Awesome.”

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

Somehow along the way I’ve become encircled with gratitude.

While I do take the moments after reaching my first-morning consciousness to take some breathes and appreciate my morning/day/life, I also have other gratitude times.

I know, I know, again with my “commute,” but when I’m sitting in my spa, or on my patio each—and every—morning and I hear the birds chirping, or even people hiking on the hills in the desert close by, I just feel relaxed.  It helps that it’s often before 8am and most likely a weekday.

Take the time to do something(s) you love each and every day.  You deserve it!

Lately, I’ve been asking myself a double question: if I could have anything, do anything, what would it be?  Have you ever taken a few minutes to dream about anything?  I’m not good at that.  I am way too functional/tactical in life.  I don’t really have an overly strategic, vision-planning mindset.

I tend to find a target and create a plan to reach/succeed in that goal.  I know that’s a good trait to have.  My wife tells me that I tend to strive to be a “fixer” and resolve issues.  Maybe that’s how I was raised.  I really don’t know any different.  I just try to figure out how to streamline, maybe even optimize, the path towards completion.   College was me aiming to earn 91% to lock in my “A” and then do whatever else I wanted with my remaining time.

The thought of thinking (dreaming) of an “anything” event is easy enough, yet I cannot find anything grand to complete the thought.  Everything that I come up with is minor, or simply that I “have the greatest already” answer.

I should be clear that of course, I wouldn’t decline a beach house in Hermosa Beach CA or a private jet.  Neither of which is required for life when I can substitute a similar option in my lifestyle.

I’m wondering if I’m asking these questions as I’ve aged into the second half of a century, or if it’s just because we have purposely been actively in MoJo mode.

I have purposely been on a (minorish) forced spending practice for the past year and a half.  Once I stumbled into earning a small stipend doing some work while in FIRE, I decided to force myself to spend ALL of that playcheck money.  I track this in a file on my computer to be sure I honor my spending commitment.  I also picked some favorite spending categories to help steer me to meeting my goal.  I chose: Health, Fitness, FIRE Lifestyle, and Tech.  I have dozens of cool items I would have NEVER purchased.  Many of these items are amazing and I should have MoJo’d them anyway, but I would not have spent on them.

Back to anything.  When I struggle so much to spend my earned playcheck, how can I dream bigger, to an anything level?  I’ve been taught to save money since I was 12 years old.  I continued saving some of every single paycheck, check, garage sale cash, everything.  How do I change gears?  How much do I change?  Do I just force a “fun bucket” strategy of $10k and go for it?  Do we set aside $100k for the decade?  Do we do hundreds of thousands of our life savings for living now in our GoGo years/MoJo decade? 

I don’t even believe my inability is tied to the fear of running out of money before end-of-plan.  I truly believe it’s a 40-year methodology/personality that requires changing.  A small little black purchase of an Epiphone ’58 Goth Explorer that proves to me that some frivolous purchases may add ongoing wonderful enjoyment to your days.

I do want to say that I’ve been very—maybe very-very— supportive of my wife’s spending.  Those who know me have seen her Shelby.  That’s not at all something I would have done in the past.  YOLO is 100% true (based on my understanding of the multiverse).  I just want the Live/life part to remain fully funded and cautious.

Lots and lots of babble above, but that’s my point.  It’s very hard (for me) to come up with a specific “anything.”  I will continue to add amazingness to our lives.  I will continue to make purchases.  I will continue to strive for experiences and adventures.  I will push to make each and every day enjoyable.

I will, without any question, do some of “my favorite things each day.”  Did I mention the coaster vibrating off the subwoofer in my living room?  I could FEEL my music.  My iphone alerted me to an “unsafe noise volume” and exposure risk…one of my favorite things.

Do you ever stop and dream as big as you can?  An Anything dream?

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I went for my desert trail run a few days ago—like I do every week—and it was great.  I started a little earlier than normal, about 7:30am.  It was still cool out, probably in the upper 70s.  I didn’t have a lot of energy so I was careful to make sure I lifted my feet over the rocky trail to avoid a toe crunch/forward drive into the rocks and cacti.

As the run progressed, I completed the halfway long incline successfully and looped back towards home.  I was running on the left side of the road as normal—facing oncoming mountain bike traffic—just after the 4-mile point (2/3rds of the way) along the old narrow dirt service “road.” 

Plodding along on a nice flat quarter-mile section I suddenly hear a freaky loud static-type sound.  Somehow in the middle of one stride, I look down five feet ahead to my LEFT—11 o’clock position, and in mid-stride (is that even possible?) I lurch my body four feet to the RIGHT.

It’s in this new location far to the right of where my feet were headed was a half-coiled rattler telling me to give him space, or else. 

I have to say, he was VERY polite, giving me ample notice in distance, and rattle volume (that rattle speed must have been why it sounded like static to me).  He could feel me coming and let me know he was there, no real (big) surprises for either of us.

I stopped and watched him (and took a few pictures) as he moved off the road and headed down the little slope. 

He didn’t want any trouble with me.  No trouble to or from me.  He was just going about his day and prey. 

History:

I’ve run this trail every week—sometimes multiple times per week—for over 20 years.  That’s probably around 1000 runs, 6000+ miles (3.1m out, 3.1m back).  I’ve seen coyotes, javelinas, one gila monster, and 3 rattlesnakes. 

Now that I think about it,

the gila monster and all three snakes were in the same 10^th of a mile stretch. 

The first snake was 30 feet down from the trail towards the wash. 

The second snake scared the shit out of me but it was my fault, three people were taking pictures of the side of the trail (duh), so I gave them space and ran within 4 feet of a snake coiled up on the hill about knee-high.  I did a magical lurch movement there too, but I just kept running along with my newly added adrenaline (performance enhanced) 

This was the third snake and he was rattling and probably would have bit my foot if I kept on my track if my foot strike just happened to fall next to him.

My wife and I did see one other snake, it was in Sedona on the great Bell Rock trail.  She was on her mountain bike ahead of my running and she passed it and yelled back to me as a warning.  I didn’t hear here and did a long jumping stride over him laid out 5 feet long across the trail.  Something like that, it was kind of a scary blur.

The little guy I just encountered was about 2 ½ feet long. 

Lessons:

I know you’ve all had these types of stories—or worse—so this isn’t that interesting, but to me, I learned a few things.

1. I learned that even when plodding along you may need to take an abrupt and immediate action to avoid a bad situation.  Stay nimble.
2. That bad situation may not be out to get you.  It may just be a warning to alert you to change for your own good/safety.
3.  I once went to the rattlesnake “museum” in Albuquerque and they had over a dozen snakes in a room (a small bedroom-sized room) with a bunch of large fish tanks rattling like crazy and I was literally paralyzed and couldn’t pass one of the snakes/tanks to get to the exit door.  It took me probably 15 minutes of very, very, very rational thinking to walk past him.  They told us he was just “rescued” the other day from someone’s home.  – The point, is I wasn’t too freaked out by the little guy on the side of the trail.  That may be some significant progress on my part…for now.
4. I was wearing my newish Aftershokz/shokz bone-conducting headphones while listening to a podcast.  If I had earbuds IN my ears with music, I may not have heard him.  Aftershocks are SAFER.
5. Earlier in my run at mile 1.5 where I run by bushes I thought about snakes.  But since that location is right next to an active parking lot with lots of people the snakes might stay away.  Yet half a mile away is where I ran (“into one”)—ran by one.  When your guard is up, don’t let it go down totally.  Always be aware of the danger and plan accordingly if possible.

Additional Lessons:

I also had other thoughts from this “running” experience.

About two weeks before this run the temperatures started rising into the high 90s.  I thought about hiking and running a different cool route but I didn’t because I know the snakes must be out and they’re hungry and grouchy.  Now I just try to avoid the trail sections with large rocks (underneath shade spots for snakes, etc).

Another noticeable thought is that there were very few people on Friday morning at 8am.  This mattered in two ways, 1) fewer people so existing snakes would try to avoid the trail activity, and 2) fewer people available to help someone in danger.

I was thinking about how timing is everything in life.  If I were running 30 seconds to one minute earlier (faster) the snakester would have been in the middle of the road.  Maybe in a more dangerous position.  Then again, a minute later/slower, or two minutes earlier he could have been farther away from his right-on-the-side of the trail location

In past summers when I full-timed in Phoenix, I often had to do my desert trail runs at lunchtime because of work.  I always found it interesting and later cautionary that I may only see one of two people out on the trail (at 105+) when I was running.  I had the trail all to myself, but I had only myself to count on in case of emergency.  There are now signs posted not to use the trail during the summer daytime.  Tourists are frequently overheating on hikes starting in March.  I worked my way up from the 70s, to 80s, to 90s, to 100s each month as I ran so I was very acclimatized and quite safe.  I had a bail-out point at mile 1.5/4.5.

So in the post, and on this run, I had one of my (almost) worst life encounters and it was fine.  One stride before horribleness.  You’re working towards something good (health) and BAM, something bad can happen.

I continuously realize that amazing things can happen in life, it’s how to perceive them and how you use those events to make you better.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I have an observation today that is far from my normal thoughts—it’s even geographically distant.

I was able to take a long “schetchled” trip driving the west coast from San Francisco to Portland.  I’ll write more about that next time.  Today’s thought came about before I even arrived in San Francisco.

Being a tech guy—apparently, as I just heard 2 minutes ago on a podcast: a “tech bro.”  Yes, I literally just heard that and now feel degraded for my education and skills that I developed over decades.  But never the less, I love technology (apparently it has loved me, figuratively).   Because of this lifelong passion, I’ve wanted to visit Silicon Valley.  I didn’t have any plans or know what exactly I wanted to see, but I just wanted to get the feel of the area where so many bits and bytes changed the world.

I can report that in my observations so many of the areas of Cupertino, Sunnyvale, Mountain View, and Palo Alto are VERY nice as one would expect.  I also was happy to discover that Burlingame is a great town as well!

It is clear that the Palo Alto area is quite advanced and is surely led by Stanford University’s high standards.  I can see how this area challenges its residents and why it leads the world in technology.  There was so much activity going on, yet it was nicely laid-back and the people were friendly. 

I spent a couple of hours walking around some of these downtown shopping/eating (I’m not a “dining,” guy) districts to see what was going on, get a feel for those also milling around, and well, eat.

I was able to use some of the maps, and QR codes listed in the area (technologies) to help with my visit.  I read menus, signed up for an online  20% discount on my first lunch order, found a bakery to get some amazing whole wheat bread for my journey ahead, etc.

Here’s the capstone to this post that told me I was in the center of the technology universe, as best I could tell.

The homeless guy in Palo Alto, at the intersection of University Ave and Emerson St, had the normal container set up for currency/coin donations.  But lest we not forget this is the tech Mecca.  In this case, the homeless guy also had a cardboard sign with his VENMO ACCOUNT INFO ready for donations…! Tech Bro?

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I’ve learned a lot in my life and I love that I keep learning.  Over the past few years, I’ve realized my learning has often shifted from tactical/functional learning to more often being thought-provoking and even possibly philosophical (scary!) learning.

One thing that has always been clear to me is that setting a goal and working towards it always, always requires detailed determination.  There are so many other things you could do, so many other choices you could make—but to meet a goal, you must have enough fortitude to stick to your progress.

I read—and get to talk with people—about savings and setting themselves up for a better life.  Often this topics’ foundation is growing net worth.  That’s excellent.  Other than health, there’s no better way to ease life’s stress than having a financial cushion of some sort.  So I love the net worth topic.

However, speaking of health, many people have weight (loss) management goals.  Losing weight—and keeping it off—is a major process.  I’ve read that only a small fraction of people can achieve their weight loss and maintain the new lower weight for a few years.  In the super technical book: The Proof Is In The Plants, Simon Hill found data showing 50% regain their lost weight in 2 years, and 80% regain it in 5 years. 

In my experience, losing weight is much harder than growing net worth in at least two ways. 

1) you constantly have to eat and make good decisions every time you put something into your mouth, even on “treat” days.  This is decision-based actions vs. stopping or going cold turkey on a life change.  Therefore, it’s very hard to consistently make good decisions.

2) weight loss is not cumulative.  You cannot let weight loss compound all by itself. Those who lost weight and it came back in 2 or 5 years had great success for a significant period of time, but not for the long term.  Weight loss does not compound over time as one’s early savings may.

Saving small increments of money over time by adding good behaviors that become good habits (Atomic Habits if you want) will add up.  That will give you money, but it also gives you some control for the future.

Retirement (or an emergency fund) is the result of delayed gratification.  The entire point of this post (I could have been more concise) is that having money set aside in retirement is the same deferred gratification (of spending) as eating better and having better health/fitness/etc.

There’s a reason The Retirement & IRA show planners tell their clients, “your retirement savings are actually ‘deferred spending.’”  They encourage the hard-core savers to SPEND some of that money to live a great life.  Jim said that (in general) over 90% of their clients spend below their ability in retirement and have more money leftover than they need/want or planned for.  He may have even said “way underspend” in many cases. However, that saving mindset becomes ingrained in our habits over decades. Maybe there’s some “set it and forget it.”

Even Ramit Sethi has correlated weight management is like money management a few times.   One of the examples at 39 minutes.  

Learning to delay a “reward” of some type for yourself can in many ways make the future better for you.  Unless, it’s a pie-cake… [joke about weight management]

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.

I was thinking about the wise people that say it’s a great idea to spend time with people who are 20-years older than you, as well as 20-years younger than you—or something to that effect.

Think about that for a few minutes.  You most likely spend time with people that are very close to your age.  This is true all throughout your life.  When you’re younger it could have been with people 1-3 years in age difference.  When you move into your 40s it could be people around 5 years of age difference.  In your early 60s it may even be 6-10 years of age difference.  These peers you’re hanging out with often are close to the same stage in life, have been through similar worldly events, and may be in similar career stages.  It just makes sense that you have so many similarities.

Olders

I’ve had the great opportunity over the past decade to spend significant amounts of time with people who are retired, or at retirement age.  This started when I was in my late 30s and into my 40s, when spent time with people in their late 50s to 70s.  These interactions occurred in a number of locations and situations. 

1) I was able to visit then buy a summer mountain home in an “age qualified” community where nearly everyone was 55+. 

2)  I was able to volunteer (technology presentations and classes) and hang out with members at my mom’s retirement community activity center (also 55+).  We have talked about Tech, Insurance, protections, travel, goals, the future, etc.  I seem to just naturally get along with so many of these older people.  I guess I’ve always been old(er) for my age.

3) I’ve been a member of the Rock Retirement Club where people leading up to, and through retirement get together to talk about money, life, planning, and Rocking Retirement as a whole.  It’s an amazing group of very intelligent people from so many different life situations.

Youngers

In the past five years, I’ve had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with people decades younger than me.  This first started happening at ChooseFI local meetups.  It was great.  People would get together and talk about being money smart, life planning, life-living, early retirement, financial power/control, etc.

My interactions expanded to CampFI weekends all around the country for the past four years.  I have written about CampFI over and over and over.

My takeaway from youngers is that while they have spent less time on the planet, with fewer experiences, they often have a unique perspective of situations that—if I listen and think about it—I can use as additional data points to re-evaluate my perspective.  This is something I’ve learned to value as extremely important to attempt to grow my wisdom.

To be clear, I usually do not share my perspective or even my newly adjusted thoughts in any way.  I’ve found most of the (even wise) youngers believe they are 110% correct (as they say “100% percent” all the time) and they don’t seem to be flexible when others share different perspectives.  Not at all.  So I just listen, learn and think.  It’s good enough for me.

Thoughts

So, it’s my thinking that everyone should spend time with those 20/20 and learn from them all.

*** Nothing in this article is to be construed as financial advice.  I am not a financial planner, nor do I pretend to be.  You should always consult your own professional when seeking advice. This post is not a piece of literary mastery, just a random thought I had.