The Blog

I know I say this every month but I can’t believe another month is in the rear view mirror. The first week in April was very tough with the loss of my mother-in-law as she lost her battle with cancer. The grieving process is nowhere near done but each passing day and week is getting easier…although there is nothing easy about losing a loved one. We continue to remember the good times and hold onto those memories and stories when the reality of loss gets us down. There is also a bit of guilt that we are all fighting as we continue living our lives. We know that this is what my mother-in-law would want us to do but it …

I’m late getting this regular monthly update out because my family’s world has been consumed by the pain of a devastating loss. In February of this year, my mother-in-law was diagnosed with stage 4 liver cancer. We are in shock now that only two months after the diagnosis she lost this battle in early April. Death is very much a part of life. We can know that, but it is a loss like this that brings that truth home beyond a shadow of a doubt: time is rare and precious. It is our own mortality that makes the hours and days we do have so precious – time truly is our most scarce resource. When you lose a loved one …

A reader (JayCeezy) left a comment last month and recommended I check out the Rahe Stress Test. After getting through the emotional rollercoaster that February was, I decided to do that before sitting down to write this month’s post. The test presents an inventory of 43 major life events with an associated point value for each item on the list. To take the assessment you go through and mark each item that has happened to you in the last twelve months and then add up all the points for the applicable events. You then take that score and compare it to three major buckets: I’d be lying if I said that the last year (really two years) haven’t been the most …

Bam! That is the best word I can use to describe January. It started with a Boom! had a few a Bangs! and ended with a Bam! What does that even mean? It means there were a lot of good things that happened while under incredible overwhelm during certain points in the month. Many of you know that I took a nice long break in November, but what many of you don’t know is the grueling schedule I started on December 1st and maintained for about eight weeks. I went from enjoying the beach and working only a few hours a day in November to working like a full-blown maniac. I was waking up between 3 am and 4 am …

Happy New Year! Beginning this month, the GYFG post format has changed – specifically in how I write it. For the prior 71 monthly updates, I would sit down at the end of the month and write it in one fell swoop. But I’ve decided to write this post incrementally throughout the month, for four reasons: (1) It helps me break it down into more manageable writing sessions. (2) I want to start treating this monthly update more like a digital “newspaper” of my life (mostly financial, but not entirely). (3) This new format will allow me to capture and reflect on more throughout the month (faster feedback loop). (4) It will also allow me to share mini-posts (articles) within …

As I type this my family and I are coming to the end of our stay at the beach. The last 30 days were filled with much-needed rest, relaxation, and recharging. We checked into the beach house on November 1st and completely unplugged from work until the morning of the 9th. We then proceeded to work a modified schedule from the 9th until Thanksgiving. And finally, we had the 26th through the 29th completely work-free. One thing I learned is that a week is about all I need/want in terms of being completely unplugged. Being productive is a big part of who I am and where I realize fulfillment. That said, the modified work schedule was very enjoyable and needed. …

I have officially made it to vacation! I’m typing this with an unobstructed view of the pacific ocean beyond my screen. I was finally able to take my foot off the gas in early October, right before my birthday. We started to prepare for a “soft landing” on our final “descent” into vacation by going out to Lake Meade the second week in October. It was glorious! We turned off our phones for three days. This was the first time in 15 years of going out to the lake that I didn’t bring a stack of books out to the lake with me. I told my wife and her parents that I planned to just relax…like, really relax, in a …