Random Monday musings

After a tough due to work and recovering from a big weekend, I’m finally feeling great again. I woke up feeling excited and optimistic about the week. Contrast that to last week where I just didn’t want to get out of bed due to exhaustion.

It’s quite amazing just how much big the disparity is on overall happiness for me nowadays between after a restful weekend and a long weekend of social activities. It’s sad to say, but the late nights with friends part of my life may largely be over. As much fun as they were, the recovery time is just simply not worth it.

It’s also solar eclipse day today. While we’re only getting something like a 30% coverage, it’s still a cool event given how rare they are. The next solar eclipse in North America is set to take place in 2044. I moved a meeting today so I can go outside and take a look.

Lastly, I finally filed my taxes last night. Despite being a CPA with a master’s in tax, it was still a pain in the ass especially around getting my crypto trades done. I know what I’m doing and it’s a difficult process. I can only imagine what someone who has no idea what they’re doing is thinking right now as they scramble to file.

When it all clicks...

I had probably the best session at the range today than I ever have. I have been working on my swing for years now. I’ve had a handful of lessons and have learned from friends as well as Instagram.

I’ve played decent golf over the years breaking 100 somewhat consistently and breaking 90 a couple times, but I had never really been able to confidently say I have a good swing. Even when I’ve scored well, I’ve felt that I was kind of hacking things together in my swing.

For the first time ever, things seem to finally be clicking. Things that people have told me, e.g. “clear the left hip to create space” never really made sense to me until today. I finally got the feel right and my swing feels loose and easy.

It’s not perfect by any means, but it’s a foundation that I can build of off and I feel like I like my swing for the first time. That’s a great feeling when everything you’ve been working on finally stays to click and pay off.

Listening to my body

I’ve done a lot of work on myself these last few years in regards to my health.

I’ve always been proud about the amount of exercise that is normal in my routine as well as my eating. I’ve done a bit to eat a bit healthier and cut down on the really bad foods, but I’m doing fine in this department.

My focus the last few years has been on the other aspects of my health which includes sleep, rest, and mental health.

I have never been a good sleeper, but the last year especially I’ve tried to get to bed earlier and get on a more consistent schedule. I’ve been happy overall, but the thing that trips this up is social events and weekend aways.

These events and weekends usually involve a lot of drinking and little sleep, and it definitely takes a toll on me the next week. I made out okay this weekend after a big weekend away, but I can definitely feel the fatigue creeping in. After sleeping over 8 hours last night, it was a fight to get out of bed this morning and I felt like I could sleep for another 4.

It’s pretty obvious that my body is screaming right now and I need a good weekend of rest and relaxation. I’m putting the social events away for now and plan on doing a lot of nothing so I can get back to my energetic self again next week.

Being patient financially

As Sophia and I grow older and look to start a family, we’ve started to have the big financial conversations which is equally parts exciting and terrifying. For the first time, I’m starting to think about having to provide for someone else financially. Of course starting a family is great, but the cost of another bedroom, childcare, school, etc. start to linger in your mind.

The more I run the numbers, the more I realize that we need to be not only fiscally responsible, but patient. As much as I want to go out and buy a house the minute I hear that we may have a child on the way, I know that is not wise. Being forced into a large purchase like that is not the way I like to operate financially.

As much as it will suck to rent for the foreseeable future, Sophia and I will be much happier in the longer run if we stay patient. Not only that, but our balance sheets should look better as well.

When things aren't so rosy...

I do my best to show gratitude every day and I am for sure lucky to be in the position I am in today. I don’t take that for granted.

I’ve spoken to quite a few friends and peers in the industry who are going through rough times right now. The story is similar - their startup or fund has not been doing well and they were unfortunately part of layoffs or part of a shutdown. A lot of people who aren’t part of layoffs at startups are also looking for another job right now.

This is the brutal reality of startups. Lots of people take paycuts to join startups and most just do not work out. The job market right now in startup and tech is as bad as it has been in many years. For everyone’s sake, I hope that things start to improve over the course of the year.

It can be a brutal situation to be in right now. I know a lot of people are struggling to find jobs that fit their needs.

Grateful

I got back from Austin yesterday exhausted after a long days celebrating my friend Sam’s bachelor party. As I’m 34 now and not getting any younger, these trips do take a big toll on me. They are equally parts exhausting as well as fun. Luckily, I was able to take today off to have a personal day to recover physically and mentally. I feel a lot better after getting a lot of sleep last night.

Despite the after effects of these trips, I am definitely not trying to take these trips for granted. Simply put, I have no idea how many more of these trips I’ll have in my life. Perhaps in 5, maybe 10 years I’ll look back and wish I had the opportunity to go back to another bachelor party.

So today, I’m leaning on gratitude. I’m grateful that I was able to have an amazing weekend meeting a lot of new and awesome people. I’m grateful that I’m sitting here on Monday and I’m able to have a day off during a gorgeous day in San Francisco. And finally, I’m grateful to have a great job that I’m excited to get back to tomorrow. But first, time to relax a bit and recharge.

Decision making in personal finance

One of the more painful parts of this job is that we have to live through people making a lot of bad financial decisions. We are in the business of helping people financially and I’ve come to terms that we can’t help everyone. Some people simply just don’t want to listen and want to be told what they want to hear.

As we act in the best interest of our clients, we’re obligated to tell them our honest thoughts and advise them as such. However, it doesn’t always translate to them taking action.

My process for my own personal finance decision making is the same for nearly all the decisions I make. I first get all the data and facts, and then I weigh the pros/cons for myself. Personal finance is well.. a personal one. The data and facts is the truth and information you leverage. Then you have to apply the personal factor to things.

The biggest flaw I see in working with clients on personal financial topics is that they seem to latch onto arbitrary advice that they have read on the internet, or a friend told them something. That’s fine - and more info the better, but the part they are lacking is the personal aspect to all this. While that advice may work well for that one friend, it may not be the best advice for another person.

Personal finance is personal.

Ignoring the naysayers

There was a lot of chatter about Reddit’s IPO being a bust. We wrote a newsletter about why were excited about the Reddit IPO and some of the emails that came back were… interesting. Seems that a lot of people really either did not like Reddit or it was a great punching bag for general hatred towards tech.

The media also had a bit of a heyday with Reddit. But that’s come to be expected now as what sells is doom and gloom.

With the stock surpassing the $10B last round, the naysayers and haters are nowhere to be found. Of course, we have no idea where this stock will go in the next few months. But despite where the stock goes from here, it was an incredibly successful IPO.

It’s yet another reminder that we’re all best served putting our heads down and ignoring the outside noise. You can only control what you can control. There will always be people doubting you or hating.

Change is the only constant

I’ve realized that this year is going to be one of big change for me both personally and at work and that scares me a bit.

On the personal front, Sophia and I have been married almost a year and half now. We are thinking about starting a family soon. Our parents are getting older as well. I know that things will look a lot different by the end of the year.

On the work front, this company will be a lot different than what I’ve known it to be the first 5 years. It’s part of business to grow and evolve and we’re doing that. But change isn’t always easy. It may mean a painful and sad transition to that next phase.

My friend’s parents told him that life only gets better. In the 20s, we thought the 30s were going to suck, but it gets better. Same with the 40s. Same with the 50s. That was awesome to hear and made me excited for these big changes in my life.

While it may not seem easy, the only constant in life is that there will be change. Everything will be okay.

Congrats to Reddit!

There’s a lot of great news for all of us in tech this morning as Reddit goes public today. The price was set to $34 per share last night, and as of right now, the rumor is that it will open 50% up over $50.

I’ll refrain from going full Bill Gurley and ignore the commentary on the pop, and how the company and employees who sold lost out for now, but that’s hard to ignore.

For now, we’re just celebrating the successful IPO. My prediction is that there will be many companies filing S1s in the next few weeks and months. Liquidity is hitting the markets and employees and investors sorely need it.

Degenerate Time

It’s the best time of year for degenerates as March Madness sets to start tomorrow. I’m not sure if I qualify as a full degenerate. While I love gambling and I get in some bets through friends from time to time, I refuse to have a bookie or download a sports gambling app solely because of fear that I’ll get addicted. I’ll call myself a degenerate in training.

I do have 4 different brackets going though and I’ll sneak a few bets in with friends in the next few days. I’ve been following the degenerate economy for awhile now and even I could not have predicted that it would have grown this big. When I first started watching the sports gambling trend 5 years ago, we still had the major sports leagues and networks taking an anti-gambling stance.

Fast forward to today, and ESPN has sports segments dedicated to gambling, and the leagues are partnering with sports gambling books. It’s amazing what a bit of extra revenue could do to change your stance.

Anecdotally, I’ve seen more and more of my friends get in the world of sports gambling. I expect things to grow rapidly in the next few years. It’ll be fun but scary. Perhaps I should set-up a gambling rehab startup in the future.

In the meantime, bring on March Madness.

Planning around optimism

I saw that optimism for stocks has been the highest since 2022. That’s obviously a good thing as the sentiment continues to trend upwards the last few months. We may finally be putting the COVID and ZIRP issues behind us as inflation seems to be stagnating.

Unfortunately, it’s the market and anything can happen. We’re staying cautiously optimistic and hoping that things work out, but also planning for the worst case scenario. We’ve learned from our mistakes in the past and know that most parts of our business should operate as if the worst case scenario happens.

We’ll continue to invest in our people and growing as needed, but we’re going to be very cautious going forward. We have a great thing going right now with the current team that we have, and we do not want to get ahead of our skis.

Epic weekend in St. Louis

I got back yesterday afternoon after a long morning traveling. I was absolutely dead after 3 days of full meetings sprinkled in with a lot of socializing. I’ll be taking the rest of today off to rest and recover, but it’s been hard to keep me away from work this morning as I’m absolutely excited to get to work on the future of Secfi.

We spent the few days we had going through nearly every aspect of the company from our culture to our office plan to our long-term vision. All 6 of us on the management team were incredibly on the same page and while we didn’t agree on everything, the long term vision is set.

There was a ton of reflecting back on the past few years. It was great to get it all off our chest. We made a lot of mistakes… like everyone at a startup. It was good to vent about it but it’s about how we grow and learn from that. I saw this as a weekend to put the past behind us and move forward on building a long lasting generational business.

I’m pumped.

Excited for long meetings

We had a great productive meeting yesterday. And I’m excited for today’s discussions. These meetings are long and there’s a ton of things to discuss and get through. It’s definitely tiring for sure.

However, it’s what we’re all here for. We all want to build something amazing and that will be here for generations. These few days we have together will set the direction for the company for the next few years.

It’s probably one of the few times I’m excited for long all day meetings.

Finance for the layman

Hello from St. Louis, Missouri. I haven’t been to Missouri before and I get the vibes it’s a state that’s caught between being norther and southern with influences from both. We’re here for work, but I hope to have some fun while I’m here.

One of the hardest parts about working at Secfi is that most of what we help and advise on is inherently complicated. On the flip side, the majority of our clients do not have a finance background. Some pick things up quickly. Others really struggle to understand fairly basic concepts.

For example, I was on a call the other day and a client was evaluating a financing offer, but was stuck on simple vs compounding interest. I’m not saying this doesn’t matter, but of course it’s an additional cost to the client. But ultimately in the grand scheme of things and at the levels we’re talking at, it’s a relatively immaterial difference compared to other aspects.

Most don’t understand that however and tend to panic when they hear compounding interest. We have to run the numbers side by side to show them in dollar terms.

Bringing my A game

Every now and then I need a good reminder that I am no longer young and spritely, and I need to get proper rest over the weekends. Yesterday was that reminder. I had a big weekend with activities on both Saturday and Sunday. Combine that with daylight savings time on Sunday and it was a recipe for a tough Monday.

Luckily these Mondays don’t happen too often anymore, but it’s a great reminder that I need to take things easy. I’ll especially want to make sure that I get good rest on this trip to St. Louis for our management team offsite. I’ve never been someone who sleeps well and gets good rest on the road. Part of that is that I just enjoy seeing new places and another part of that is that I just don’t sleep well in hotels.

Regardless, it’s not an excuse and I need to make sure I prioritize my rest over fun. I owe it to my team to make sure that I bring my A game every day. We don’t get many in-person meetings to work together and I want to make sure to maximize our time together. There’ll be time to have fun on this trip of course, but we’re there first to get shit done.

Planning in a startup

We’ve got our executive team offsite this week. We’ll be together as a management for the first time in over a year in person and I’m excited to see everyone. There’s nothing like face to face interaction.

Obviously the big thing that we’ll need to discuss are our long-term and short-term plans. I’ve learned in my 5+ years of startup world that you need to have a long-term vision for where the company wants to be, but also realize that plans will change quickly and often.

The long-term vision will always be there and won’t change much. But how we get there and our priorities are always shifting. For that reason, it is a bit difficult to do a lot of planning and forecasting as a startup. Things will never go according to plan for better or worse.

Sometimes there’s just too good of opportunities to pass up and we’ll need to shift our plans. Other times, something crazy will pop up and throw us off course and we’ll need to adjust to keep the ship heading in the right direction.

Embracing and enjoying the ups and the downs and the unpredictable journey that comes with it is part of the startup adventure.

Change of scenery

I was pretty tired yesterday and generally had low motivation. I had an early start to the day and I hit a wall at around 4pm. I think we all probably go through something like this once a week most times.

I miss the days of my youth when I used to grind for 12 hours plus a day for multiple weeks at a time without any issue. That doesn’t really work for me anymore. Call it getting older. Or perhaps my tasks nowadays are just a bit more exhaustive.

I’ve had to turn to other means of finding energy and last night I decided to go to a bar and work on some of my planning for the next week. I ended up getting about 3 more hours of productive work in over a couple of beers. I suppose there is some benefit to alcohol after all.

While drinking and getting work done is probably not an ideal pairing for 95% of the situations. I’ll need to remind myself that a good change of scenery to perhaps a cafe or in our office lobby may be a nice way to drum up some energy.

Writing online

English was my worst subject growing up. I always had a thing for numbers and found learning the intricacies of English incredibly boring. I do love reading, but my vocabulary isn’t particularly great. It was no surprise I always tested lower in the English and reading sections of all my standardized testing compared to the math and science parts.

I’ve always felt that my writing has always been just okay. I got by with great grades in college and did fine on my essays, but I would’ve always much preferred an accounting course. Fortunately, going into the business world meant a much more direct way of writing which was more more my speed.

I started this blog about 5.5 years ago partially because I knew I had to improve my writing. I wanted to write on the internet more and be proud of the things I was putting out there. I didn’t want to be afraid or ashamed of writing online. I’m glad I started doing this when I did.

I’ve had the opportunity to spearhead Secfi’s biweekly newsletter and it’s been a fun experience. I still panic a bit after I write my first draft and send it out to others for feedback. Compare that to when I send out an excel model for feedback and it’s night and day.

Fortunately, the newsletter has been a great success for us at Secfi and we get some awesome feedback every time one goes out. We’ve learned a lot over the last couple of years writing it, but I’m glad I started writing publicly many years ago as it’s helped build my confidence.

34

I turn 34 today and I’m feeling blessed. I’ve lived an incredible life so far and I feel fortunate that I was able to win the lottery of life. I’ve got an amazing wife, friends, and family that care about me. I have enough to live a very happy and fulfilling life. Most don’t get to say that, and I don’t that it for granted.

One thing that has resonated with me recently as I’ve gotten older is my time left here. I know it’s a silly thing to say at age 34 when the average age of death in the US is 77, but at the same time at 34, I know how fragile life can be and how fast life can go. I hope to be here a long time, but I also know that the only thing that is guaranteed is that we will all die eventually.

That may scare some people, but there’s some comfort in knowing that for me. If I’m fortunate to live until I’m 80 then I have around 46 years left of life or 16,790 days left. That seems like an eternity for some, but if you start counting down the days… things move a lot faster than you’d like.

In another perspective, I only have 46 birthdays, Christmases, football seasons, or wedding anniversaries left. Looking at life that way and counting down makes me look at life in a different but positive perspective. I need to live, do good in this world, and most of all enjoy my time here with those that I love.