Being a good person

I’m fortunate to have some friends and acquaintances in life where I would confidently say that is an amazingly great person. They are the kindest and caring people and anyone would be fortunate to have them in their lives.

For myself, I know I that my friends are not saying that about me. I know I’m not in the top tier of kindness or caring relative to these friends. I’d like to consider myself a good person, but that’s a judgement for other people to make, not me.

All that said, I do try to live my life as a net positive to society. I like to think that one of the reasons I’m on this planet is to help others. Working in financial services, I always try to operate in a position of helping others. One of my top principles in life which has translated to my work life at Secfi is to always make sure we’re doing the right thing for people, even if that jeopardizes business.

Unfortunately, we do run into a lot of bad actors from time to time. I’ve had a lot of stressful situations in the past where you stick your neck out for someone to help them and they take advantage of you. This happened a couple times these past couple of months. I try not to lose any sleep over these situations, but they do eat at you a little bit.

These situations will continue to come up so I try to remind myself that the vast majority of people that we work with are awesome people. A few bad apples shouldn’t ruin the batch. Above all, I shouldn’t change who I am because of these select few people.

Tik-Tok

I just read that Biden signed a bill that forces ByteDance to sell Tik-Tok in 270 days or face a ban. ByteDance now has until January 19, 2025 to sell Tik-Tok.

I personally support the ban on Tik-Tok. It’s naive to think that China has no influence on Tik-Tok. They have influence in every major company in China. It’s simply too good of a tool to influence Americans and I don’t see a world in which China is not using that to their advantage.

These next 8 months will be very interesting. We’ll have a lot to discuss including First Amendment, China vs US, censorship, Gen Z, etc. It will be one of the most heated discussions in 2024.

My prediction right now is that we’ll have some cop-out middle of road agreement. Perhaps Tik-Tok spins out a US entity where ByteDance may still have control over the broader Tik-Tok and have an investment in the Tik-Tok US. But this may satisfy lawmakers at least. Or there will be agreement to put things in pause prior to the election to gain votes.

The new operating reality

I just read that Google search boss Prabhakar Raghavan told employees at an all-hands meeting that “things are not like they were 15-20 years ago.” He was speaking specifically about the increasing competition and regulatory risk that Google is planning on facing in the coming years.

I would have loved to get a full vide of the presentation. Google has been in a position of power for the last 20 years dominating the search and a lot of the tech world. Employees enjoyed cushy pay and appreciation stock coupled with amazing workplace perks. I like many have been envious of some of the things I’ve heard.

None of this is a surprise to me of course. The tech world has rapidly changed over the last two years post-ZIRP. In addition, we have tech advancements like AI which creates a new dynamic. While Prabhakar was referring to Google, I do believe that this is likely the new operating reality in almost all of tech in general.

Employers focused on employee happiness and flexibility over the last 10 years. The next 10 will be about employee productivity. Things got too cushy for most of us in the tech world, especially in the ZIRP years and we all needed a dose of reality.

Living life

I’m riding a bit of a natural high this morning. That’s a bit rare on a weekday yet alone a Monday morning. But the combination of a nice long weekend along with very pleasant weather has me in good feels.

I took off Thursday late afternoon for Lake Tahoe and took off Friday to get a couple days of spring snowboarding in. It was nice to be up in nature and get on the mountain. I unfortunately got only 3 days total this past season as my life starts to get busier and I need more time to recharge over the weekends.

Being up in nature and outdoors always puts me in a good mood. I don’t take Lake Tahoe for granted, but every time I drive up there, I just admire how gorgeous it is and how beautiful life is. It’s cliche, but getting out of the city and away from my computer from time to time is exactly what I need.

On Sunday, we had a gorgeous day in San Francisco and Sophia and I took full advantage to hang out in a park nearly all day. We ended with a great dinner and a good night of sleep. It was the perfect weekend and what I needed.

It’s a great reminder that although I work an often stressful job, there is a lot of life to enjoy. I’m back in the office now and ready to grind again.

Staying present

I’m headed to Tahoe today to get a couple days of snowboarding in before the season ends. It was a bit of a spontaneous trip, but given that I’d only been up once this year, I’m excited for it. I’m not sure how much time I’ll have next winter to go the Tahoe.

It’s a sad realization that these spontaneous trips to Tahoe with friends may be coming to an end, but that’s life and part of growing up. There’s only so much time in life so I’m trying to enjoy every moment of the present that I have.

It’s easy to start thinking about tomorrow, or next month, or the next year often. Afterall, we do a lot of planning in our work and personal lives. But one thing that has helped me enjoy life more is staying in the present as much as I can.

I grew up as a worrier and a planner to combat that worry. The planning is still there, but the worry has mostly disappeared. I credit a lot of that to my meditation practice and my maturity. I stay in the present much more and try to enjoy the people around me in this moment that won’t happen again. Still a long ways to go, but it’s trending the right way.

Open day

I’m excited for today as I wrapped up all my calls by 8:30am. For some reason no one decided to schedule time with me today despite my Tuesday and Thursday being packed. I wonder if the 75 degree day in San Francisco has something to do with it or if it’s purely coincidence.

I don’t get these days very often so I fully plan on taking advantage. I have a long checklist of things to do and I plan to knocking them out one by one. It’s nice being able to actually get stuff done during normal business hours as I’m usually on calls all day and then have to log on after dinner to knock out the remaining items.

Perhaps more importantly, these days are great for brainstorming. Some of my best ideas come when I’ve got a clear calendar and I have time to just sit down and grind with my thoughts. It gives me time to plan and think about the future more rather than be reactive to what’s currently happening.

Searching for business opportunities

I’ve been looking around a bit for some small businesses on the side to potentially invest in for additional sources of income. It’s more opportunistic than out of a position of need. I’ve always had that entrepreneurial spirit which is why I’m at a startup.

The startup itch is real and I’ve loved my time building Secfi into what it is. However, I know there’s a lot of ways to make money outside the tech and finance world. And one of our goals this year was to explore that in more detail to see if there’s anything I want to pursue.

Part of this is making sure I keep an open and creative mind at all times. As pretty much everyone, we always fall into a doom scrolling trap from time to time whether it’s on social media or on a website like Reddit.

I find these platforms amazing for generating ideas. People love to post complaints on the internet about problems they are facing in the real world. Most see this as a source of entertainment and most of it is, but at the same time it’s always a great source of inspiration for business ideas.

The /r/SanFrancisco subreddit has been particularly a great source for me. People often use the subreddit as a place to complain about people or the happenings in the city. And I’ve been able to generate some decent business ideas from this. I’m not sure if any of the ones I have right now are going to materialize yet, but I try to keep an open mind to exploring things.

Random Monday musings

I had a busy start to my weekend but ended it with a whole lot of sitting on the couch watching the Masters on Saturday and Sunday. My Friday was a bit longer than anticipated with some golf that went into dinner to a housewarming party. Luckily I had the Masters as an excuse to sit on my couch and recover the rest of the weekend and I’m feeling rested today on Monday.

On the Masters… Scottie Sheffler is just dominant. It’s not often that the favorite in a golf tournament actually wins it. It’s not like other sports as statistically the favorite likely won’t win. But yet again, Scottie just continues to go on a run. He seems like a big family man and with his first kid on the way, I wonder how much this run will continue. Everyone thinks these golf runs will continue for longer than they do, but they usually end earlier than expected.

On golf… I played a par 3 course on Friday. I know, it’s just a par 3 course but I shot 4 over and hit 8 out of 9 greens. My putting leaves a lot to be desired, but my ball striking is very much improved. It feels like things are finally starting to click for me on the golf course.

Things are not fun geopolitically right now. With Iran attacking Israel, we have yet another large war scare on our hands. Hopefully people will come to their senses and we find a war to peace sooner than later. My heart hurts for all the innocent people involved in these conflicts.

The tech scene

Being a local here, I’ve always been a bit conflicted on the tech scene. Of course, I am in the industry and I do believe that tech makes the world a better place. On the flip side, there’s a lot of stereotypes that are unfortunately just true and some people whose entire identities are based on their work and tech. As much as it’s creeped up, I try not to spend too much time with people who can only talk about their work.

Last night, I had one of those really cool SF moments. My friend organized a dinner for a celebration. Sophia and I attended along with a lot much more accomplished VCs and techies. Everyone was absolutely awesome and it was amazing being able to talk to some of the pioneers in the industry.

From people who helped pave the path to self-driving cars to VCs who have been in the game before I even started work, there were some heavy hitters here. I was most impressed by the fact that most of these people were just normal people who have families and have other interests in life outside of work.

There was no pretentiousness or bragging. I suppose the people who perpetuate the stereotypes are probably the loudest and only a small group of the tech bros here in SF. I was fortunate to be able to spend a few hours with them.

Raising the bar

We’re back in full interview mode at Secfi and looking to hire for multiple roles. It’s a fun and exciting time, but it comes with it’s stresses.

It’s always exciting meeting hungry candidates who want to work at Secfi and help take the company to the next level. There’s a ton of entrepreneurial minded candidates out there that are excited to join a small startup like Secfi and I learn from them every time I have an interview.

At the same time, hiring is easily the hardest part about running a startup. A bad decision can be costly on not just the balance sheet, but everyone’s time as well. Like everyone, I’ve made bad hires in the past and it was not been fun dealing with the result.

There’s a fairly simple mantra when it comes to hiring at startups and that’s to hire someone that “raises the bar”. You want to look for people that raise the average bar of the company in terms of drive and skillset. That doesn’t mean necessarily that person needs to have more experience in areas. Someone with little experience but intense drive and commitment can raise the bar.

It’s no surprise that the bad hires we’ve made were people that we weren’t convinced raised the bar of the company. Whereas the good hires all brought something unique or were so driven that they raised the bar.

Death dreams

I’ve been thinking about death a lot recently. It’s been a weird but kind of therapeutic journey. I’d imagine a lot of this was driven by my father in-law having a stroke and a potentially near death experience last fall. That experience combined with the fact that I’m now 34 and “not young” anymore has me thinking more and more about life and death in general.

I don’t think it’s something I worry about - I hope to live a long life, but thinking about death has also made me reprioritize my life a bit which has been a net positive.

I listened to a podcast by the The Daily’s Sunday read about death bed dreams and I found it fascinating. In short, people who are nearing the end of their lives often have very happy dreams about their lives and potential after lives. This all starts weeks but goes all the way up to the day of death.

People who studied these dreams report them as very therapeutic. The dreams are often about loved ones, pets, or happy moments in their lives. The dreams can often create a sense of fulfillment about one’s life. It sounded as if one’s brain and soul was recapping the happiest moments of life.

On top of that, people reported having a lot of dreams about seeing loved ones in the future. People who are close to dying were no longer afraid to die because of these dreams. Despite growing up Catholic, I haven’t been a very religious person and I’m not sure I believe in an after life. But this gave me a lot of to think about.

I couldn’t help but think if these dreams were similar to psychedelic induced trips that have been the rage recently.

Having enough

I stumbled upon a very clickbait-y Twitter thread this morning. Some passive entrepreneur grifter was selling his book, but had a viral thread where he posted videos of this one guy (not himself) going around and asking 70-100 year old folks what matters in life. It was one of the few times I’m glad I watched a grifter’s thread.

I had been feeling a bit uneasy about money recently. I haven’t been struggling by any means as Sophia and I have everything we need and live a good life. But after two bad market years combined with the potential that we’re starting a family soon had me perhaps nervous about money for the first time since right out of college.

Of course, this was all in my head. Sophia and I make more than enough to live comfortably. We’re not rich by any means (and probably not close in the spectrum in SF), but we both work good jobs and bring in enough that we have everything we need and then some.

This thread of videos really brought me some positive thoughts and energy back to my brain when it comes to money. Nearly every one of the people interviewed mentioned that in their older age, the thing that felt like it mattered more in the early years was money. At their age, they’ve realized that there’s a lot of things money can’t buy such as love, relationships, and time. You can’t buy more time with someone.

While money will be important in the aspect of being able to provide for my family, the most important thing in life is love and relationships. At the end of the day, this thread was an amazing reminder that enough is all we really need.

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.