If you skip the 401k match, you’re giving income back to your employer. Who would do this? Apparently millions of Americans, who give a total of $24B back each year.

Trading homes is house hacking for travelers. I’m staying in Spain for 4 weeks out of 8 by trading homes with other travelers. The result? Saving ~$6,000 by putting an asset to work that I’m not using otherwise. Plus, we get to live more like locals in each destination. Sometimes the best way to save money is to make better use of what you own.

The secret to being wealthy… is being happy with what you have.

The Magnificent 7 were valued at $25 trillion at one point this week. That’s more than the entire economic output of every country except the US!! Alphabet trades for ~17 times earnings. Amazon: ~20x Meta: ~27x Nvidia: ~27x Microsoft: ~29x Apple: ~39x Tesla: ~350x Do you think these companies are worth the going price?

The S&P 500 is a great base for a portfolio. But it isn’t diversified. Just 7 companies make up almost 35%: Microsoft Alphabet Amazon NVIDIA Apple Tesla Meta Want to diversify further? The easiest way is to own an International Ex-US fund. International stocks make up roughly 40% of global stock market value and increase exposure to different industries. Diversification means not having to bet your financial future on one country, one sector, or seven companies.

The Sagrada Família is a masterpiece inside & out. It’s taken 144 years to build and is still unfinished. Anything worth building takes time. Patience. Work. It’s never easy. Building meaningful wealth is the same. It takes patience and effort. But it will be worth it if you put it to good use.

Wealth can make your life better. It can also make your life worse. It can buy a home for your family or a mansion to impress strangers. It can fund your freedom or fuel your greed. It can provide security or create a sense of superiority. It can help you give generously or tempt you to hoard selfishly. Building wealth matters. But who you become while building it—and what you do with it—matter more.

Underrated benefit of mini-retirements: You learn how to live without a paycheck while your investments keep working for you. You test your spending. You practice drawing from your assets. You build confidence in your plan. Retirement becomes less a leap of faith and more a transition that you’ve already practiced. Are you planning a mini-retirement before fully retiring?

It’s hard to build wealth with debt hanging over your head. It’s easy to build wealth when you don’t owe money to anyone. Get out of debt. Free up your income. Put it to work for you instead of the banks.

You can’t win the status game on X. There will always be someone richer, driving a nicer car, or showing off a bigger portfolio. But you CAN win the wealth game in real life. Just make freedom the goal, not looking rich. Which game are you playing?