Average Investor

@BlackMaze Absolutely, it's taken me a good amount of time to learn this stuff. Most people I have known in person would not have used this avenue to help build financial freedom. All of this stuff will really set you apart from the average investor. Slow and steady wins the race. I think a solid foundation here helps free up a lot of future time and energy to put into other facets of life. It is one of those things I find that can suck a lot of time and energy though if you are not careful. Build a balance that works well for you.

@BlackMaze It really depends what you are looking for. For some they can get really nice retirement accounts through their work. Some even offer bonuses for contributing. Most of those mobile apps that offer the free stock are not what you need. If you want short term gains they could be okay though. I would not really recommend that. Taxes can literally eliminate all of the gains in some cases. Although, some of those apps do have tax advantaged accounts. If you are in the US and don't have sort of retirement account through your work, then a Roth IRA typically is the best. A Roth IRA would allow you to pay no capital gains tax if you don't draw the money until you are 59 1/2. This can save hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxes potentially. I prefer vanguard as my broker since they have ETFs (Exchange Traded Funds) at a very low cost. Those funds allow you to get a small piece of a group of stocks. There is others, but vanguard is really good. Especially as a newbie I would avoid the temptation to just go buy a bunch of random stocks. If you want to try that route, then give this a start https://www.investopedia.com/simulator/ I would try to build a longer term mind set. Set this to 8-11% annual and see how you could potentially earn. https://www.investor.gov/financial-tools-calculators/calculators/compound-interest-calculator This will show you how powerful being a longer term investor can be. Get the first book in the money section of the book list. I would start with reading that book. That will be the best investment you can make. After that I would read investors Vs speculator and Rich Dad Poor Dad. If you like Rich dad, then read Rich Dad's guide to investing. If you then decide that you want to take it to the next level and do a more in-depth portfolio, then I would read the intelligent investors. You will want to read the other material first to help you build the correct mindsets and give you enough of a foundation to make wise decisions. It's important to actually invest or use that simulator to help you get a real understanding and a grasp of what you are doing. Oh and one other book I think would be really important to read is the great crash of 1929. You must read that book to give you a sense of what a market cycle looks and feels like. I would read that before the intelligent investor. That is a must read book to really understand the markets.

Leo laid a fair amount of it out pretty well in his survival series. However, I think I mix of Mandy's perspective with that is a lot more balanced. I personally don't find makeup that attractive. It can look really nice if done well for sure. However, it takes so long for them to apply (at least with my ex.) Not to mention the high amount phalates, metals, and other toxins in them. A majority of these products are very toxic. It's actually quite sad how many people feel they need to put them all over themselves. Most would still apply them even knowing that just to have that appearance. I like more subtle exposure personally. It's all just a matter of preference. How they speak and interact makes all the difference too.

@BlackMaze If you are low on money and just starting in investing/business, then I recommend Rich Dad Poor Dad and Rich Dad's guide to investing by Robert Kiyosaki. These will be fundamental for building the right mindset to building assets and business. If you are looking to fully manage a portfolio for the best returns, then I recommend The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. This is probably the best investing book of all time. It will teach you a aggressive, defensive, mixed approach. It will be a fundamental tool for value investing. If you were to really want to go deep into it, then get the Security Analysis by him too. This is the guy who taught Warren Buffet. This is by far one of the best possible resources. I would say a must read before even buying a single stock on your own. This book alone has made me a 124% return in one year in my Roth IRA. There is one book on Leo's book list that is fantastic for a defensive portfolio. It also helps with building a proper mindset around money in general. It has all sorts of advice for what to do before selling, when to sell ,etc. I would highly recommend buying the booklist even if just to get this book. The tips in this book have helped me get rid of my anxiety around investing. As well as help me have a more balanced portfolio. If you are investing through 401k plan, then Speculator Vs Investor By John C Bogle (Founder of Vanguard) would be a great read. I feel like this one did not have any of the most hard hitting stuff however, if you are just an aggressive stock picker, then I think this would help balance you out. For someone who is really a novice and not looking into it much, then go for Money Master the Game by Tony Robbins. That will be good for just anyone with a 401k. All of those books are stage orange. The one from the book list is quite stage green/yellow though.

@levani I would use https://cronometer.com/ to get an idea of where you are with nutrients and calories. I would not worry so much on watching calories though. Just make sure you are eating enough food really. With a smoothie for example it is going to be a really high volume food, so you will feel full for quite a while without taking in that many calories. I would recommend adding stuff like hemp seeds into the smoothie. I also recommend finding various things like turmeric powder and others super food powders. If you are worried about feeling hungry and you are getting enough nutrients and calories, then try eating more stuff like melons and pineapples too. I have found spaghetti squash to be really good as a high volume food as well. These will really help keep hunger cravings away and be a great healthy food. Another big thing would be to make sure your water intake is good. I feel like in the past I could confuse thirst with hunger. A feeling of fatigue and other things, but it was from not having enough water. I imagine if you are working on losing weight that you might be exercising more, so be sure to increase water in take with that.

I've seen some promising stuff in the past with long fasts to help someone adapt to the taste of healthy foods faster. I found it easier to start by just changing one meal at a time. I started with a healthy smoothie to start the day and made that a habit, then worked from there.

I would pick up a couple books if you want to take it seriously.

I did the morning toastmasters and it actually went pretty good. I am going to work on getting them to not just do the same stuff all the time. I actually enjoyed it a bit today. I will still get a feeler for this as the months go on. I know with dropping the one group for now it has removed a lot of time and energy from my week taken. I actually felt really good today. I spent at least 6 hours detailing my car. This was definitely the most I have ever done for my own car. I wanted to deeply removed a lot of mold from the car. I removed massive amount of dust out of the seats and such. As well as a lot of mold. It looks incredibly good. I know this was something more in my zone of competence. However, I feel quite good doing these every now and then. That is why I originally went into business doing it. Just after so many in a row it gets very tiring. It takes way too much energy. I would want to charge like 400-$500 if I went to that extent on someone's car. I plan on investing in some nice weather tech stuff that covers the 3rd row an the back cargo area for moving inventory. This will really preserve the work I did. I should also feel better after driving. I am allergic to dust and mold, so no way all of that was doing me any favors. All of the seat belts were lined with mold and many pockets under the seats etc. I feel like a good cleaning of things really helps pick up my mood and energy. I also think if I want to attract females that they won't be impressed with a suv full of ebay inventory and all dirty from hauling a ton of used stuff and being 18 years old lol. Maybe I can look into outsourcing the detailing in the future, but this was worth while for me for now. Also, it will be really easy to maintain this cleaning since I already did all of the hard stuff now. I have been making some serious investments into my car. I think this is quite wise. I also am working on letting go of any attachments. I find it easy to really get stuck on ownership etc of something with all of the time, money, energy, etc. I am optimistic that this will pay me great dividends over time. I imagine that something with one of those teas was causing me to have digestion issues. I feel really good today and minimal burping/other symptoms. I can tell that I am going to get wrecked pretty fast if I start burping a lot it seems like. I still have some symptoms for sure, but not nearly as bad. I will do some testing with them. I think I might be putting in too much theory vs practice right now. I have a pile of books that I am going to work through doing the practices on. I do notice I am getting a lot of benefits though. Even if I apply one really good concept from a book to my life and forgot the rest. It is hard to do all of the extra things though for sure, when I read a few books a month. I am just not putting in enough time to integrate them. I suppose I need to make the distinction on what will be best for me though. I am going to work on getting everything all cleaned up and organized again. I feel like that will help put me more on track. I want to work on taking a lot more ownership for my income right now. I feel like I can totally be earning a lot more than I currently am. I know that is not the key to everything, but I know that I need more independent to really create the life I want. My income is just not cutting it. I feel like the energy has been quite limited though for awhile. That is an excuse, but it really does take a toll. Maybe more balance and getting my health on track will really set me off to getting my income to raise a lot this year.

@kag101 I actually messaged him and we are going to go on a hike sometime soon.

@kag101 We have had some really intense adventures. I can tell he doesn't resonate with a lot of the stuff I am into, which is fine. It's kind of 50/50. I feel like I have out grown a lot of the things he and his friends are into. I don't really vibe with his friends much either. He has invited me over and they are just smoking weed etc. I actually will ask to do that. He offers sometimes for me to go to the bar, casino, etc. I assume he doesn't ask much now because I don't go with him to those things. However, I have reinforced that I want to hike. Another issue is he usually does things that cost quite a bit. So he might invite me to do something, but it will cost me a couple hundred in equipment etc. I can afford it, but I don't spend hundreds of dollars usually to go do one thing. He makes quite a bit more, so for him it isn't an issue.

My energy and my mood seem to correlate a lot with the symptoms I have had. I took it light on tea (all decaf) today and I do feel a bit better. So it might just be the tea throwing it off. It kind of feels like I am chasing my tail though honestly. It seems like there is always something causing an issue. I am going to test just the peppermint tea only tomorrow and see how I feel. I am starting to integrate more of what I have learned with money recently. I really need to tone back the speculative investments. It causes me to much anxiety and just energy to think about. I have done quite well with that stuff though overall for sure. I still plan to have investments that are not in just big diversified things. I actually looked at my rotha ira and I have had 123% in gains since I started it last march. It did make up for me not having the most cash to do the research. I am still going to work on toning that down. I looked into a really diversified portfolio I can build and not really have to think about. It would not make sense for me to sell the investments that I have in it since I did the research and still have good reason to believe it will perform well. However, just moving forward I want less and less of the mental thought and energy going there. I am much more aware of finding deals that come up now too, but I don't really watch anything investment related. Honestly, I can't complain there. On the same topic of money. I am working on integrating more of the other money archetypes. One I can see I have a lot of resistance to is just having fancy things. I have nice stuff for sure, but appearance wise etc. I got this really nice gold seiko watch as a gift and I have wore it a couple times just because I have always felt too poor to wear it, or it was a status symbol, or even people would think negatively of me. I have had it for like 6 years now too. I am going to get it resized and wear it a little. I think just breaking out of that mold will help me grow. I have been getting some actually decent clothes too. I am actually putting a little attention into my attire. Might seem silly, but I think this is going to help me move forward a lot more with how I interact with money. I also think it would boost my confidence having some decent clothes. My lunch meals have been incredible lately with the new items I have been adding. I got these things called capers and some nice olives (not stripped of their nutrients) that are in red wine vinegar. It has really taken my quinoa to the next level. I have even been making myself sweet potato fries with spicy mustard. I am going to keep putting more thought and energy into this. Once low fodmap stuff is over I want at least 2-3 dinners and 2-3 breakfast things. It's going to take a good amount of time and energy, but I can do it. I notice that I have not really been as forceful with meditation. I am only doing about 50 minutes a day right now. My sessions are much deeper though for sure. I really get in a good state it seems like from doing it now. I am not having as much backlash from changing my schedule around so much. One thing I can see for sure is that I am not really as balanced in my life right now. I don't really talk to friends a whole lot. I don't interact with any family unless they life with me. Most of my attention has just been on business and personal growth. I have kind of been in this mode for a few years. Most of my time the last few years has been on growth. It's funny how I always think that I am not growing fast, but every year I am nearly unrecognizable. It's hard to believe how much things have changed. I need to balance in more fun, friends, etc. I could maybe even try to make a local friend, but I don't know. The one local friend I have we don't, but maybe every few months. It isn't really a solid friendship. Although, we have been friends for literally like 14 years lol. That is really hard to believe at this point. It's on me though for not talking to him much or hanging out. I just really am not into the stuff his friends and stuff are into. I would much rather hike or bowl if he wants to. I'm not going to worry about it much. I can see that I would need to water that a lot more if I wanted a full friendship. I just don't think that is what I want with them currently. I notice I have a little resistance on leaving the toastmasters completely. On one hand it seems so obvious that I am bored with those groups. One the other I can see that I am well suited as a leader and could be a speaker. It really compliments my greatest strengths. I think I just need to realize that a lot of it is not going to come from those groups. It has for a certain amount for sure. I mean I have been to over a hundred toastmaster meetings at this point. I was watching a video yesterday about a guy that left part of his hair unchanged from this really unique style he had going on. A wise man told him that he was serving two masters, suggesting at the hair. As if he had keep that part to retain that one image of him. It made sense to me that is kind of what I am doing with this. I am still in one group having all of these mixed thoughts and feelings. I don't like the idea of leaving those people to pick up where I left off. I ponder on how it would be to have that DTM award as an actual award of significance that I have received. How I might be getting close to finding or doing something with this that really sets me off. Then on the other hand most of the meetings are just the same shit. I am no longer with negative people at least lol. I am waking up eastly as fuck and draining a lot of time and energy from that day. On days I don't speak, which is 3 out of 4 meetings probably (like an actual speech) I don't really gain or progress much. I just don't feel as enthusiastic about it. I just can't accept that this is a plateau for mastery. It is just fucking boring. I am still serving this master by doing it and contributing to it. I really need to get good at saying NO in my life to people. Not taking on roles, task, things, just to please or help. I need to be excited by the idea of it.

@kag101 Yeah, I think I am a bit for sure. I am kind of wanting to focus a lot of this stage of my life to figuring this out. However, I think a more relaxed approach can work too. I need a good amount of time to think and unwind on it I think. I did also consider that even dating or just meeting new people could result in me solving this as well. I guess in part it is hard to see how deeply passionate others are with their work and I just am at a base level of enjoyment right now. I feel like I need to make some big shifts in my life to really move on to the next stage.

Low fodmap is going pretty good. I was able to figure out a certain kind of tea was making me sick. It has 3 ingredients, one I know doesn't effect me. I actually felt great adding a lot of new stuff in today. It was later once I added that tea as a test it caused the problem. I am hitting a some resistance with the life purpose stuff. I found a life purpose profile that seems to match up in one of the recommended books. I have not really went further though to see what use I can make of that though. I had a really good interaction with a really attractive girl. I was laughing and talking with ease. I usually don't know a lot what to say to new people, but this was fairly well. She followed up with more talking, so it seemed like she enjoyed the conversation. She is really good looking. I actually see her fairly often it seems like. She brings me my groceries or pick up. Maybe I will get her number sometime. I notice one thing that I thought about today was just the fact that I have a lot of work to do on myself. I am sure that most of the women I meet probably are not really working on themselves much. I feel like for example not being able to leave early on if it isn't right for me could be a problem. I did that in my last relationship. No doubt I have learned a lot since. I am also aware of this trap. I also have not really studied deeply into relationships. I have had quite a few though. I think there is lot of limiting beliefs here for sure. I am working on not caring about any outcomes either. Dating or not dating etc. Not getting my hopes up about someone that I don't even actually know. I should probably just get the number. I need to work on being more disciplined with my sleep. I still want a feeler for what works best though. I just don't want to keep sleeping in. It does feel pretty good though. Strangely it feels like I have a lot more time in a day even too. The weather has been lovely. I feel much more alive this time of year it feels like. Garage sale season, outside reading in the sun, hiking, etc. I need to push myself to go out and do more stuff too.

Stopped at a garage sale and found a new coleman portable shower. I would have never thought of such a thing. I was wondering what I might do on the retreat. It was $1 too. That is one thing I love about being able to find stuff like that. So many useful things that I would not have thought of that I can find randomly. I am going to work more on planning this in the near future. It seems the car is leaking coolant near the water pump. It could be a hose if I am lucky. However, very lucky to find this right before I took it in. It only showed up because I had filled it up with coolant a bit. It really took a lot of energy out of me today and yesterday after I detailed a car and did some stuff to my car. I feel like I have just been fatigued and not motivated. I wondered if I am depressed, but there is more distinct thoughts with being depressed. It's like depression without really feeling down I suppose. I am interested in reading and such still. Just not moving around a lot etc. Really glad that I left one of the toastmaster groups. I wish I had the balls to just announce that to them in the meeting, but whatever. I am out of there. I'm not even so sure that I don't want to speak much. I just have been not getting a lot out of the group. I feel like it hogs up so much mental energy. I feel like I took on way too much tasks for them too. It just burned me out and pissed them off because I stopped caring about their PR stuff as much. To be fair they would constantly change or vote down what I wanted to do, so I just lost interest. I actually have the marketing doing fairly well in the other group. I have a big selection of different foods coming in tomorrow. Okay for me it is a pretty big selection lol. Once I am done with the low fodmap stuff I have a list of stuff I want to try out. I want to get a nice stainless steel pressure cooker and do some curry and stuff like that. I really want to have a few more different meals in rotation. I started doing more research with this https://cronometer.com/ calucator. I am going to see what I can do to keep bumping up my protein, but I am basically getting everything notionally at this point. I will touch on some small things that could use a boost.

Alight, I left one toastmaster group. That was definitely the right decision. I felt like it has been dragging on too long. I no longer enjoy being around those people. I really need to get it together, when it comes to making those choices and do it faster. I am too much of a people pleaser I think. I need to employ more radical honesty as well. As for the other group. I do actually enjoy it a bit. I will keep it in mind as I go forward on what I will do there.

I had a very intense dream, where I experienced this extreme feeling of love. Not like the lust full love. Like this pure feeling of love. Kind of like having a warm blanket over you, but in a feeling or total state. It was really intense. I find myself in the mornings hitting the 10 minute snooze a bit. In the ten minutes I can get into these intense dream states. It's kind of like rolling the dice on what I will experience. I was pretty sore from yesterday and tired, so I did it for 2 hours today lol. I feel really good after that. I laid there and contemplated different purpose for awhile. Possibly something like studying toxins and nutrition. Maybe being some sort of detox coach or something like that. That sounded pretty coo. I could dove tail that with products or any other sort of thing if I wanted to. I notice I felt pretty good presenting stuff on toxins to my toastmaster group. I think the main thing with those groups is just the repetitive stuff. I like speaking. I felt great speaking actually. I can give a good flowign speech without even practicing if I know the content I want to talk about well enough. My one toastmaster group wants me to do a district role. I am not too sure how I feel about that still. I talked with them a bit. I need to still reflect on what I want. I did actually put my dreamboard up on the wall now too. I need more time to really think about these things. Not just writing here and thinking about it. I don't mind doing the speeches and all of that. I am just not sure at this point how much energy I want to invest into the groups aside from that. If I do want speaking to be part of my LP, then I think there is good value here. It could be possible to actually join more groups, but be less active in them and just speak. I am kind of doubtful most would appreciate that though lol. I am wanting to change a bit how I source items too. I want to do more auctions or storage units possibly. I might do some ads again on buying big lots of stuff. Or taking in old pcs for free, which I can sell the parts from. It would cut out a lot of time and energy most likely and fill me with a ton of stuff. I got a huge lots of power tools recently 10 minutes away and I have a massive pile of computer parts to sell. I still have a ton of posters too, so I am doing really well on brining in stuff even just casually now. I just need to be a little more creative with it. I will still use some old techniques for sure too.

I actually had a similar experience with a pillow recently. I have a meditation set up that costs about $120 just to have some natural material. I would imagine a bed would be very expensive to produce without all of the bs. You could consider a full plastic casing for the mattress, then have some sheets that are organic cotton. That at the least would help contain a lot of the stuff that is bothering you. Since you seem to be looking into toxins quite a bit the book The Toxin Solution would be a great read for you.

How is your diet and exercise? Meditation is great for anxiety. I would recommend trying to cut out stimulants for awhile, especially with anxiety issues. Caffeine, nicotine, etc. Those really tend to amplify it in my experience and can even cause it.

Quite possibly. I found slowly removing things to be the most effective for me. One category or source did it for me. I started by no longer eating any fast food. I still ate some junk, but it was a big improvement. To now being all organic, vegetarian, mostly whole foods, no added sugars, etc.

@meow_meow It's super popular and still sells well too! Even the comments on the video are of people wanting them and it looks like they sell out often on the site.

This is a really good example of someone running into a innovation out of their own need. He shifted away from his domain of mastery, which was wallet making because he got injured. This lead him to the idea of creating this product. Kind of similar to what Napoleon Hill describes in his audio about think and grow rich. I've been pondering more about product innovation and ideas. I figured if you were looking for some inspiration for a business or product, then this is a great video. I highly recommend the watching the whole thing,

Opened my door this morning to my cat who got hit by a car. His back legs were paralyzed and he was in a lot of pain. I went with him through the process of being put down. It was something I always avoided experiencing as a kid. Death hangs around us at all times and we try to avoid it a lot. It was sad, but I am glad that I was there to help him get put down. He even purred a bit while the drugs were sedating him. It was mostly sad to see him so distraught and in that condition. I took a lot of today to just process that. I want to start taking more action in my life. I really want to work on building a life with purpose. I've been getting distracted by so many things and I have lost a lot of opportunities. It feels like I have been running in circles chasing money and not even really getting any. although, I have gained a massive amount of personal development in the last few years for sure. I can't help but wonder how long these stomach issues have been affecting my health too. I have felt like shit for a long time. I have just progressively felt less like shit to really know what it feels like to just feel optimal I think. I need to put health at the top for now though. I really don't spend enough time contemplating and thinking about my life. I lack a lot there I feel like. I feel like I have to be coming to a close on finding a life purpose though. I have tried so many different things at this point. I can really see lately though how powerful and moving it is to just give someone else something without expecting something in return. I recall this lady on ebay I send her a free mouse and keyboard with her purchase. She messaged me with this long thing about how important that pc was because it was recovering he dads old files and notes after he had passed away that he kept on the large floppy discs. I had no idea at the time what it meant to her. I just had a lot of good sales at the time and I added those items in free because she mentioned she needed them. I think finding something like that to have in my purpose would be so powerful. I have not built in my vision time yet. I really need to start doing that more. I am going to mark that in my calendar. I am going to keep working on a big overhaul with how I interact with money. I want to wean myself off of this more and more and start to put focus on what really matters in life. These skills will help me out for sure though. I just need to got the middle road here with them. I feel pretty fearful about doing the sky diving. I think it will be best for me to schedule sometime in the near future. I am really loving reading lately and getting a ton of value out of it. It is really making some huge gains in my life. I should shift back into the life purpose course books again though. That will be really powerful. I want to ramp up my time on the course more too.

I would invest in a high quality air filter for the time being for your room. It likely is going to go through filters fairly fast though. You could try to show him the statistics on second hand smoking too. Breaking an addiction is pretty difficult for a lot of people. Especially after so many years. No one likes smoking outside either. Does he smoke viceroy?

Go walk into a crowded coffee shop and lay down on the floor and count to 30.

I would make a pros and cons list about working there. I think just that process can help you contemplate on what will work best for you. I've seen managers laugh about mental health issues of employees. I would be doubtful of any reform if you confront them. It is possible though. I would directly speak to the person that you are having a problem with about the situation. Come to a win/win solution if possible. I use to do the drive through window at burger king and I had supposedly had a complaint for being rude. Although, I just took their money and was brief with them most likely. People can interpret anything like that as rude. Most likely that is what your managers are upset about. Not many people want to say the same thing several hundred times in a row like a robot for $8 an hour. You could also try to use it to practice your social skills and just ride it out for now while you look elsewhere. You have total control for how you react to the situation. You can practice just enjoying it regardless of whoever is standing behind you.