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Meet Ming, the world's oldest clam.

Ming (also called Hafrún, “ocean mystery”) was 507 years old when scientists killed her trying to figure out her age.

Yet Ming was a mere spring chicken compared to 4,851 year old Methuselah, a pine tree in eastern California whose exact location is a closely-guarded secret.

Mindfulness/Spirituality/Chill

These woo-woo crystal mats put me into a ridiculously deep sleep.

Health/Wellness

My weight fluctuates up to 5 pounds a day, so it got me thinking about some non-scale ways to assess the impacts of dietary changes.  (My most recent change was eating for only 8 hours per day, known as intermittent fasting).

The questions include:

Do I have more energy?

What’s my mood like?

Digestion ok?

Am I craving bad foods or hungry throughout the day?

Using these questions and some experimentation, I finally figured out why I had failed at intermittent fasting on previous attempts.  I didn’t eat enough early in the day!  I now try to eat 40% of my daily calories at “break-fast” – it sucked for a few days but now that I’m used to it, I love it.

Investing/Money

My book is now available, and doing well!

I’ve just updated my popular post called “Yield More”.

“Yield More”* is a portfolio of highly-liquid instruments that generate decent yield (5.7% in 2019) and a bit of growth (4.1% per year over the last 12 years), with about half the volatility of an all-stock portfolio.  The underlying assets range from preferred shares and convertible bonds to mortgage securities and emerging market debt.

I wouldn’t recommend it for those who don’t have an emergency fund (read my book on that) or retirement fund, but if you want higher income while preserving exceptional liquidity, this portfolio is worth a look.

*I’m going to rename it, and am open to your suggestions!

Random Thoughts

Beautiful Oops! is the single most important children’s book in my household.  In fact, this 5-minute read (rated an insane average of 5.0 stars on Amazon) has an equally important lesson for adults.

The basic message is how to look at mistakes as opportunities to create something new and better.  This positive approach has implications far beyond spilling paint!  Next time you make a mistake, simply say “Beautiful Oops!” and you’ll find your brain automatically comes up with ideas for “making lemonade out of lemons”.

Reflection/Quote

“The reward for conformity is that everyone likes you except yourself” – Rita Mae Brown

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Stay well,

Chris