Category: Life Lessons

Money Mastery: 10+ Years of Personal Finance Wisdom Distilled From 3 Essential Books

Money Mastery: 10+ Years of Personal Finance Wisdom from 3 Essential Books

Companion article to One Thousand Gurus Podcast Special Episode #60

The Books That Changed How I Think About Money

Over the past decade, I’ve read dozens of personal finance books. Some were helpful, many were repetitive, and a few were downright misleading. But three books stood out as absolute game-changers—books that I wish someone had handed me when I first started my financial journey.

Today, I’m going to share the most powerful insights from these three books and show you how they work together to create a complete personal finance system:

By the end of this article, you’ll have a complete roadmap for building wealth—not just tactics, but the psychology and philosophy to back them up.

Why These Three Books?

Here’s what makes this combination so powerful: Most financial advice focuses on only one dimension. You’ll get books that are all tactics (“open this account, buy that fund”) or all philosophy (“money is energy, abundance mindset”).

But real financial success requires three things working together:

  1. The mechanics – You need a system that actually works
  2. The mindset – You need to understand why you make the money decisions you do
  3. The strategy – You need a long-term plan that compounds over decades

These three books, when read together, give you all three dimensions. Let me show you how.

Continue reading “Money Mastery: 10+ Years of Personal Finance Wisdom Distilled From 3 Essential Books”

2024 Life Lessons: Love, Health, and Success

What 2024 has taught me about health, success, and love.

📸: Marco Flores @marco.2am

At the end of every “Year in Review” mega-post, I compile a list of all the major Life Lessons I’ve learned that year. A couple years ago, I started the tradition of separating this into a separate post from the main 2024 Year In Review post.

In compiling these lessons, I noticed they fell into 3 major categories. I have grouped them accordingly:

  • Love & Relationships
  • Success & Happiness
  • Health & Well-Being

Feel free to skip to the sections most interesting or relevant to you. Or just go through them all if you’re feeling in the mood.

Continue reading “2024 Life Lessons: Love, Health, and Success”

A Year in Review: 2024

Blessings, achievements, goals, and life lessons of 2024.

2024 was me trying to be present and enjoy the moment
📸: Marco Flores @marco.2am

Hello friends, followers, and various people on the internet 👋 Happy New Year’s Eve! 🎊

2024 was such a wild ride. In the spirit of constantly improving, for the first time in my Yearly Review history, I’ve managed to get this published right on December 31st 🥳💪🏻 (1 day better than last year haha)

Table of Contents

  1. Why Am I Writing This?
    1. My Tradition Since 2016
  2. B.A.G. Format
  3. What I’m Grateful For
    1. Health:
    2. Career/Projects:
    3. Finances:
    4. Spiritually:
    5. My Parents
    6. Siblings
    7. Aeden Pham
    8. Angela Wang
    9. Shasia Rangel
    10. Solomon from Podcast Place
    11. Blessie Panopio
    12. Koreos
    13. My littles: Yerson, Jade, Ariel, Rin, Lisa, Tia, Katrina
    14. My grand & great-grand littles
    15. Karaoke Crew
    16. KND – Season 2
  4. Stats / Achievements
  5. Memorable Moments:
    1. January
    2. February
    3. March
    4. April
    5. May
    6. June
    7. July
    8. August
    9. September
    10. October
    11. November
    12. December
  6. General Thoughts on 2024
    1. Growth Despite Challenges
  7. Goals for 2024
    1. Theme for 2024: Deep & Purposeful Connection
      1. Career / Projects
      2. Health / Fitness
      3. Comedy
      4. Dance
      5. Financial
  8. Goals for 2025
    1. Theme for 2025: Purposeful Service
      1. Projects
      2. Health / Fitness
      3. Comedy
      4. Dance
      5. Financial
      6. Spiritual / Community
  9. Themes, Lessons, and Insights of 2024
    1. Main Categories
    2. Thank you 2024

Why Am I Writing This?

This post allows me to simultaneously:

  1. Self-reflect on my past year
  2. Share personal highlights with those who are curious or interested

These year-end reviews give me the space to recap memorable events, express gratitude, compile my personal statistics, and examine how much progress I made on my personal goals.

My Tradition Since 2016

Since 2016, I’ve been doing these posts mainly for my own records. However, these reflections may also be beneficial to others, so I write them with the intention of a public audience reading them.

For those who don’t know, I do 3 other types of journal reflections: daily, weekly, and monthly. This yearly reflection is somewhat of a compilation of those reflections but formatted in a more digestible way for the public.

Past Years In Review:

In a separate post, I’ve compiled all of the 2024 Life Lessons I’ve learned this year. My hope is that sharing my own hard-earned lessons will benefit those who may encounter similar challenges. I also want to compile these into a book one day, since it’s my long-term dream to become a published author.

Continue reading “A Year in Review: 2024”

How to overcome a negative self-image and self-talk

Overcoming negative self-image.

As part of a bingo fundraiser for my dance team, a friend of mine requested some thoughtful advice on a specific topic:

“How to overcome negative self-image and negative self-talk, and being hypercritical about myself”

I thought this was an excellent topic because I think many of us struggle with the same issue at some point in our lives, myself included.

When I think of what causes negative self-talk or having a negative image of oneself, two ideas come to mind:

  1. Comparison
  2. Perfectionism
Continue reading “How to overcome a negative self-image and self-talk”

2023 Life Lessons: Love, Health, and Success

What 2023 has taught me about health, success, and love.

At the end of every “Year in Review” mega-post, I compile a list of all the major Life Lessons I’ve learned that year. A couple years ago, I started the tradition of separating this into a separate post from the main 2023 Year In Review post.

In compiling these lessons, I noticed they fell into 3 major categories. I have grouped them accordingly:

  • Love & Relationships
  • Success & Happiness
  • Health & Well-Being

Feel free to skip to the sections most interesting or relevant to you. Or just go through them all if you’re feeling in the mood.

Continue reading “2023 Life Lessons: Love, Health, and Success”

A Year in Review: 2023

Blessings, achievements, goals, and life lessons of 2023.

Candidly looking past the camera 👀

Hello friends, followers, and various people on the internet 👋 Happy New Year! 🎊

2023 seemed to pass by so quickly! But even more astounding than that, for the first time in my Yearly Review history, I’ve managed to get this published right on January 1st 🥳💪🏻

Table of Contents

  1. Why Am I Writing This?
    1. My Tradition Since 2016
  2. B.A.G. Format
  3. What I’m Grateful For
    1. Special Individuals
      1. My Parents
      2. Siblings
      3. Aeden Pham
      4. Patrisha Maui Sangalang
      5. Phuc San
      6. Jordan Ziegler
      7. Lisa Doan
      8. Bao Vu
      9. Blessie Panopio
    2. Groups of People
      1. Koreos
      2. My littles: Yerson, Jade, Ariel, Rin, Lisa, Tia, Katrina
      3. My grand & great-grand littles
      4. Karaoke Crew
      5. KND
      6. Blessie’s fam in the Philippines
  4. Stats / Achievements
  5. Memorable Moments:
    1. January
    2. February
    3. March
    4. April
    5. May
    6. June
    7. July
    8. August
    9. September
    10. October
    11. November
    12. December
  6. General Thoughts on 2023
    1. Health Achievements
    2. Internal Struggles
  7. Goals for 2023
    1. Theme for 2023: Energy & Vitality
      1. Content Creation
      2. Physical/Health
      3. Dance
      4. Financial
      5. Comedy
      6. Career
  8. Goals for 2024
    1. Theme for 2024: Deep & Purposeful Connection
      1. Career / Projects
      2. Health / Fitness
      3. Comedy
      4. Dance
      5. Financial
  9. Themes, Lessons, and Insights of 2023
    1. Main Categories
    2. Thank you 2023

Why Am I Writing This?

This post allows me to simultaneously:

  1. Self-reflect on my past year
  2. Share personal highlights with those who are curious or interested

These year-end reviews give me the space to recap memorable events, express gratitude, compile my personal statistics, and examine how much progress I made on my personal goals.

My Tradition Since 2016

Since 2016, I’ve been doing these posts mainly for my own records. However, these reflections may also be beneficial to others, so I write them with the intention of a public audience reading them.

For those who don’t know, I do 3 other types of journal reflections: daily, weekly, and monthly. This yearly reflection is somewhat of a compilation of those reflections but formatted in a more digestible way for the public.

Past Years In Review:

In a separate post, I’ve compiled all of the life lessons I’ve learned this year. My hope is that sharing my own hard-earned lessons will benefit those who may encounter similar challenges. I also want to compile these into a book one day, since it’s my long-term dream to become a published author.

Continue reading “A Year in Review: 2023”

2022 Life Lessons: Health, Happiness, and Leadership

What 2022 has taught me about health, happiness, and leadership.

At the end of every “Year in Review” mega-post, I compile a list of all the major Life Lessons I’ve learned that year. A couple years ago, I started the tradition of separating this into a separate post from the main 2022 Year In Review post.

In compiling these lessons, I noticed they fell into 3 major categories. I have grouped them accordingly:

  • Leadership & Relationships
  • Success & Happiness
  • Health & Well-Being

Feel free to skip to the sections most interesting or relevant to you. Or just go through them all if you’re feeling in the mood.

Continue reading “2022 Life Lessons: Health, Happiness, and Leadership”

A Year in Review: 2022

Blessings, achievements, goals, and life lessons of 2022.

“What year is it?” “20-✌️✌️”

Hello friends, followers, and various people on the internet 👋 Happy New Year! 🎊

I’m always excited to do this yearly recap because it’s a great way for me to force myself to look back on the past year.

Why Am I Writing This?

This post allows me to simultaneously:

  1. Self-reflect on my past year
  2. Share personal highlights with those who are curious or interested

These year-end reviews give me the space to recap memorable events, express gratitude, compile my personal statistics, and examine how much progress I made on my personal goals.

My Tradition Since 2016

Since 2016, I’ve been doing these posts mainly for my own records. However, these reflections may also be beneficial to others, so I write them with the intention of a public audience reading them.

For those who don’t know, I do 3 other types of journal reflections: daily, weekly, and monthly. This yearly reflection is somewhat of a compilation of those reflections but formatted in a more digestible way for the public.

Past Years In Review:

In a separate post, I’ve compiled all of the life lessons I’ve learned this year. My hope is that sharing my own hard-earned lessons will benefit those who may encounter similar challenges. I also want to compile these into a book one day, since it’s my long-term dream to become a published author.

Continue reading “A Year in Review: 2022”