Hi, and welcome to my site! It’s a blog about personal finance and careers, told through the lens of my search for happiness and mindfulness in life. Why those things? Well, because most people view them as a necessarily evil to use in their pursuit of happiness in life… and I think they can be more than that!


A while back, in preparation for my black belt grading in karate, I wrote a post about what a black belt means to me. Since then, certain facets of what it means to be a black belt have taken on added importance to me. The most prominent among those is compassion.

Earlier this week my Sensei offered up a challenge to the black belts in his class. He tasked us with researching Marilyn Monroe, and then arriving at our own conclusions as to how her life and actions relate to our concept of fighting. This post is my attempt of summarizing my takeaways from the exercise. Challenge accepted, Sensei!

I had the privilege of attending a special symposium held by my sensei at his dojo over the past weekend. It was about 10 hours over the course of two days, and it was intense, in the sense that there was a lot to digest. Through it all though, there were some valuable nuggets that I think any martial artist should spend some time reflecting on. Here is one of the most important.

There’s been a lot of talk about the new mortgage lending rules that came into effect in 2018. If you’re in the market to buy a new home or renew/finance your existing mortgage, the new rules, which are about as digestible as a three-year-old burger, probably leave you scratching your head. It doesn’t help that every site explains the rules slightly differently… so here’s my attempt to simplify the complicated for you.

Ever since I moved out on my own, I’ve worked hard to remember the good things that happened each year. As time goes by, I know I won’t be able to remember everything that happened during the years (hell, I can barely remember what happened yesterday), but having a few standout moments from the year lets me put a mental highlight reel together for myself. Here are some of the things I’ll remember from 2018.

One of my 2018 New Years’ resolutions was to write in a daily happiness journal. Unlike most resolutions I set at the start of the new year, I actually stuck with this one for all of 2018! I learned a few things along the way, and I learned even more once I went back in and actually read everything I wrote down over the course of the year. Here are some of the top things I took away from the daily habit.