🗞 Savor It

WHILE YOU POUR THE JOE… ☕️
Enabler Nation

Starbucks employees are taking this too far now.

What started as a simple union strike and employees asking for better pay has now become a storm of entitled liberal arts degrees.

I don’t know about you, but my Starbucks order is pretty simple (Iced Doppio with cream), and more often than ever, they still seem to get it wrong. I won’t even go into my sister’s or mom’s orders when I take them, it’s a mess. 📉 

It seems that nobody is putting in the effort now, yet the attitude with which they ask for tips is on the rise. It seems like they haven’t learned the lesson from previous unionized companies.

Speaking of learning a lesson, let’s get on with today’s email 📧…

FIREPIT REFLECTION
Not Your Average Newsletter

Let’s get into the spirit of Christmas and take advantage of the markets being closed today to really sit down and reflect on what our year has brought us and what we want to get out of 2025.

What better way to do this than a firepit, a Macallan, and a cigar?

Anyway, some years make a Midas out of you; everything you touch turns to gold, and every project/dream/venture just takes off seamlessly.

Well

That was 2023 for me, I quit my corporate job at a trading desk in Citigroup, after coming out of Goldman Sachs as well. I spent the second half of the year traveling through Europe and Asia while trading my own account, and I made more money than I had ever seen in my life in only 3 months. 💰️ 

Then 2024 happened

I fell in love and set out on an adventure to South America 🌎️ to get to know a girl I deemed wife material from the start. For three and a half months, I dealt with constant power outages and faulty internet connections.

Needless to say, my portfolio went down in flames as my trading systems shut down due to government firewalls and all of the delayed data coming in.

Then

A former associate I was working with turned out to be a rotten apple, got into some drug problems and I just couldn’t have that around me and my brand, so I cut him off. Turns out, he was so bitter that he poached some consulting clients I managed to put together, and there went 33% of my income. 📉 

Here’s where it gets good

I had to dip into savings to cover wedding costs, honeymoon trips, and moving back to the US, which meant a new apartment, car lease, furnishing, etc.

All to find myself contemplating my marriage a few months later due to fundamental differences that could only be seen after living together for a few months; inevitably it ended up in divorce, which took out even more of my finances.

But wait, there’s more

I could get down and out on this negative feedback loop that life was throwing at me, and I did for a while, but then the idea of this newsletter and our Twitter came about.

And from that pressure to get back to my old self, some of my life’s best work is being put together for you to enjoy in 2025.

And on that note, let me leave you with the three biggest lessons 2024 taught me, in hopes that you can relate to and use them for yourself:

1. Buy Your Own Dip: If your favorite stock or index takes a dip, you run to buy it as long as the fundamentals make sense, don’t you? Well, when your own life takes a dip, you should go out and buy it. 📈 

Look, my finances, health, and psyche all took a dip this year, and all I can do is buy it back by doubling down on the energy and time I put into the main pillars of life.

Which, to me, are your health and fitness, headspace, and finances.

2. Don’t Default to Old Methods: When finding myself in this downward spiral, my net worth down significantly, I figured I’d go back to what worked in the beginning, which was to save and invest consistently. ⌛️ 

The problem is, at 26 I cannot be doing the same thing I was doing at 22! Life changes and you have to adjust with it or get left behind.

So I’m learning the importance of creating a personal brand, telling my story alongside my partner, and bringing you closer to achieving the freedom I once had and the ultimate place I am trying to get back to again.

Only the smarter way.

3. Start Before You Know How: Look, the school system teaches you that you should be and feel ready before taking any test, and that if you fail it means a negative outcome. 👀 

In reality, you have to do things even if you’re not 100% prepared, and failing only means you get to try again the next day. This is why I started the Twitter and this newsletter, knowing nothing about email or Twitter.

Five months later, we are at 2.1 million total impressions and 300 loyal subscribers (thank you), and will soon be out on the YouTube channel to bring you even better resources.

Start before you know how.

With that being said, I wish you and your families a merry Christmas, go and make yourself proud this year, I’m rooting for you my friend.

Be back Friday with the regularly scheduled kickass market breakdowns and trade ideas 😎 

NOW GO AND MAKE IT HAPPEN
When in Doubt

Today’s message goes hand in hand with one of my favorite books, it’s the one responsible for giving me the life I dreamed of when I quit my job.

It may sound a little too dreamy, but thousands of readers have said the same about today’s book recommendation 📖.

To your success,

G. 🥃