PastorFi

Staying the course with my guy Joshua It was a time in the history of Israel when there were a number of fads/philosophies that became popular. The simple belief in an all powerful Creator was not as attractive to many folk as it had once been. Flying in the face of the many popular traditions springing up, the great military general Joshua spoke with great conviction: " As for me and my house, we will follow the Lord ". The point here is that Joshua believed in a system that worked. Simple reliance on a Power greater than himself had always been a part of his life.  It was his design for living; tried, trusted and true.  And when the tough times happened, he stayed the course. On January 10th, 2018 I hit a personal FI milestone. I crossed the 10 times my Annual Salary ($70K) and hit $701K.  I was delighted over the next few days to watch my Net Worth climb to around 720K. Then came the crash! Ok in truth it was more of a market-correction than a true crash. I watc

LUCK?  Plan your Work and Work you Plan.   Fish On! I don't believe in luck. I have come to believe that people use the term “luck” to explain how things (sometimes really fantastic wonderful things) happen to people are somehow trying to justify or console others (even self) why some things happen to some people and not to others. It was interesting to me to hear my favorite definition of luck on the Choosefipodcast episode 063R with Scott Trench  (aka the Trenchenator).  The definition presented by the Trenchenator: “Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity.” I first heard this quote years ago from Oprah Winfrey, who make this definition rather popular. I am reasonably sure Oprah did not coin this phrase; but I am too lazy to track down who did. I am a word guy. The word preparation comes from the Latin root “parare” meaning to make ready. The prefix “pre” means before.   The suffix “tion” always means process. Preparation then is the process

The power of 1%, Marginal Gains & A lost sheep Like many of you I was struck by the power which tiny incremental changes directed and improving what you are doing can achieve. In the ChooseFi episode with Alan Donegan ,   Alan alerted me to the philosophy of British Cycling coach - Sir Dave Brailsford. " When SirDave Brailsford became head of British Cycling in 2002, the team had almost no record of success: British cycling had only won a single gold medal in its76-year history. That quickly changed under Sir Dave’s leadership. At the 2008Beijing Olympics, his squad won seven out of 10 gold medals available in track cycling, and they matched the achievement at the London Olympics four years later. Sir Dave now leads Britain’s first ever professional cycling team, which has won three of the last four Tour de France events. " I quickly went onto YouTube and found many wonderful clips and interviews with Sir Brailsford . What jumped out at me was th

Ancient Egypt, Food Supply and Savings Rates Since I so recently wrote about Joseph in Egypt, it seems almost redundant to be referencing this wise and brilliant statistician so soon. Following my last article one reader in a PM made what I thought was a dynamite observation. So here is my shout-out to fellow Fire-Walker, Pearse Frazier , in Atlanta GA. Pearse made the observation that the genius behind Joseph’s plan during the seven years of plenty, was gutsy and aggressive Savings-Rate. Right on Pearse! Now to be fair Joseph appears to have had some Divine Help on this one, but he knew that were would be seven years of profound prosperity followed by seven years of devastating drought and famine. He planned for the years of famine by building grain store houses and barns made healthy deposits into these food banks. With a carefully measured Safe-Withdrawal-Rate (SWR) Joseph was able to sustain Egypt and the surrounding countries during the time of crisis. [

Aquatic Bovine, Silos and Retirement It started with this guy in prison, named Joe. Not only was Joe a dreamer himself, he also had a gift to understand and interpret dreams. Another part of this story involves a great King, Ramsey II - river god, and king of all Egypt. Turns out this pharaoh had a problem. He had a dream that no one could understand or  interpret. It came to pharaoh's attention that there was this prisoner Joe , being held in on trumped up charges of molestation and attempted rape.  Joe had the ability to interpret dreams. Perhaps this Joseph fellow might be able to help. So the Nile-river-god sent for Joseph. When Joe arrived at the royal court he was told about the king's dream. A most unusual dream indeed . In this dream seven robust aquatic bovine walked out of the Nile river.  The Karabaw are a domesticated water buffalo native to the Philippine Islands  After a time, seven pretty pathetic scrawny looking cows appeared and walked out of the river

SEEK AND YE SHALL FIND So what if you could just find money? Certainly you can earn money through your paycheck from your employment. One can get money from passive income streams, which is arguably  even better; such as:- stock market, real-estate etc.). But what if you could just find money? I’m somewhat embarrassed to say that I do this on a daily basis. That’s right each and every day I find money!! I like to go for a walk each day. I usually walk for about an hour a day. I accomplish three things in doing so: 1) by walking I get some exercise; 2) to I listen to a podcast (usually Choosefi), learn Spanish or Tagalog (I am a huge fan of the Pimsluer Method); 3) I find money!!   One day I found this lamp in a dumpster with a bunch of change stuck to it.  And yes, I chipped off every coin.    I also found a car radiator water pressure testing kit in that same dumpster.  I usually walk in an area where I am assured to find some change. Sometimes it’s a su