Hey neighbors, happy Thursday.

Giveaway time. I wanna do something different this week that I think you’ll like.

This newsletter is officially two months old (patting myself on the back). And in the past week I’ve added 53 new, lovely subscribers (welcome!).

Do me a favor. Respond to this email and tell me why you subscribed.

Everyone who responds will be entered into a giveaway. Morgan Housel released The Psychology of Money in 2020. Great read. He has a new one out called The Art of Spending Money. Everyone who emails me back will get entered to win one of those books. I’ll let you choose which one you want. Winner will be announced in next week’s newsletter. Well, back to it!

A few happenings worth checking out:

🧑‍🍳 Hot Event: NYC Wine & Food Festival now until Sunday at The Seaport. 50+ events, walk-around tastings, & chef collabs. Tickets available now, but a lot of it is selling out. Asian Night Market is tonight & hosted by Padma Lakshmi 🎟 $200

🇯🇵 Weekend Festival: JAPAN Fes returns Oct 18 (East Village) & 19 (UWS). 35+ vendors serving okonomiyaki, takoyaki, katsu sando, onigiri, plus Japanese-global fusion. 10am-6pm both days. Free entry. Itadakimasu.

🎥 Horror Fest: 10th annual Brooklyn Horror Film Fest kicks off tonight thru Oct 25. 40+ films lined up that play all day. Screenings at Nitehawk Cinema Williamsburg & Prospect Park. 🎟 $20

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Nasdaq | $22,509 | +16% 🟢

S&P 500 | $6,617 | +12% 🟢

Bitcoin | $108,556 | +16% 🟢

Cash Confessionals are anonymous, weekly stories where NYC locals peel back the curtain and expose their money habits. Wanna submit one? Go here.

Rich in NYC: Genuinely think $150k is the minimum per year to be able to live a good life. Rich in NYC strikes me as $10M+ liquid.

Living situation: I live in Bed-Stuy with my girlfriend. We pay $3,500/month for a nice 1.5 bedroom.

Net worth: $1.5M but I was very risk on in order to get there. I worked and I full ported crypto. I only had $100K two years ago, but I made a few good trades. Now I am being risk averse and just trying to let things compound and waiting for the right trade to come to me.

Career: I do operations work in the blockchain space. I enjoy it but I don't think I'm intellectually stimulated by it and I don't think I'm trying my hardest to career-maxx or whatever. I’m currently unemployed due to layoffs.

Salary: Currently $0 but usually around $250K. $175K base plus bonuses and equity at my most recent job.

Salary journey: I first made $80K doing customer support in 2020. I quickly got promoted to operations at $125K a year later. And then $150K less than a year later. And just recently got up to $175K base before being laid off six months later. The market has been declining and I think salaries are generally down unless you're super technical.

Career advice: We live in a world of computers so whatever you're interested in, figure out a way to twist it digitally. Into research? Learn data analysis. Into art? Learn graphic design. That's how you stay relevant while pursuing your passions.

I don't know if the way I go about things is best though. I pursue jobs like throwing spaghetti at a wall. I apply to hundreds a year but don't prep properly for the right opportunities. I've been rejected from 7-8 dream roles, never really try my hardest, and always end up in layoffs. On the flip side, I've never really cared, which sometimes I view as a benefit, but who knows.

Financial goals: They say you need 25x your expenses to retire, and I spend about $100k/year, so I likely need $2.5M? Then accounting for inflation, let's double that to $5M and add a lofty goal of living great at $10M. I think I'm making good headway. I do pretty decent trading and have turned $100k into $1.5M over the last two years, which makes me feel comfortable.

Other income: Trading. I've made 10x my salary trading the last few years. I've worked in this space for 10 years, I'm always reading about what's going on so it's easy to spot trends and then I just put my money where my mouth is. But you need to be careful. Risk management is key.

Spending: I spend a lot of money. I don't really eat at home ever so it's mostly on food. Then I like to go out and drink excessively and I love to buy other people drinks. I probably spend $3-4K on food and drinks per month. It's not good. No other expenses really outside of that and rent though lol.

Debt: Currently no debt outside of the student loans, but I do think debt when used properly is a tool to leverage your finances. A few years back I took out a $100K loan from the bank and shoved it all on Solana. I ended up making like $150K from that. I kind of want to get a house upstate and try renting it out or something just to learn real estate, so maybe a mortgage is in my near future.

Emergency fund: I think generally you should have 6 months of expenses? But until I made money recently I never had more than $5K in my checking. I would pay my rent, pay my card, and shove everything else into the market. Now I have $250K in cash in case I see a good trade, but also because I might buy that house soon and am planning to have a wedding in a year. Probably not the best thing I could be doing but whatever.

Best money decision: One time I bought an NFT for $200 and I sold it two weeks later for 5 Bitcoins. Then I held those til $100K each and sold them. So I essentially turned $200 into $500K ($400K post taxes) in about a year?

Worst money decision: Well I paid $250K-ish for college. I guess my parents paid $200K of that, and one of them still hasn't really forgiven me for it. But I think it was worth it. I also lost access to a separate Bitcoin wallet that I had in college (I only put $1K into it, but it was also 5 coins) and that wallet is now almost $600K but I don't remember the password to it so I can't get in it lol.

Retirement: I hate working. Mentally I'm already retired, but I will actually retire when me and my girlfriend can stop working altogether. I hope that's by the time we're 40. I will ski and play pickleball and doom scroll, pretty much all the things I do now!

Long-term goals: I think raising a family and being a good parent has always been my main goal. I had sort of an emotionally traumatic childhood in ways and I just want to make sure that doesn't continue down my lineage or whatever. Another part of me wants to be successful in some capacity, but I think I prioritize happiness more and I'm not sure I have the ability to truly be successful in the typical ways of society. I don't know. I probably need to change how I'm living in a few ways and then it will be more attainable.

Submit your own Cash Confessional for an upcoming newsletter. Go here.

Thanks for reading this week’s edition. If you have ideas for stories, know about new business coming soon, or want to do your own anonymous Cash Confessionals submission, let me know!

Josh

P.S.

Read something you like or maybe don’t like? Hit reply and let me know!