Mornin’!

Here are a bunch of my favorite reads I’ve starred from around the web this month…

Everything from email hacks to travel tips to financial simulations, velcro discoveries, wisdom of life, Twitter hacks, and even vertical graveyards.

If your life doesn’t get at least 1% better after reading these I quit :)

Grab some coffee and enjoy!!

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The Wisdom of Life by Arthur Schopenhauer via The Rabbit Hole — “Excessive material wealth does little for happiness but we must be able to meet our needs or else we won’t have the luxury of time and space to focus on ourselves and what makes us really happy.”

A Frugal Person on a Bicycle Looks at 40 by Frugal Wheels — “I’ve interviewed artists, musicians, business leaders, athletes, scientists, categories I can’t even remember. I’ve written about murders, rapists, child molesters. And the sickly combinations of those crimes.  It’s been an interesting life so far. Here are a few of the things I’ve learned along the way.”

I Made My First Million, and I’m Still Broke via Paychecks and Balances — “While I’ve grossed over $1,000,000 in the first third of my working career, I don’t have anything close to $1,000,000 dollars saved… I have only managed to accumulate less than 1/4th of it in savings, assets, or retirement funds.”

How George de Mestral Invented the Velcro Fastener via NY Mag — “In 1941, de Mestral was on a hunting trip and noticed that both his pants and his Irish Pointer’s hair were covered in the burs from a burdock plant. Where many might have brushed them off in irritation, de Mestral decided to study the burs under a microscope, more out of curiosity than sensing a new business opportunity… What de Mestral saw were thousands of tiny hooks that efficiently bound themselves to nearly any fabric (or dog hair) that passed by.”

The Financial Turing Test via Of Dollars And Data — “Imagine we could simulate the universe where each time you are born to different set of parents with a different genetic makeup. Sometimes you are born a man. Sometimes you are born a woman. Sometimes black. Sometimes white. Sometimes smart. Sometimes not… What would you do to have the highest probability of becoming financially secure regardless of your background?

4 Simple Techniques to Remember Everything You Learn via Entrepreneur — “In a four-month period, practicing for 30 minutes a day, you can expect to learn and retain 3,600 flashcards with 90 to 95 percent accuracy. These flashcards can teach you an alphabet, vocabulary, grammar and even pronunciation. And they can do it without becoming tedious, because they’re always challenging enough to remain interesting and fun.”

Eye-Opening Photos of Hong Kong’s Packed “Vertical Graveyards” on Hillsides via My Modern Met — “With space at a premium in the densely packed city, these cemeteries built into the surrounding mountains loom ominously over Hong Kong. Many of these terraced burial sites were built in the 1980s as a last-ditch effort to create more space in a city that is running out of places to bury the dead.”

The Living Cost Per Hour Calculation – Fun Game to Financial Freedom by Dividend Diplomats — “Occasionally, it is hard to see the impact you are making on a $100, $500 or even a $1,500 dividend stock purchase. Heck, I deployed almost $5,000 in August and I felt like THAT wasn’t even a ding/dent into the journey. Is there a better way to keep the atmosphere upbeat, positive and to continue to motivate and truly see the impact of each and every dividend stock purchase? Yes, yes there is! Enter – The Living Cost Per Hour Calculation!”

Travel Without a Phone by Derek Sivers –– “Where you are is partially defined by where you are not. When you’re somewhere, you’re not somewhere else. But when you use your phone, you’re everywhere. You keep in touch with friends. You hear what’s going on at home. You see the screen exactly as you do anywhere else”

IT’S GOING TO BE A CLIFFHANGER by Josh Radnor— “Yes, the planet got destroyed. But for a beautiful moment in time we created a lot of value for shareholders.”

The Five-Minute Email Rule Completely Transformed The Way I Work via Fast Company — “We’re all drowning in email. And if you’re spending 15 minutes on every reply, no productivity system is ever going to save you. Not inbox zero, not batching, not turning off notifications—nothing. Your only hope is retirement. My rule: I never spend more than five minutes writing a work email. ”

A tip from @ZoeBChance that I didn’t even know you could do!

Twitter mental health tip:

Mute words and phrases, not just accounts. (You’ll still get news.)

Settings —>
Content preferences —>
Muted

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Happy filtered weekend!

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Previous roundups if you’re not ready to start the work day yet… ;)

• August faves
• July’s faves
• June’s faves