Stats

Cash: 10.4%
Core: 76.7%
Explore: 12.9%
Workout: 30min dog walk + 20min tennis + enough rope to hang myself
Alcohol: Sam Adams Coffee Brown Lager (skipped my post-lunch coffee and tried to make up for it with my dinner beer, it kinda worked)

Shallow Thoughts

I didn't need yesterday's second beer. It felt forced when I drank it, and between that drink and the skipped workout I ended up having a poor night's sleep. I think I'll be one and done with my dinner beer from now on, that seems to be my happy medium.

Deep Thoughts

When I left Hawaii I converted my home into a short term vacation rental. That meant buying furniture. . . lots and lots of furniture. Mostly low quality flat pack furniture since it just had to look good in the photos and would likely be abused by my guests. As I spent hours navigating directions translated poorly from the original Chinese, I always wondered if I should have just spent 10x the money and purchased a proper piece of hardwood furniture.

Is a $40 Target nightstand + 1 hour of my time a better value than a $400 Ashley nightstand with no assembly required? Most people don't think that hour is worth $360, so it's a simple value proposition. I'm trying not to think like "most people".

No matter how much money I've earned through work and investment, I cannot get rid of this nagging desire to optimize the value for every dollar I spend. But that dollar optimization has a time cost. I need to make a more conscious effort to optimize the value for every minute I spend. That requires a completely different frame of mind and approach to life. Needless to say, it's still a work in progress.