Welcome to the inaugural edition of my Week in Review, written and sent out each Saturday morning. I’m writing this to share some of the cool things I’ve found and learned this week, places I’ve gone, cool people I’ve met, and more. I want to share for others to find value in what I’ve found and learned, help me be more mindful and grateful for what I’ve experienced each week, and to hold myself accountable to actually do and learn something each week.

For this initial edition some of the things I’ve learned and see will pull from ‘recent history’ going back the last few weeks, just so I have a place to share some of the more interesting bits. But going forward I’ll keep it to things from the last seven days.

Things I’ve Learned

The value of money, and all of the economy, is built on trust. The US dollar is valuable because people trust the US economy and government to continue growing. If that trust starts to break, that is when things slow down and the dollar loses values.

Plot twist, the US government has such a hard time spending less than it makes that it allows inflation to occur at a certain rate on purpose to reduce the cost of paying back their debts. It is a careful balancing act to avoid the economy dying and losing all the trust of everyone that invests in US Treasury Bonds (how the government funds its budget without taxes).

The only things that hold value as the dollar depreciates are hard assets that provide the same real tangible value no matter what a unit of currency is currently worth. The best example is gold And if you look at the growth of the price of gold over the last few years you will see it has nearly doubled in the last two years. That is one of the signs of the loss of trust in the US dollar. Countries around the world are buying gold to use to back their currencies instead of trusting so much in the US treasury bonds they used to own. What should you do? Study the signs. Spend some time learning about how the economy really works. Build up assets no one can take, like you skills and knowledge. Your ability to provide value is your greatest asset. (Even gold can be stolen, even by the government. Just see what happened during the Great Depression.)

I’ve learned some other great things as well, but that has been the main thing. The value of money is based on trust. The value of your work is based on your ability to do that work. One is determined by the world at large. The other is determined by your own dedication to your craft. Which do you think is better to invest in?

Things I’ve Done

I wrote my first blog post in a year!

And now my second just a couple days later! (This post here. 😉)

Started making videos on my personal YouTube channel.

Books I’m Reading

Atomic Habits

$100M Offers

Favorite Videos

Mr. Beast’s “Hi Me in 10 Years“. Wow. He was hoping for at least 1 Million subscribers. As of writing this 21 days after the video went live it has 44 million views, and Mr. Beast has gained about 5 million subscribers, bringing his total to about 448 million subscribers. Set your sites for the stars, and keep going until you get there!

This awesome short from BranchEducation showing how Apple AirPods are built inside. The way the little PCBs are connected and folded over each other is incredible!

This incredible video about taking advice. I even talked about it in my post earlier this week and the video I made on Wednesday. Go check it out. It is less than 10 minutes and well worth it.

Things I’ve Built

I started building a fun little software side project. It isn’t ready to show quite yet, but I intend to launch it next week, so check back!

Places I’ve Gone

Monster Jam. I knew my son would enjoy it. I wasn’t expecting my daughter and wife to get so excited too! It was fun for everyone. We’ll probably be back when it comes through town again next year. And maybe we’ll find a bigger event to watch before then. We’ll see!

People I’ve Met

Cameron Swindler. Great guy, new father, trustworthy financial advisor (despite the ironic name!).

So, that’s a quick run down of things I’ve learned and done this week. What do you think of the format? It may not look exactly like this every week, but that is the joy of trying new things and learning as you go.

See you again next week!