T.G.I.F. Friday: Volume 133
Welcome to “Thank God I’m FI” Friday, Volume #133!
Here are some things I really like and that you might too.
Financial Independence/Work Life/Retirement Articles & Content
Consumer expectations hit highest level since July 2021: survey (CFO Dive) – “Expectations for personal finances have improved amid indications that many Americans, when looking back four years, believe their financial well-being has declined.”
The Key to A Happy Early Retirement (Retire By 40) – “Most people think they’ll enjoy a relaxing retirement, but that is a fallacy.“
Video
Semiconductors, they’re in everything. Nvidia now has the largest market cap of any company in the world. But there’s a problem – over 90% of the advanced chips in the world are made in literally one factory in Taiwan, and invading Taiwan has been on China’s “to do” list for a while now. This video is 16 minutes but very well done and worth the time investment.
What I’m Grateful For
The exhilarating and gratifying feeling of being alive I experienced in the latter half of a 125 mile ride last week. The stinging pain of my lactate-saturated muscles could not sour the awe, invigoration, and joy of just ‘doing the thing’.
Lyrically Speaking
There’s a trouble around, it’s never far away
The same trouble’s been around for a life and a day
I can’t forget the sound, ’cause it’s here to stay
The sound of people chasing money and money getting away
From “Whiskey Bottle” by Uncle Tupelo
I’ve mentioned Uncle Tupelo numerous times in T.G.I.F. Friday but never featured them. The term “Alt-country” was basically birthed from Uncle Tupelo. They made what could tangentially be called country music but with a rock/punk/hardcore ethos, and they deftly floated between those genres. The opening track on their debut album “Graveyard Shift” starts out familiar enough with some jangly guitar and common rootsy pentatonic riffs. But at 30 seconds in the band upends what you might be expecting and announces a new genre. Remember this is 1990, and nothing like this was out there. It was as if Husker Du and the Jayhawks had a mutant baby, and it sounded awesome.
Uncle Tupelo went on to make four amazing studio albums and broke up in 1994. Their breakup spawned Wilco and Son Volt from key songwriters Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar, and those two bands have worldwide followings and still make music today.
As for the lyrics above, hoards of folks are chasing money in life and – often because of whiskey bottles – money is getting away from so many of them. I’m so grateful I avoided that fate but man it was sketchy there for a long time…
Miscellaneous
Skeletal muscle health amid growing use of weight loss medications – “…muscle loss, as measured by decreases in fat-free mass, can account for 25 to 39 percent of total weight lost over a period of 36 to 72 weeks. This rate of muscle decline is significantly higher than what is typically observed with non-pharmacological caloric restriction or normal aging and could lead to unintended negative health consequences.”
Lidar mapping reveals mountainous medieval cities along the Silk Road – “A city larger than many in Europe at the time was perched in the mountains.
The Odds That Aliens Exist Just Got Worse – “How geology resolves the Fermi paradox.“
125 miles! cheers to completing that one.
Thanks dude, that was a big day out. Every now and then I need to go a bit off the rails!
Getting past that pain wall and getting the mental win of pushing past is an awesome feeling, been there many times. One of the hardest things we can do but so rewarding, from the final 5 miles of a gravelbike race to deciding to push all the way out of an alpine trip on the last day when it took you 2 days to get there lol.
I’ve watched a bunch of videos on the semi conductor worries, a few years ago a couple large US based plants were started. Are we any closer to having the North American capacity to manufacture? Also just watched a video on China now has a couple massive plants of their own, much along the lines of how BYD is dominating global auto market now.
I believe there is a plan in the works to incentivize the building of a big semi-conductor plant in the US right now, but not sure if it’s for the high-end chips like TSMC does for Nvidia. With the new administration coming in next year we’ll see hat happens, but both our current president and future say they support Americans making things again, so I hope we do. I just hope China behaves in regards to Taiwan…
Thanks for the mention!
I have a little money in NVDA so I’d better sit down and watch this video.
Have a great week!
No problem Joe.. since it’s the biggest company in the world and I have lots of money in the entire market, I have quite a bit invested in them as well. The video is great and the geo-political situation frankly scares me.