In The Garage

I hope you have enjoyed reading this newsletter even half as much as i do putting them together. Thanks for subscribing, for reading, for not unsubscribing...yet. Please send me any feedback or thoughts on how they can be better and keep reacting, commenting, sharing. Thanks also to Jessica Oliveira Lee and Devin Banerjee for helping to get it a lot more visibility and to Barb MacLean for consistently putting me in her excellent Fintech Playlist newsletter (subcribe here!). Her format inspired one of my favorite newsletters to put together this year, my 90s mixtape.

I think all the lessons of the year can be summed up with this:

The S&P 500's year in one snapshot - down >18% in 2022. Many of the biggest companies' valuations, especially in tech down hard, energy roaring back. An important reminder that things don't always go up and to the right, to diversify, and that the world is a volatile, risky place.

Many of the largest public companies by market cap dropped billions in value...the cause

can be one or all of the above - inflation, Russia invading Ukraine, interest rates, Elon Musk tweeting, elections...maybe it's the end of the Covid economy, as we transition to a new, uncertain, unstable future. Or maybe it's right sizing the value of the business to more rational, realistic levels.

What are your lessons and takeaways from the year? What are you looking forward to in 2023?

One of the key lessons to learn is how little we each control in the grand scheme of things. But we can make a big impact in our lives and the lives of those around us, and close to us, physically, emotionally, spiritually, monetarily. The earlier we start, the more this effort compounds so whatever you have been thinking of, just start it, like Leah Azizian is doing. At the very least, help them in some way to achieve their mission and goals, and find a way to make their success your success. And then don't pull up the ladder behind you.

What are the top financial lessons that you learned?

And how do you get better at making good financial decisions or recover from mistakes? Via Erika Kullberg

Always watch and listen to Ashley M. Fox , always!

Wherever you are in your journey, you can always get back in the garage where whatever makes you you, where you feel safe, noone cares about your ways, noone hears you sing your song.

Just don't hibernate in there forever, and show up to show your work.