Hello again fellow Wise Owls,

Today is Wednesday February 26th, 2020 and once again you've made it halfway through the week!

It's time for your weekly dose of Wise Owl Wednesdays.

Welcome to issue #5

This newsletter has been so much fun to write, and I've really loved all the feedback I've been given so far. Send me more! I want to turn Wise Owl Wednesdays into the one email you look forward to each week.

To do that I need your feedback on how I can do better, so please let me know how I'm doing.

Now, let's get into the issue.

This week we cover the following:

• My quote of the week
• What I am currently reading
• Tips or Tools to make you wise, healthy, and wealthy
• Any new or relevant Wise Healthy Wealthy articles I think you might enjoy
• Some ideas for the future of Wise Owl Wednesdays

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Quote of the week: Be Useful - Scott Adams

Not all quotes have to be long.

This past week has been harder than others, and it's also a week in which I've been harder on myself than normal.

Weeks like this past one sometimes cause me to second guess what I am doing. Do you ever feel that way? Where all of a sudden that fire and motivation are a little less, and your doubt is able to sneak in?

Fuck that. When impostor syndrome or doubt rears its ugly head I go back to basic principles.

What is more basic and true than "Be Useful"?

It's so true. When you doubt yourself or what you are doing just ask if what you are doing is useful to someone. If yes, carry on. If no, why are you doing it?

How can you be more useful this week?

Current Reads: The Pursuit of Productivity by Stephen Wolfram

This is the first article I am sharing (other than my own) for this section. I've started two books recently but neither of them are finished and I have not read deep enough into them to form a strong enough opinion one way or another.

This article is all about Stephen Wolfram's pursuit of personal productivity. Wolfram is a renowned computer scientist, mathematician, and theoretical physicist.

Not all of the best content is in books, and I find it valuable to learn how different types of people view productivity. This is a long but great read on how one man's pursuit of productivity across decades .

You can find the article in all of its glory here.

Tips or Tools of the week: Wisdom, Health or Wealth

This week I am going to switch things up and share a tool I use for each of these categories. Sharing tools was one of the promises I'd made when announcing this newsletter, and thus far I haven't yet shared tools.

So this week I will share three.

Wisdom tool of the week: Overcast

What it is - A superior podcast player

Why I use it - It has a bundle of features that allow me to speed up the playback speed of a podcast without making things sound too weird. For example it can auto-magically cut out awkward pauses and dead space, reducing the overall time of a podcast while not just speeding up the speed people are talking.

What I wish it had - An android version. Sorry tech rebels, this tool is an overlay and enhancement of Apple's Podcast tool, and so there doesn't seem to be an Android version right now. I know I know, I suck. It's still amazing for the iPhone conformists among us :P.

Health tool of the week: Any Meditation App at all

Here are my two favorites:

• Headpsace
• Ten Percent

What they are - Apps that remind you to meditate, guide you through meditation, and track your progress so you can brag to your friends

Why I use it - My brain gets toxic over time if I don't force it to relax. Meditation allows me to clean my brain without taking any drugs or chemicals. You take showers all the time (I hope), but do you clean and maintain your mind? They are both equally important.

I also like how you can choose the length of a meditation. Sometimes my excuse making ass only has a few minutes to meditate while other times I have half an hour.

What I wish it had - More free meditations. Headspace has ten free guided meditations you can listen to over and over.

Wealth tool of the week: The Cash App

What it is - So many things.

• Peer to peer sending and receiving of money
• A debit card for spending - which has boosts that save more money than credit card rewards programs
• Direct Deposit (seriously)
• Bitcoin buying, selling, and sending
• Stock buying for as little as $1 - which means you can buy fractions of a stock

Why I use it - Because it can do everything. I use it to buy coffee because I get $1 off every coffee purchase. It is better than venmo by far, because I can actually do something with the money I receive other than just sending it to my bank account.

The CashApp parent company Square is constantly innovating and improving their product. I don't see that from competitors.

The CashApp brings banking and investing to those that don't already have bank accounts. This is so huge. The fact that you can direct deposit your work checks is something that blew my mind.

What I wish it had - A way to deposit cash. This kind of sucks for people who are paid primarily in cash. For an app that prides itself as a way to bring banking to the bankless, the inability to deposit cash makes it harder for people who work in industries that primarily pay in cash.

A high interest savings account component. It has everything else, but if it had a high interest savings account I might be able to leave my brick and mortar bank. Fingers crossed for one day.

New/Relevant Articles

Every week I publish new articles on Medium.

Not every article I write will pertain to wisdom, health, and wealth, but most will!

New or relevant articles I publish will be included here.

The articles I am sharing this week are not new, but they are by far the most popular articles I've written on Medium. They are a series of articles that walk through all the ways someone can build wealth.

• How To Use Money As A Tool To Build Lasting Wealth
• How Cutting Specific Expenses Can Lead to Massive Wealth
• How To Build Multiple Streams Of Income By Using This System (Most popular)
• How To Destroy Debt and Win Back Your Financial Freedom
• How to Invest Your Money to Gain Financial Freedom

I plan on writing a series of articles on how to build wisdom as well as how to improve your health across the board, too.

A Few Newsletter Ideas I am Pondering

I am always thinking about ways to make this newsletter more valuable to all of you. I want it to be, at the very least, the one email you look forward to opening each week.

• A giveaway of all the books I have recommended here on Wise Owl Wednesday at the end of March
• A section on Cryptocurrency called the "Crypto Corner"
• A video or Audio component of Wise Owl Wednesdays for those of you who want to listen to what the newsletter says or here my riff on various sections.
• A more personal look into my journey and what I am experimenting with right now including an open look into my habits, struggles, finances, etc.

What do you think about these ideas?

Share The Love, and Help Me Help You!

What do you think about the newsletter?

If you know anyone that could benefit from reading this, please forward it to them.

Also, if you have ideas or thoughts in the following areas, please let me know!

• Books I should review
• Topics you would love to read about
• YouTube videos you'd love to watch

Let me know by replying to this email!

I read all of my emails.

You can also read past issues here!