What's in store for you:

1. Photo From My Life
2. Financial Thought: Find your One Thing
3. Life Thought: Judging People for Their Character
4. Good Sh*t: Lentils

Photo From My Life:

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Working Together

As I build my boutique wealth management firm, I'm looking to partner with the right people and families. If you've ever wondered whether it might be a fit, or you just want a second opinion on your current setup, feel free to reach out. Always happy to talk.

Just reply to this email.

Financial Thought:

Find Your One Thing: Most people dramatically overcomplicate personal finance. It's not their fault. They're inundated with media and salespeople telling them how to live their dream life.  

In reality, for almost everyone, there’s one lever that matters far more than everything else. Once you identify that lever, that’s where your energy should go.

Sure, other financial decisions still matter. But they don’t matter equally.

For someone in private equity, the equation is pretty simple: do great deals and maximize carry. If you compound capital and build meaningful carry over a career, whether you bought a few too many $7 Starbucks coffees is largely irrelevant. The big lever far outweighs the small ones.

For a talented tech employee, the key is leveraging your skill into equity ownership and then diversifying that equity in a tax-efficient manner over time. That decision will likely have a far greater impact on long-term wealth than obsessing over daily stock movement and day-trading.

For a person working a more typical job, the biggest lever is just consistency. Steadily saving and continuing to push toward higher-paying opportunities over a long period of time.

For business owners, it’s about building a strong business that consistently generates profits and then distributing those profits in a tax-efficient way. A great business solves almost all other financial problems.

Once you identify the thing that actually moves the needle in your life, financial decisions become much clearer. You stop wasting energy optimizing tiny variables that barely matter.

This concept is relatively simple, but one I consistently see people missing.

Life Thought:

Judging People for Their Character: The modern world judges people on almost everything except the thing that probably matters most.

We judge people on their political views, job titles, follower counts, appearance, wealth, productivity, status, and whether they say the “right” thing. We’ve become remarkably efficient at categorizing people in seconds, yet surprisingly bad at understanding who they actually are.

Someone can be admired because they’re successful, wealthy, attractive, or influential while being deeply selfish, dishonest, or cruel. At the same time, someone with incredible integrity, humility, and kindness can go largely unnoticed because those traits don’t perform well in a world built around visibility.

I don’t think this happens because people are evil. I think it happens because character is difficult to measure.

Most modern signals are easy to see. Wealth is visible. Titles are visible. Opinions are visible. Social media gives us constant snapshots of people’s lives and encourages instant judgment. Character, on the other hand, reveals itself slowly. You discover it in how someone treats people who can’t help them. In whether they keep their word when it’s inconvenient. In how they handle pressure, success, failure, and conflict.

The problem is that modern life rarely rewards patience. Algorithms reward outrage. Work environments reward performance metrics. Social circles often reward status. None of these systems are particularly good at measuring integrity.

I catch myself falling into this trap too. It’s easy to subconsciously assign value to someone based on their accomplishments or external success. Our brains naturally look for shortcuts. It takes effort to pause and ask deeper questions:

• Is this person honest?
• Are they loyal?
• Do they make others feel valued?
• Do they have humility?
• Would I trust them when life gets difficult?

Those are the traits that actually determine the quality of our relationships, businesses, families, and communities.

I'm probably making this sound easy. It's not. I think one of the best things we can do is intentionally reward character more in our own lives. Compliment integrity as much as achievement. Spend more time around people who are dependable rather than impressive. Teach our kids that how they treat others matters more than anything.

Most of the external things we judge people for eventually fade. Careers change. Money comes and goes. Status disappears. But character tends to compound over time. And, if you're reading this, then you know how much I love compounding.

Good Sh*t:

Lentils: I know lentils don’t exactly sound exciting. If someone told me five years ago that I’d be recommending lentils in a newsletter, I probably would’ve questioned where my life was headed. But here we are.

So why am I recommending them? They’re cheap, healthy, and easy to cook. It's a better version of rice. Here’s the quick comparison:

• 1 cup of white rice: 4g protein and 0.5g fiber
• 1 cup of lentils: 18g protein and 15g fiber

And from a cost perspective, lentils are ridiculous. A one-pound bag costs around $1.50-2.00 and gives you roughly 7 cups cooked.

I’m not saying lentils are sexy. They’re not. But neither is financial responsibility and we all know that matters too.

So get out there and go buy some lentils. You can thank me later.

Disclaimer: VDB Wealth is a registered investment adviser. Information presented is for educational purposes only and does not intend to make an offer or solicitation for the sale or purchase of any specific securities, investments, or investment strategies. Investments involve risk and unless otherwise stated, are not guaranteed. Past performance is not indicative of future performance.

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