Wondering If There Is More to Your Life?
There is more—so much more. You are in exactly the right spot, and I'm thrilled to share the journey with you.
Why this newsletter
The thing this particular dreamer thinks about ad naseum about is the human experience of money and work.
Emphasis on the human part of the above. I add that because I realize the opening sentence could make me sound stiff and boring and I try very hard to not be those two things. (Making things fun and real matter a lot to me even if it’s a work in progress—I have a real gift for getting stuck in my head, overcomplicating things yet again.)
I’m deeply interested in the richness of the human experience, and how money and work figure into it in a big way. And I’m very interested in getting off the sidelines and fully into the game of life—for me and for you. What that looks like, how we do it more fully, how we develop our potential in our one life.
I started this newsletter to have real conversations—sans MBA and CFP jargon—about things that matter to us dreamers who think deeply about living meaningfully:
the ways we earn money—making employment work for you and leaving it to take a chance on you, going after what you want even when you’re not sure what that is
what we get and do with our money—spending on what you actually want, creating reserves for yourself, when will enough be enough?
how we maximize our freedom while being deeply connected to others
and how the lives we get to lead are impacted by our choices surrounding work and money.
Put another way, I write about what it looks like to create a purposeful life.
And not because I have all the answers. But because I have a lot of questions, think a lot about this stuff, and love talking to people about what they’ve discovered. In my very windy journey, I’ve also had ample opportunity to make some discoveries of my own. Speaking my journey…
My journey to this newsletter
My journey to this newsletter began in a not-well-heated Georgian aparthotel room on Thanksgiving 2023.
Georgia the Country—an important distinction given frequent confusion in the US.
I was a solid year into what had become a “mid-life gap year” of sorts and finally leaning into the thought that maybe, just maybe, I could be a writer.
A September 2022 flying leap out of start-up corporate and into what I thought was my dream business had taken me on quite the figurative and literal journey.
This was not the first time leaving a job to venture and explore. Oh ho ho, no. My work life and my money life have been all kinds of windy, in and out, taking chances, saving up money to take breaks for exploration, then returning to employment, but always different and hopefully more of my own person.
In this leap, my dream business of financial coaching had become way too narrow a label for the new dream I’d grown into. And I was trying to figure out, in my early 40s, if/how I could do what I now really wanted to do with my life.
I was back in Europe for some more weeks of exploring and wandering since I didn’t really know where else to be. But this time I’d finally let go of that “financial coach” label and was deeply considering that thing I really wanted to do—write. And not just scribbles in my notebook for my eyes only, although I will forever and also do that. (My “Jimmy Books” are where some of my best material starts or gets captured or sketched.)
Back to that day in Georgia.
I actually started my Substack that day in Georgia. And then I shelved it and dismissed Substack in general. I got distracted by stuff (distraction in entrepreneurship is a very real thing for me), and thought I’d just write for my email list. And keep it small and focus on writing my next book, Dear Fellow Dreamer.
But the windy past 6 months have brought me to this point, where I want to share way more of my journey and those of others with my stuck dreamer friends sooner than the publication of my book in fall 2024.
I know what I love writing about, and I know the audience I care a lot about—stuck dreamers who have so much more living to do. And so here I am. Writing for you. Writing to learn from you. Learning from other dreamers, then writing about it.
Writing that in hopefully non-boring ways explores and shapes how more of us work (more autonomously and meaningfully), spend (more intentionally) and live (purposefully and adventurously).
That last bit matters a ton to me. And I suspect it matters a ton to you too since you’re still reading. I’m thrilled you’re here, can’t wait to start sharing more with you fellow dreamers, and get to know more about your stories and dreams.
If you are excited about all of this, the single biggest thing you can do is to back More To Your Life by subscribing. It’s easy and free to do.
And please consider sharing this post/this newsletter with your dreamer coworkers or friends. You know, the ones you talk with about leaving your job and constantly brainstorm business ideas with :-)
And thank you. I’m looking forward to everything that will happen here, and I‘m grateful for your support.