positivethinking

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2025! A FEW HIGHLIGHTS FROM 2024!

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Happy New Year everyone! 2024 was a pretty good year for me. The three best surprises for me this year were the following:

a. Indie 617 Boston streaming radio station: I’m a big fan of indie pop music and usually listen to WPRK in Winter Park – however they frequently play off-genre music that I don’t like as much, so discovering Indie 617 Boston was an excellent find. I found this streaming radio station while road-tripping on the west coast. Two of my favorite songs of the year were burning up the airwaves on this radio station over the summer (and beyond): Neverender by Justice and Tame Impala (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=47YNsf-7Y7c) and Starburster by DC Fontaines (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KHocVRUlvkk). Other favorite indie pop tracks for me this year were Image by Magdalena Bay (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DfcWOPpmw14) and Sadie by Goth Babe (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhS52bvzkec). I discovered each of these songs via Indie 617 Boston.

b. Seville Spain, Portugal (especially Porto, Sintra, and Lagos, Sintra), Seattle WA, Eureka CA, and Astoria OR. These were such wonderful places to visit.

c. High performing stocks I owned this year: COIN (126% gain), VMEO (64% gain), and GNK (51% gain).

In addition to the wonderful surprises above, I ended up exceeding each of the goals I had set for myself at the beginning of the year. One of my longstanding goals was to populate my life coaching website (https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/) in such a way that it largely reflects my life work (outside of work) as a legacy/leave behind. This life work matters much more to me than anything I did that was job-related over the years. And now it is all in one place – my website.

I started out 20+ years ago focusing on self-help and happiness, and coaching in/writing about those areas. I later realized that since I was also a finance/investing expert, that I should coach in and write about those areas as well and populate my website with that information.

My latest goal for this year was to expand my website further by focusing on the creative aspects in terms of my poetry and such. My 2024 year-end goal was to digitize my first book of poetry, “A Farewell to Reason,” since the hard copy was out of print. Not only did I achieve that, but I also published the second book of poetry that I wanted to publish back in 2004 but never did: “Burning . . .  Burning Blue,” and have populated the poetry section of my website with not only the top poems I have written over the past 33 years but also all 370 poems I have written over those years and color-coded them by mood/interest (https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/poetry/).

Here are the year’s highlights (by the numbers):

16: The number of times I provided special gifts to people for “Make a Friend Smile Day.” That’s the special occasion I created 20+ years ago as the perfect excuse to offer guilt-free giving to people going through financial difficulties, hardships, and such but are just too proud to ask for or accept this help. The only catch is the friend must smile when using the gift because, well, there’d be no reason to have a “Make a Friend Smile Day,” if the friend didn’t smile. I helped multiple people out this year with rent, groceries, car problems, and other financial hardships. I pulled money out of my “Beneficiaries Reserve Fund” to do this which is the fund I use to help others. Most people who know me understand that whenever I have a good year in the stock market, I always set aside some of the proceeds to help others – it’s a promise I make every year to God, higher power, the universe, or whatever it is you believe in (I happen to believe in all the above).

15: The number of poems I wrote and published throughout the year. The top four (4) that people seemed to resonate most with were:

a. BLISTERS, BURNS, AND BLURS (A SCREAM BEHIND THE DOOR): https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/%e2%98%86%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e-a-blisters-burns-and-blurs-a-scream-behind-the-door-%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e-%e2%98%86/,

b. CHASING THE WAVES (OF THE L.A. HAZE): https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/%e2%98%86%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e-chasing-the-waves-of-the-la-haze-%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e-%e2%98%86/,

c. THE FALL OF WINTERTIME: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/%e2%98%86%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e-the-fall-of-wintertime-%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e%e2%98%86/, and

d. CURIOSITY CLEARLY SEES (AND WARMLY BELIEVES): https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/%e2%98%86%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e-curiosity-clearly-sees-and-warmly-believes-%e2%96%aa%ef%b8%8e%e2%98%86/

28,000+: The number of photos I took on travel this year. My biggest trips were my Portugal/Spain trip (5 weeks, 24 new places) and my summer road trip on the West Coast (14 new places over 4 weeks: Washington state, Oregon, and Northern California). My favorite places during this year’s travel were Seville Spain, Porto Portugal, Sintra Portugal, Lagos Portugal, Monterey/Pacific Grove CA, Seattle WA, Eureka CA, and Astoria OR.

126: The percentage gain of my best performing stock this year: Coinbase (COIN). Regarding COIN, if I had stuck to my more usual investing strategies, I probably would have sold all of my shares back in February and not realized all of the gains I achieved. COIN ended up being my top performing stock this year by far gaining 126% [my second and third best performing stocks were VMEO (64% gain), and GNK (51% gain)]. Towards the end of 2023, I somehow got the insight to treat COIN differently than my other investments. The strategy I used for this highly volatile stock was to sell 1/3 of my shares when COIN gained 33%, and buying more shares whenever COIN dropped 33%. This strategy really worked well and allowed me to experience much higher gains than I ordinarily would. I plan to stick with this strategy in 2025.

324: The total number of places I have explored and spent quality time in to date (including the above travel).

13.1: The percentage I gained in the stock market this year which far exceeded my financial goal for the year (you can read all about that here: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/final-stock-market-score-joe-13-1-inflation-3-3/). Since I have far exceeded my financial goal, my primary financial objective was maintaining my spending power by beating inflation or at least not giving back the stellar gains I achieved over the past decade or so (my 12-year average annual gain through and including the losses from 2022 was 35% as you can see by scrolling through the following post: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/final-stock-market-score-joe-57-2-spx-24-2/). Core inflation was 3.3% year-over-year back in November – so I beat that number by a sizable margin (the December numbers have not yet been released). I updated my investment strategies this year as I try to do every year. When I traveled through Portugal back in spring, people I met there became very interested when they found out I was a life coach – asking me for help with finances and investing so they could create a brighter future for themselves. This inspired me to write the Joe Brennan 6-Step Process to Financial Success with minimal effort post: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/how-to-invest-well-and-create-a-brighter-future-with-minimal-effort/. I followed this post up with a second post designed to help people even further with finance and investing: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/a-simple-lesson-in-finance-why-investing-invigorates-and-debt-devastates-your-finances/. So, I encourage you to read these two posts when you get the chance. You’ll become a much better investor if you do.

41: the number of people I helped live happier lives throughout this year – even internationally when I visited Portugal and Spain.

18: The number of times I posted about my stock market activities and strategies to offer others a chance to capitalize on these. You can read about them here: https://www.brighterdayslifecoaching.com/stock-market…/

149: The number of posts I wrote and published, throughout the year, focused on helping people live happier, offering hope and inspiration, keeping people informed, and making people more successful in life.

205: The number of days I spent on Duo Lingo learning and practicing Spanish and Portuguese throughout the year. I’ve been learning various languages on Duo Lingo for 10+ years now including Spanish, Portuguese, and a tiny bit of Italian.

11 – the number of hours I spent on fitness activities in a typical week between weight training, running, stretching, and yoga.

1: The number of books I read and shared my notes on throughout the year. I had so much else going on in 2024 that I didn’t do much reading. So, I suppose I should seek to read a little more in 2025. The books I read were primarily in the areas of self-help and self-improvement. I’ve been reading books on the “100 Best Self-Help Books of All Time” list (over the years I’ve currently read the top 90 books on this list of 100 so 10 more to go!).

So, 2024 was a pretty good year overall. Going forward I plan to focus on doing more reading, doing more travel, and writing new poetry. I’m looking forward to seeing what 2025 brings.

Happy New Year everyone! Normally, I would add something like: “May 2025 be the best year of your life, EVER.” However, this year I’d like to create a tiny challenge for everyone and change that to: “Do positive things to make someone else’s 2025 the best year of their lives, EVER.” So, decide who will be on your list of people for making that happen, and add that to your 2025 New Year’s resolutions list.

Thank you!

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #mindfulness #peace #joy #positivethinking #balance #finance #stocks #investing #stockmarket #bonds #bondmarket

HAPPY HOLIDAYS 2024-2025!

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Happy holidays everyone! One thing I used to do years ago for the holidays was hand out themed compilation CDs of music people couldn’t buy anywhere to give them something special and unique and wonderful to listen to over the holiday season (and beyond). They did not contain holiday music or anything which, for me, tends to get old after a short while – just unique music that is nice to listen to for something different. I was always particular and intentional about the themes I came up with and always ordered the tracks in such a way to ensure they created a wonderful musical experience and a smooth flow from one track to the next.

I used to do this year-after-year up until the widespread use of I-tunes, media players, Spotify and such. So, I started to realize CDs were probably a waste of time and effort. Well, the last couple of years I decided to recreate some of those CDs as Playlists on Spotify.

For this year I recreated my Laid-Back Lounge CD as a playlist with a few extra tracks. So, check it out when you get the chance: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5szvQk9eJlHix5KRs9TcL2?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1K6jE_L8fFaRFD7xH6y8sdSDw4mGtEJKQ47FhkGM9gOxQadwvITpHlJ5U_aem_bDKXVL4R48UPfwfUmu8oQQ

I hope you will enjoy this as much as I do. Also, one song missing (not available on Spotify) is the Cafe del Mar version of Kalliope’s Lunar Landing (Here it is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X-Rg13QyTE ). I encourage you to check that out and insert it just after the track 13 (Blank & Jones: Desire – Ambient Mix) if you create your own playlist outside of Spotify. It fits in well with this playlist. Also, feel free to modify the playlist to make it your own including adding some of your favorites.

Below is the complete set of playlists I have provided so far over the past few years (including this one). So, feel free to check each of these out as well over the holidays (and beyond):

1. Classical Gems (nice and soothing classical music): Classical Gems – playlist by Joe Brennan | Spotify

2. Candlelight Classic Jazz I (mainly old classic vocal jazz): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1R0tZBB8MOZUJgA01LrK2C…

3. Candlelight Classic Jazz II (mainly old classic instrumental jazz): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/10ZO5Mrv5fF2Uns7QEzWVT…

4. New Age (Morningtide-Eveningtide): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5S0Re0yHvQma9WMai20w36…

People really seemed to love this one for helping them to relax and even sleep. One song (What a Beautiful Sunset by Angelwing) was not available on Spotify but I encourage you to check out this excellent song as well: https://youtu.be/pXgjQPgh4bM?si=ovRvGhgp3V_G47JI . You can add this wonderful track if you create your own playlist outside of Spotify.

5. Acoustic Tracks: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4rjwsNOCPfWZJFK72cKvji… This is a playlist that I love to listen to around the start of Autumn. For some reason the music really seems to fit at that time. None of the Joni Mitchell songs were on Spotify but tracks such as: the acoustic live version of “People’s Parties” (my very favorite: https://youtu.be/NktbeZiMYfA?si=dV0LcJEL6uo1aTbJ), “Urge for Going” (https://youtu.be/ZvSvTRhAJxg?si=hKeMtJUa95dTLGUk), “Little Green” (https://youtu.be/HTxUrDtoPP0?si=fo0yREfcqCIxaznn), “A Case of You” (https://youtu.be/0YuaZcylk_o?si=hwbPrgdwdmxUYHlM), “Court and Spark” (https://youtu.be/_1Z6I62yvfg?si=irKLbee4rBS5evAI), and “That Song About the Midway” (https://youtu.be/O9R82TThjdw?si=jA4wsRNPDVaNUJXo) are excellent. So add the above tracks if you create your own playlist outside of Spotify.

6. Smooth Sailing 50s/60s (old 1950s &1960s pop songs): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3x0UnPJDMQqXcgxDIemCep?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR3RHM9yqOIQOjrOnqISFry887itxeznZ0d2wZ0XQrgwCmPqzIi_nOfYXyQ_aem_r18OoHjvhW4nyAOVmuw-ag I heard some old music on a radio station a few months ago when driving around in New Smyrna Beach and I loved it so much that, for something different, I made a whole playlist to share with everyone. So, check it out when you get the chance: Some of the lyrics are outdated for these modern times but the music is Wonderful. Also, the Sue Raney version of the second song (Till There Was You – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jEoG1TYLBWI) is much better than the Peggy Lee version but Spotify didn’t have the Sue Raney version. I encourage you to check that out and replace the Peggy Lee version with the Sue Raney version if you create your own playlist outside of Spotify. It’s so much better than the Peggy Lee version and fits in well with this playlist.

7. Laid Back Lounge (chill-out lounge/cafe music): https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5szvQk9eJlHix5KRs9TcL2?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTAAAR1K6jE_L8fFaRFD7xH6y8sdSDw4mGtEJKQ47FhkGM9gOxQadwvITpHlJ5U_aem_bDKXVL4R48UPfwfUmu8oQQ. One song missing (not available on Spotify) is the Cafe del Mar version of Kalliope’s Lunar Landing (Here it is on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7X-Rg13QyTE ). I encourage you to check that out and insert it just after the track 13 (Blank & Jones: Desire – Ambient Mix) if you create your own playlist outside of Spotify. It fits in well with this playlist.

Enjoy this music over the holiday season (and beyond) and feel free to share with anyone else who might enjoy these or could use a positive thought and a smile to brighten up their day.

Lastly, just in case it might be helpful to you (or others in your life):
As a first step when I take on new life coaching clients, I usually assign the following as a homework assignment: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/how-to-defeat-any…/
Why? Because this is the entry level step for putting them into a more positive place and ensuring we are working towards actual, instead of perceived, problems. It can be a substantial waste of time, effort, and energy working towards solving non-problems and taking this step (and Step 2 below) can be instrumental in avoiding that. After 3-4 weeks of consistently addressing the external factors indicated in the post above, many people feel much better about themselves and about their lives and are better able to focus on what they really want in life instead of spending time, money, and energy trying to solve problems which are really not problems at all.

After Step 1 has been completed, Step 2 is here which offers a guaranteed way to live increasingly happier : https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/happiness-tip-clear…/

I hope the above will be helpful to you or to others in your life.
Happy Holidays everyone! May 2025 be the best year of our lives EVER! 🙂

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #mindfulness #peace #joy #positivethinking #balance

A SIMPLE LESSON IN FINANCE: WHY INVESTING INVIGORATES AND DEBT DEVASTATES YOUR FINANCES

Posted on by Joseph M. Brennan Jr.

Here’s a simple lesson in finance for those who might need it: Investing money substantially increases your finances overall while carrying debt does much worse than the opposite. And the difference is astounding.

A simple common expression used to demonstrate how investments grow over time is called “the rule of 72.” The average interest rate expressed as a whole number times the number of years required to double an initial investment equals 72. Let’s take a look at how this simple rule can impact your finances. Let’s start with investing first.

Imagine you invested $10,000 earning 8% interest (8% is a reasonable figure given that the long-term average earned in the stock market has historically been about 7.5% – it has been much higher in recent years but at some point it could revert back to its long-term average). This means, using the rule of 72, that your $10,000 initial investment will become $20,000 in 9 years (8 x 9 = 72), $40,000 in 18 years, $80,000 in 27 years, and $160,000 in 36 years. And that is all from just making a single, one-time, initial investment of $10,000 at the beginning. I want you all to stop and think about that for a moment: Your $10,000 grew to $160,000 by doing nothing else. This is how compound interest works and how you make your money work for you – instead of against you.

Most people will do much better than the above because they will continue adding to their investments over time – and as long as they do not remove money from their investment (a mistake many people make by the way), then the power of compound interest will continue working in their favor.

The above example also illustrates why starting saving and investing at an early age is very important. And if you want to learn how to how to invest well and create a brighter future with minimal effort, please read this: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/how-to-invest-well-and-create-a-brighter-future-with-minimal-effort/

Now, let’s take a look at the opposite side of things to see how debt can devastate your finances. Imagine you had the same $10,000 as credit card debt at a 24% interest rate (24% is a little high by today’s standards – credit card rates presently average about 21% – but are higher for people with lower credit scores) but using 24% simplifies calculations and makes it much easier to compare both sides of the story between investing and debt.

Using the above figures mean, using the same rule of 72, that for your $10,000 in initial debt, you will end up paying $20,000 in 3 years (24 x 3 = 72), $40,000 in 6 years, $80,000 in 9 years, $160,000 in 12 years, $320,000 in 15 years, and $640,000 in 18 years if you didn’t make any payments at all (Note: this is not realistic since most people make at least the minimum payments – which largely reflect the payments on interest only – I’m just trying to demonstrate how much more quickly and deeply debt impacts your finances as compared to investing your money). And that is all just from having an initial debt of $10,000. I want you all to stop and give this some serious thought: Your $10,000 of initial debt grew to $640,000 in only 18 years. This is how debt can quickly, deeply, and easily devastate your finances.

Most people would do much worse than the above because they won’t stop at the initial debt – but will continue adding to their debts over time up until reaching their credit limits – which means the power of compound interest continues working against them.

Let’s now compare the two: In 18 years, your $10,000 investment grew to $40,000 but your $10,000 in debt became $640,000 over the same period of time. This illustrates why so many people get so far behind in their finances, and the simple but very important lesson in finance is this: Make your money work for you over the longer term instead of working against you by living with a strong sense of financial discipline – eliminating debt and investing your money instead. I have no objection to people having credit cards and such to help build up their credit scores and such but get into the practice of paying them off every month so you don’t have to pay interest or fees. If you do this and invest in your future, then you will create a brighter future for yourself and others in your life for the years and decades to come. So, do this if you can.

Again, the above isn’t truly accurate on the debt side of things because it reflects the overall impact if you made no payments at all – I have not factored in the fact that when you make the minimum payments on credit card debt, you are usually paying the interest. So, the interest portion of that debt isn’t working against you the way the much larger debt portion is. However, the interest only payments tend to be quite large (and provide no benefit since they typically pay little to nothing down on the debt portion) and, between that and the debt overall, it would still have a devastating effect on your finances as a whole in a short amount of time and would have required a more complicated calculation to get more precise numbers. I’m really just trying to illustrate the basic concepts of investing versus debt using simple calculations so that people can easily understand why debt can be so devastating in a short amount of time and why the power of compound interest works in their favor on the investment side of things. Also, rest assured the credit card companies will cut you off long before you reach such excessive numbers in terms of your debt to them for their own, financial well-being. However, the impact to your finances would be substantial.

You can read more about my finance and investing tips here: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/category/financial-planning-management-and-investing-related-posts/

You can learn about my investing techniques via my “Invest Like a Pro in 10 Minutes a Day!” series of 4 books where you can learn the “end to end” process to investing: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/published-books-and-life-coaching-services/.

And, lastly, you can read about my stock market activities here: https://brighterdayslifecoaching.com/stock-market-activities

I wish you much finance and investing success for 2024 (and beyond!).

#selfimprovement #selfhelp #selfdevelopment #intention #fulfillment #success #inspiration #happiness #mindfulness #peace #joy #positivethinking #balance #finance #stocks #investing #stockmarket #bonds #bondmarket