I decided to revamp my site howtze.com in November 2023, to focus only on travel-related content - bucket lists and footprints.
While it started with a strike of "Enough watering other's garden. It is time to water your own garden.", the process reminds me of pruning bonsai.
There are 2 important points to keep in mind:
Clarity leads to power
Knowledge is power. Applied knowledge is real power
Clarity leads to power. Quantifiable, measurable, graphical elements bring more clarity.
How did it start?
This has to be traced back to early 2023. I made a New Year resolution to travel overseas, as 2022 was mostly traveling to Sarawak, Borneo for business purposes (Miss Tourism International 2022).
Personal resolution 2023:
1) Stay lowkey
2) Make money
3) Travel monthly
Then, the resolution (rather than simply calling it a wish) evolves:
Go overseas. ✅
Go overseas every month.
Go overseas every month, at least one week per trip.
Go overseas every month, at least one week per trip, and fly business class.
While not "every month" was achieved and no specifically other criteria were met, I made it 5 months overseas this year to date as of November 2023.
“As you start to walk on the way, the way appears.”
Where did the inspiration come from?
Inspiration 1: Where the hell is Matt?
This video clip was published on Jun 20, 2008, with 53,260,110 (53 Million+) views and growing. As stated below the video on the YouTube page: "14 months in the making, 42 countries, and a cast of thousands. Thanks to everyone who danced with me." ~ Matt Harding
The point in this case is that he traveled around the world while he was young, enjoyed his trips, produced content of value, and is still making money today out of what he enjoyed doing back then.
Notes: Matt Harding's Youtube Channel - https://www.youtube.com/user/mattharding2718, website: www.wherethehellismatt.com
Inspiration 2: It took me 40 years to be here!
My friend once told me there was this guy who traveled around the world collecting the sound of nature and selling it to rich people who bought his recording to test out their home audio system.
One thing he never forgot was his expression when sharing his secret: "You might see me doing enjoyable work traveling around the world yet can make money out of every trip instead of just spending money like most people, yet it took me 40 years to figure all this out!"
What had been figured out from these inspirations?
As stated above, knowledge is power, yes. But only applied knowledge is real power.
It's a shame that I knew both inspirations above for quite some time, but not until recently did I figure out how I could apply it to my passion and generate real value out of it.
Can we add value or make money out of every trip? Yes. If we can squeeze more value out of one single thing, why not? My Sugar Cane Juice Theory applies.
What do I like? Can I make money doing what I like? Why not?
"In my view, the amateur does not love the game enough. If he did, he would not pursue it as a sideline, distinct from his ‘real’ vocation." ~ Steven Pressfield, The War of Art
What had been done for the website?
1. changed to Trawell premium theme.
2. trimming of posts from ~300 posts to only travel-related content:
- Suwon, Korea (8), Oct '23 - Tokyo, Japan (20), Jun '23 - Taipei, Taiwan (2), May '23 - Hong Kong, China (3), Apr '23 - Bali, Indonesia (2), Mar '23 - Dubai, UAE (4) - Vientiane, Laos (1) - Osaka, Japan (5)
What next?
Add more previous travel content.
To add a page for the Top 10 photos of the year. Maybe one for around the world, one for my home country, Malaysia.
Keep refining the resolution and execution in actualizing the goals.
What had been learned and applied?
Clarity leads to power.
Most of my previous footprints had been in Asia. More to explore.
Never stop exploring.
The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only one page.
A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.
Above are the Western perspectives while the similar ones in Chinese are:
读万卷书不如行万里路;
千里之行,始于足下。
Just do it. Start something, somewhere, somehow.
Do what we can, with what we have, where we are, towards where we want to be.
increased value of the network as adoption grows (Metcalfe’s law),
increased scarcity due to the halving and
increased institutional adoption.
This supercycle will, theoretically, see Bitcoin run up to new all-time highs, from which there will be no further downside, as there will be enough adoption and institutional support to continue to prop up the price.
institutions are only one factor here.
the market value of a commodity is not derived from centralized entities but rather from decentralized independent actors perceiving value in the commodity...investing in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is akin to emerging markets investing at this stage in the adoption cycle.
Bitcoin itself needs to have perceived value from market participants, or it will not have the staying power.
The Minsky Moment
In economics, the very height of the boom cycle, where overvaluation is at its apex just before the bust, is called the “Minsky moment.”
In 1995, Netscape had a successful initial public offering, backed by institutions like Morgan Stanley, which pushed the stock price from $14 to $28 — valuing the not-yet profitable 16-month-old company at over $1 billion.
The Nasdaq Stock Market rose dramatically between 1995 and 2000, peaking in March 2000 at 5,048.62 before falling 76.81% to 1,139.90 in October 2002.
Without customers and the actual usage of these firms’ services in the market, there was nothing to keep the overvaluation afloat.
As the world continues with the trend of dedollarization, the flight to safety could be Bitcoin.
The drops in credit ratings signal decreasing confidence in the U.S. and, by extension, the standing of the U.S. dollar being the central unit of account for global settlement.
If hyperinflation starts to rear its head in the U.S., it is possible that alternatives will be used instead of holding onto cash.
It is yet unknown whether America’s economic and sociopolitical climate will nudge people to adopt Bitcoin as a medium of exchange, a store of wealth or a hedge against further dollar inflationary pressure.
"a loss of confidence in fiat currencies, increased banking oversight and the collapse of exchanges like FTX “strengthen the Bitcoin narrative.” ~ Julian Liniger, CEO of Bitcoin-only exchange Relai
What are the probabilities of a 2024 Bitcoin supercycle?
The Bitcoin supercycle is likely not upon the world for this continued adoption cycle.
There is simply too much speculation over adoption and daily usage happening globally for the asset to have no or just a soft correction to cushion the fall once the Minsky moment pops the bubble.
2028, on the other hand, may be a different story altogether.
Countries adopting a bitcoin standard will be a Trojan horse for continued global dollar dominance.
...imagine the possibility of moving stablecoins around the world, instantly and for nearly zero fees.
Zooming out, we can see that since March 2020, the stablecoin supply has grown from under $5 billion to over $150 billion.
What I find most interesting is not the rate of growth of stablecoins, but which stablecoins are growing the fastest. After the recent Terra/LUNA debacle, capital fled from what’s perceived to be more “risky” stablecoins like tether, to more “safe” ones like USDC.
This is because USDC is 100% backed by cash and short-term debt.
BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager and recently headlined a $440 million fundraising round by investing in Circle. But it wasn’t just a funding round; BlackRock is going to be acting as the primary asset manager for USDC and their treasury reserves, which is now nearly $50 billion.
Tether has been viewed as the unregulated offshore U.S. dollar stablecoin. That being said, Tether sold their riskier commercial paper for more pristine U.S. government debt. They also agreed to undergo a full audit to improve transparency.
If Tether is true to their word and continues to back USDT with U.S. government debt, we could see a scenario in the near future where 80% of the total stablecoin market is backed by U.S. government debt. Another stablecoin issuer, MakerDao, also capitulated this week, buying $500 million government bonds for its treasury.
It was crucial that the U.S. dollar was the main denomination for bitcoin during the first 13 years of its life during which 85% of the bitcoin supply had been released. Network effects are hard to change, and the U.S. dollar stands to benefit most from the proliferation of the overall “crypto” market.
... what if a proliferating stablecoin market, backed by government debt, can help soak up that lost demand for U.S. Treasurys? Is this how the U.S. finds a solution to the unwinding petrodollar system?
Interestingly, the U.S. needs to find a solution to its debt problems, and fast. Nations around the world are racing to escape the dollar-centric petrodollar system that the U.S. for decades has been able to weaponize to entrench its hegemony.
On Nov. 12, the daily Bitcoin mining rewards crossed $44 million for the first time in 2023, a number last seen in April 2022, according to data from blockchain.com.
Alongside Bitcoin mining companies and individual miners, numerous countries actively participate in securing the Bitcoin network via mining.
4️⃣ Bitcoin institutional inflows top $1B in 2023 amid BTC supply squeeze
Crypto institutional product AUM up 99% year-to-date
“Digital asset investment products saw inflows totalling US$293m last week, bringing this 7-week run of inflows past the US$1bn mark, leaving year to date inflows at US$1.14bn, making it the third highest yearly inflows on record,”
“At US$44.3bn, total AuM is now the highest since the major crypto fund failures in May 2022,”
CoinShares summarized.
Among the impressive statistics showing crypto’s renaissance in 2023 is the assets under management (AUM) tally for crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs).
If history has taught us anything, it’s that capitalism is a boom-and-bust game. And right now, we are at the beginning of a fresh cycle.
We can also draw parallels between the dot-com boom and crypto. January will almost certainly spell one or more U.S. Bitcoin spot ETF approvals, which will drive huge waves of institutional money into this relatively new asset class. This could potentially spur a wave of IPO activity inside and outside the industry that, as it did in 1999, could eventually go bang.
While we can draw some comparisons with the 1990s, there is one overriding factor that puts us closer to the market cycle of 2001-07: debt. As we all know — thanks to Margot Robbie explaining it to us in a bubble bath — 2001-07 saw one of the most reckless periods of lending, and then trading on that lending, ever known. And the result was world changing.
Consumer debt is at a record high, a fact that will weigh on the market in 2024. Yet, it's safe to say central banks will keep rewriting the rules to keep the economy at full steam.
As things wobble, goalposts will likely be moved.
What goes up must come down, though.
Of that, we can be sure.
The odds, then, favor an extremely strong bull market over the next year or two until the steam runs out, as it always does.
HSBC’s plans to launch digital asset custody came in response to the increasing demand for custody and fund administration of digital assets from asset managers and asset owners, according to HSBC’s head of digital, data and innovation, Zhu Kuang Lee. “This market continues to evolve,” Lee stressed, adding that asset servicers have never seen a “more important time to innovate.”
The bank expects to roll out the new digital asset custody service in 2024, complementing its digital asset issuance platform known as HSBC Orion and HSBC offering for tokenized physical gold, launched on Nov. 1, 2023. Together, the services form a complete digital asset offering for HSBC’s institutional clients, the firm said.
“Sub-Saharan Africa has proven to be a bright spot of crypto adoption, with consumers in countries like Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa employing digital assets for real-world, day-to-day purposes.”
Ripple will power new payment corridors between 27 African countries and Australia, the United Kingdom and the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) under a deal with African mobile payments provider Onafriq.
Onafriq will use Ripple Payments’ blockchain technology along with three partnering companies. Zazi Transfer will provide transfer services to Australia, PayAngel will serve the U.K., and Pyypl will serve GCC member states Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates.
... decentralized funding initiatives provide “a bit of like direct democracy” and platforms for crypto holders to voice their ideas and concerns.
... Catalyst launched a pilot where the community not only decides on which proposals get funded but also enables them to verify that the funded projects are reaching their set targets through a milestone-based funding approach and accountability model.
"We want the community to define the scope; we are stewards of the fund." ~ Kriss Baird
... he envisions it becoming a multi-tenant ecosystem, where more communities of other blockchain networks, Web2 businesses and governments adopt the same approach.
The Catalyst’s group product manager said they have funded more than 1,300 projects, raising 137 million ADA (approximately $60 million) since 2021. He estimates the initiative would allocate over $100 million over the next four years.
Are you in the best possible career for the rest of your working days?
Should you make a switch? Is your current job in danger?
Set a date every few months to do a career review with a spouse, partner or friend.
11. Your living standard is your bottom line.
Simulate its potential paths based on alternative investment and spending strategies to see where these strategies can land you.
14. No free lunch.
All lifestyle decisions — switching careers, moving homes, getting married, having kids, getting divorced — come at a price.
Measure these prices in terms of your sustainable living standard.
5. Owning a home can reduce longevity risk.
Since you are neither buying nor selling your home, who cares what the housing market does? Your housing consumption is guaranteed through the end of your days.
20. Most conventional investment advice is, to be nice, of dubious value.
It’s predicated on you making four major economic mistakes:
Saving the wrong amount when younger,
putting your preretirement savings on autopilot,
spending the wrong amount when you’re older, and
never adjusting to market conditions.
21. If you’re worried about downside risk, play the stock market like a casino.
Think of the investment in stocks as cash you take to the casino:
Don’t spend a penny of your winnings, if you make any, until you’ve left the building.
Or, in other words, don’t put more money into the stock market until your initial bets are safe from losses.
I’ve built two seven-figure online businesses — a music education company and a business coaching brand.
Combined, they bring in about $160,000 a month in passive income.
I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to create a highly profitable business.
I always tell people that if they want to start a side hustle or full-time company, there are three complete lies they need to stop believing:
Lie #1: You have to work a lot of hours to make a great income.
40-year-old works ‘only 5 hours a week’ and makes $160,000/month in passive income
Creating a time constraint will force you to get creative and focused.
Lie #2: You need a large team.
My secret is automation.
I’m a fan of tools that can handle email marketing, webinars, product delivery and content creation.
Lie #3: Your happiness will increase as your income increases.