In my previous essay, Optimizing the 4% Rule, I discussed how to construct and optimize a FIRE (Financial Independence, Retire Early) fund. However, many readers have said, for them, the road to FIRE seems too far away. Optimizing The 4% Rule How To Backtest Your Retirement Portfolioimgracehuang.medium.com Some say, only people taking risks (such as running a startup) can achieve…

Lessons from Past Financial Crises in U.S. — The U.S. financial system in early 2023 was a mess. The sudden bank run of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and the banking collapse caught people by surprise, and within a week, the entire banking system was in turmoil. …

Lessons on Luck and Persistence — This is a story about my daughter’s first-ever business. It is so special that I wanted to write it down. Ideation My 9-year-old daughter loves art and crafts. Everyone around her loves everything made out of her hands: drawings, bracelets, earrings. …

A Question Frequently Asked — After a 14-year career, I quit six months ago. When people asked what I did for a living, I told them that I retired. But that answer always seemed to invite more questions, like “So what do you do every day?” …

Another Sweet Zero-to-One Story for Indie Hackers — Indie Hackers love a good zero-to-one story. It is a precious thing to inspire others. Here is one story that happened to me yesterday. I made the first dollars from a script that I wrote last week. It started just as an experiment: I wanted to see whether this product…

As Warren Buffett always says what makes a good business is 1) earning good returns on the net tangible capital required in their operation, and 2) capable and honest managers. You can always find good business models, but good leaders are rare. I’m always fascinated by stories about how this…

In Both eBooks and Paperback — Do you want to publish technical books independently but are new to the process? I have been there. It took me a while (publishing 3 books on Amazon and other platforms) to figure out a working playbook for my publishing process. …

Through Prompts and Dialogs — If you are building iOS and macOS apps, you would love to have ratings and reviews from your customers! This is a necessary way to build up social proof in the App Store, which encourages more customers to try out your products. Based on some anecdotes, an average app may…

Another year is in! Are you growing wiser? Does your understanding of the world get deeper? Like other years, it is time to count the books I have read this year and talk about how they changed my life. How I discovered each of the books was always a moment…