Newsletter › #7
My Fasting Experiment | The Five Types of Wealth | How to Think About a Market Correction
【What I've been up to】
Hi, Reader,
a reader told me last week's newsletter was too long,
so this time I'll keep it as short as I can, so you're not scrolling forever on your phone.
Let's continue with last week's fasting experiment.
Last week, for seven days straight, I skipped breakfast and lunch and ate only dinner.
I was surprised to find I stayed highly productive while fasting.
Without lunch and a nap,
I had an extra 2–3 hours a day.
For the first time in my life, I went a whole week without an afternoon nap.
On the last two afternoons of the experiment I got so hungry I sneaked a little food.
I think after a week, my body had used up most of the fat it could burn,
so I broke the rules slightly on the last two days — but it didn't affect the results.
During the experiment I lost no muscle at all, and my body fat dropped a little.
Because I kept my muscle, my strength training was even better than before.
You might wonder what's going on physiologically.
Research by Johns Hopkins neuroscientist Dr. Mark P. Mattson shows:
after 12 to 16 hours of fasting, the body's glycogen runs out,
and it starts breaking down fat to produce ketones as an alternative fuel.
Ketones are a more efficient energy source than glucose and can cross the blood–brain barrier to be used directly by the brain.
They provide steadier energy and improve focus and cognition — which is why your mind feels clearer after fasting.
Longer fasts also stimulate the release of human growth hormone (HGH), which breaks down fat and protects muscle.
All of this clashes hard with the “knowledge” I grew up with.
I was taught from childhood: “Eat three meals a day — and breakfast is the most important.”
But I haven't eaten breakfast for two years, and it doesn't matter to me at all.
“Eat small, frequent meals so you don't gain weight.”
But I eat just one meal — and eat until I'm stuffed — and I'm less likely to gain weight.
It all reminds me that what I was taught isn't necessarily the truth.
I need to stay open-minded and accept new knowledge and new worlds.
I've talked a lot about the upsides of fasting, but it isn't without downsides.
For me, the biggest problem is that there's too much I want to eat to fit into one meal, ha.
So I've extended my eating window to 2–3 hours a day,
usually starting my first meal around 4 or 5 p.m.
Occasionally I'll have lunch for a social meal, but mostly I eat only dinner.
This way of eating gives me more productivity and more time of my own.
There's plenty online about how to fast — find what works for you.
One caution: if skipping a meal makes you dizzy, shaky or irritable,
those can be signs of diabetes; see a family doctor and get your insulin and HbA1c (glycated hemoglobin) checked.
I hope this helps.
Finally, here's my productivity chart for the full week of November 10–16.
For energy management, here's a tool I'm using: a productivity heat map (thanks to Kim for sharing it).
Productivity heat map (make a copy to your own account first; in Chinese)
【Book share】
The Five Types of Wealth: A Transformative Guide to Design Your Dream Life
- Author: Sahil Bloom
There are five types of wealth in life: time, social, mental, physical and financial.
Only time is irreversible — once it's spent, it's gone, with no chance to take it back.
The author opens with a story that shook me:
one evening he was having dinner with a friend whose father had fallen ill a year earlier. This conversation changed his life.
Friend: “How often do you see your parents?”
Author: “About once a year.” (He lived on the US West Coast; his parents on the East Coast.)
Friend: “How old are they?”
Author: “In their sixties.”
Friend: “So you'll see them maybe 15 more times before they die.”
Those words hit him hard.
Average life expectancy is about 80, and his parents were 65. Seeing them once a year left about 15 more visits.
After that night, he made a decision: to move back to his parents' city.
It completely changed his life — living near his family greatly increased his happiness.
The book teaches us to reset our time wealth:
first, write down the names of family or friends you love but rarely see, and how many times a year you see each of them.
Then subtract their age from 80 to get the years remaining.
Multiply visits per year by years remaining, and you get how many more times you'll see them before their life ends.
When you work it out, you may be struck by how few it is.
This made me think of my parents.
After my parents divorced when I was little, I didn't live with my mom, and my dad was rarely home.
I was too young to understand why grown-ups divorce; I only knew my mom wasn't home anymore.
I missed her terribly. When I missed her, I'd hide under the covers and cry,
secretly wishing under the blanket: “If Mom comes back, I'll never be naughty again.”
We never lived together again after that.
As an adult I moved to central Kaohsiung, and she moved back to the countryside in Shanlin. We saw each other rarely.
So now, however busy I am, I go back to the countryside every week to cook and chat with her in the kitchen.
She's 67 this year, and I want to spend more time with her while she's still here.
With my dad, we have dinner once a month; he's 72 this year.
If I count to when my parents turn 80, I have 676 visits left with my mom, and fewer than 100 with my dad.
Working it out, I immediately felt I should make more time to have dinner with my dad.
And because I know our time together is running short,
sometimes before leaving a family dinner I hug them and say, “I love you.”
My dad says awkwardly, “OK, OK.”
My mom says, “I love you too.”
If your parents are still alive, try working out how many more times you'll see them.
You'll find that even though we haven't reached the end of our own lives, our time with our parents may be almost used up.
Don't hold back your love — hug them more and tell them you love them.
Make the most of the time you have left together.
The book has much more on managing the five types of wealth. I recommend it to two kinds of people:
1. Young people starting out and thinking about how to plan their lives
2. People who feel their lives are out of balance
I hope you enjoy it.
【Investing notes】
Have you been sleeping well?
Stocks did badly this week, in both Taiwan and the US.
But my mood wasn't affected, and I slept well,
because by luck, about two weeks ago, I'd put some spare cash into the US bond ETF BND,
perfectly sidestepping this pullback.
I chose BND because it pays about 5% a year in interest.
30% is withheld as tax, but my broker, Firstrade, refunds it the following year.
The money had been in a US dollar time deposit, waiting for a chance to go into stocks.
But stocks kept hitting new highs this year, and I couldn't find a good entry point.
After weighing it up, I decided to park it in US bonds,
and switch it into a broad-market ETF in stages when stocks corrected.
I'm not afraid of stocks falling; I'm afraid of them not falling — a drop is a chance to get in.
This week, with stocks correcting, I switched some BND into VOO.
Don't let short-term price swings shake you out of the market.
If, like me, most of your money is in the whole market, you don't need to worry about corrections.
As long as human civilization doesn't disappear, the market will rise over the long run.
Wharton professor Jeremy Siegel shows the power of long-term returns in his classic Stocks for the Long Run:
US$1 invested in the US stock market in 1802 would have grown to US$2.3 million 200 years later.
That's why I keep stressing long-term investing in the whole market.
If you're willing to look at the market with a long-term view, you'll find every downturn is actually a gift.
What makes us rich isn't buying at the very bottom, but being willing to keep investing when the market falls.
Buffett said: “Be fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
You can't control price swings, but you can control investing in the whole market with discipline.
Buying the whole market and holding it long term is the best way for investors without inside information.
This week's episode
#52 | Turning a side hustle into a business without quitting your job (with Nicolle, part 1)
A personal-brand coach who left a high-paying Silicon Valley job. The three cores of a personal brand — trust, story, showing up — and a five-step way to find your positioning.
Read the full show notes in English › (the episode is in Mandarin Chinese)
🍎Apple Podcasts
🎧Spotify
🎦YouTube
📣 Watch Nicolle's video: 5 tips for reaching new people online, a fast track to brand partnerships and income — youtu.be/ti-35Io-tw8 (in Mandarin)
⏰ Her online course on earning by writing outreach emails: enter the code FIRE1000 at checkout before November 26 for NT$1,000 off — nicollehuang.com/online-outreach
If you enjoy the show, take a screenshot of it
and tag me in your Instagram story — I'll reply.
And please subscribe, comment and leave a five-star rating!
Gear I recommend
❇️ MONITORMATE Double 11 sale | until November 25
🎁 NT$111 off any single item
📱 Plus a draw for an iPhone 17 256GB
⚡️ MS-Z magnetic 3-in-1 charging stand
💼 The travel essential for Apple users — the smallest and lightest, with fast charging
🈹 Enter the code 【FIRE150】 for NT$150 off right away!
⚡️ TD1 — a 13-in-1 Thunderbolt 4 dock
🈹 Enter the code 【FIRE300】 for NT$300 off right away!
That's it for this issue of the FIRE Life Weekly.
If you have any questions about the show,
or suggestions for the newsletter,
just write to me at doug@firetw.com.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Have a lovely weekend,
and see you next week.
Doug
P.S. I think I ended up writing too much again, ha.