THE SYRACUSE LEDGER ISSUE NO. #006

STOP RESETTING THE CLOCK

The Most Expensive Financial Mistake I Ever Made

The biggest financial mistake I ever made wasn't a bad trade.

It wasn't a bad investment.

It wasn't a bad business.

It wasn't buying something I shouldn't have bought.

It was starting over.

Over and over again.

I'd get some money and spend it.

I'd learn something valuable and not apply it long enough.

I'd build momentum and then hit the reset button before the previous chapter had enough time to work.

Looking back, that's been the story of my life more times than I'd like to admit.

Not because I was lazy.

Not because I wasn't willing to work.

And definitely not because I wasn't willing to learn.

If anything, I've always been the opposite.

I've never really had a problem becoming good at something that interested me.

Once I locked in, I usually figured it out.

The problem was that I was always chasing the next thing.

I'd learn a skill.

Get good at it.

Make some money with it.

Then convince myself it wasn't the thing that was going to take me where I wanted to go.

So, I'd move on.

New chapter.

New goal.

New mission.

Reset the clock.

For years, I thought my problem was money.

Sometimes I thought it was my credit.

Sometimes I thought it was my circumstances.

Now I realize my biggest problem was time.

Or better yet, I never gave time a chance to work for me.

The older I get, the more I realize that wealth isn't usually built through one big moment.

It's built through thousands of small decisions repeated over and over again.

The crazy part is, I should have known that already.

I grew up in a house where paying attention mattered.

My grandmother read the newspaper every single day.

Front to back.

The Post-Standard.

The Herald Journal.

Business section.

Local news.

World news.

Everything.

We watched the local news.

We watched the world news.

And then we'd talk about it.

Looking back, she was teaching me something bigger than money.

She was teaching me to pay attention.

She was teaching me that what happens in the world eventually affects what happens in your house.

And if I'm being honest, I owe my grandmother an apology.

For years I used to say nobody taught us about money.

That isn't completely true.

When I was a kid, my grandmother bought me savings bonds.

Ten of them.

When I got older, she helped me open my first savings account at the KeyBank on Salina and Colvin.

I remember taking those savings bonds and depositing them into my account.

I was probably fourteen years old with over a thousand dollars in the bank.

She was doing the best she could with the information she had.

The truth is, some of the seeds were planted.

I just didn't fully understand them until much later.

The gym taught me the same lesson.

When I first started working out, I looked in the mirror every day.

Nothing.

Week after week.

Month after month.

Even year after year.

Nothing.

I'd leave the gym wondering when I was finally going to look like the person I had in my mind.

Wondering if all the work was actually doing anything.

But I kept showing up.

A lot of my friends worked out too.

Some of them are still my friends today.

They can tell you themselves.

We all started.

The difference was that eventually most people stopped.

Life happened.

Work happened.

Kids happened.

The environment changed.

I kept going.

Not because I was special.

I just stayed consistent longer.

Then one day people started asking me what I did.

"What workout are you doing?"

"What program are you on?"

"What changed?"

Nothing changed.

I was doing the same thing I'd been doing all along.

The results finally became visible.

Investing is the same way.

Trading is the same way.

Building a business is the same way.

Faith is the same way.

Most people quit before the results become visible.

I've learned that you can tell somebody something a hundred times and it won't matter until they're ready to hear it.

That's just human nature.

I've done it myself.

Some people won't understand investing until they're tired of living paycheck to paycheck.

Some people won't understand ownership until they watch opportunities pass them by.

Some people won't understand discipline until life puts them in a position where discipline is no longer optional.

And that's okay.

Everybody has their own timeline.

But if you're reading this, maybe this is your time.

For my people, especially the ones from the same neighborhoods, the same blocks, the same street corners I came from, understand what I'm saying.

The world is changing.

Technology is changing.

Artificial intelligence is changing industries.

Infrastructure is being built.

New money is being created.

New opportunities are being created.

And whether we participate or not, it's happening.

At the end of the day, we have to get some ownership.

We don't have to own all of it.

But we need to own some of it.

A share.

A business.

An investment account.

A skill.

Something.

Because the people who pay attention today will be in a much different position tomorrow.

For years I chased information.

Now I'm focused on execution.

For years I tried to convince people.

Now I'm focused on building a track record.

Because once you have a track record, nobody has to believe you.

You can just show them.

That's where I'm at today.

Not trying to predict every stock.

Not trying to win every trade.

Not trying to convince everybody.

Just trying to stay consistent long enough for the results to become undeniable.

The goal isn't to get rich overnight.

The goal is to stop resetting the clock.

Because every time we start over, we lose the one thing we can never get back.

Time.

My prayer for you is simple.

Pay attention.

Start.

Stay consistent.

Keep learning.

Keep building.

Keep investing.

And whatever you do—

Don't reset the clock.

— Luck

Salt City Nine Capital

Ownership Over Consumption