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_{Exploring the sculpture, the unexpected, and money’s limits}

Happy Thursday! Thanks for reading Intentional Dollar — where we look at old money ideas through a new perspective.

What’s inside?

• One idea to experiment with

• Two quotes from others

• Three questions to dig deeper

• Four lines of poetry for the point

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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_{One idea to experiment with:}

The Sculpture:

The Pope asked Michelangelo: ‘Tell me the secret of your genius. How have you created the statue of David, the masterpiece of all masterpieces?’ Michelangelo’s answer: ‘It’s simple. I removed everything that is not David.”

Like a sculptor we shape our lives by chipping away at a marble block. The marble blocks we chip at aren’t equal. Some of us start with pristine blocks, functional tools, and instructors that help teach the process. Others inherit unworkable blocks and primitive tools.

Regardless of the foundations, our jobs remain the same: clear everything that isn’t meant to remain. It’s this reductionist approach that adds shape and significance.

Michelangelo turned a hand-me-down block of marble into the Statue of David; a piece of art that transcends time. Art that also came from stone that wore scars from previous artists that deemed it unworkable. That’s remarkable. Something meant for the trash was turned into treasure.

There are two lessons here:

1. We can shape a lot of good by removing what’s not the thing we want standing. Cut the excess, the fluff, the unnecessary; cut anything that’s not in your vision of what stands as final shape.

2. It doesn’t matter the lot you start with. Endowments, trust funds, no student loans, paid for cars, houses. It doesn’t matter if you start in the debt hole with a low income. What matters is what you do with it. What you try to do with it.

Be a reductionist and don’t cast the good you have away because you currently see it as unworkable. We all have some workable marble here — it’s the art you make out of it.

_{Two quotes on the unexpected:}

The unexpected can’t be sought out and precisely modeled.

_{Three questions on money’s limits:}

1. What can’t money buy?

2. What do I have that no additional wealth or income could purchase?

3. How do these things make me feel relative to how I think I’d feel with all the material goods on the want list?

Which question stuck with you? Questions like these are spotlights for the mind. Reply to this email and let me know which one shined light on a previously dark cave.

_{Four lines of poetry for the point:}

Contact Me:

Content ideas, questions? Reply to this email or reach out to me at [email protected]

Disclaimer: This is not investment advice. These weekly posts represent my simple thoughts, a few quotes, and some questions — for educational purposes only.

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_{*An intent to IPO is no guarantee that an actual IPO will occur. Please read the offering circular and related risks at invest.modemobile.com.
*The Deloitte rankings are based on submitted applications and public company database research.}