If Your Habits Were a Stock,Would You Buy?
Inflation’s Falling. Are You Rising?
If you (still) turn on the telly, you’ll hear inflation’s dropping. Talking heads are crooning interest rate-cut lullabies, and the peso could move toward 58 at some point. Half the investing world’s either asleep or anxious about U.S. tariffs--like it's the second coming of 2008. So yeah—markets are stirring.
And look—I get it. This might sound like self-help meets CNBC.
But just hang with me.
Because under the noise and data, there’s a signal worth catching. And it’s got less to do with stocks—and more to do with how we’re spending our time, energy, and attention.
Your portfolio isn’t the only thing out of balance. Life is. You’re high-functioning. High-achieving. Founder, exec, entrepreneur, brain on fire. You’ve survived chaos, crushed quarters, maybe even made enemies—and won. But somewhere along the way, presence got punked and you’re farther from the life you say you wanted—the one with more freedom, deeper relationships, time with the people who matter. You went long on success, short on peace. And now, it's catching up.
The Market-Mindset Mirror
They call it bifurcation—when one part of the market’s thriving while the other’s gasping for air. Domestic sector? Strong. Exporters? Struggling. We’ve all seen the charts.
But that same split’s showing up in our habits, too. Some are pushing toward the life you say you want. Others? Quietly bleeding you dry. Building empires by day, but ghosting the dinner table at night. Running the numbers with precision, but letting the moments that matter blur into the margins.
You want the dream life? It’s not sitting in a spreadsheet. It’s in the decision to close the laptop at 6PM or take that damn phone out of the room while the Kid’s excitedly sharing something about his crane or lifeguard Legos. And most of us already know this. We just haven’t operationalized it.
This isn’t a moral lecture. It’s not weakness. It’s a signal, and like all good signals, it means one thing: it’s time to shift our allocation.
Rebuilding with the Same Tools Used to Build Wealth
Market strategy and personal mastery aren’t separate games. They’re the same playbook—just applied differently. The smartest investors see patterns. So should we.
You’ve probably heard of Atomic Habits. It’s not just another self-help best-seller—it’s a framework that mirrors how real investors make decisions. Signals. Triggers. Friction. Margins. Position-sizing. It’s risk management--for our soul.
Here’s how I’m starting to run it:
Make It Obvious. In trading, we read signals. In life, we plant them. I’m starting to drop my phone in a basket at 6PM like it’s radioactive. That’s my closing bell. My stop-loss on distraction. It's me reallocating capital—attention or time capital—to the people who didn’t sign up to compete with my inbox.
Make It Attractive. Markets respond to incentives. So do we.
I no longer see dinner with my sons as “not working.” It’s a dividend. I’m owning the role: Present Father—not founder-in-body, elsewhere-in-mind.
Make It Easy. Prep is freedom. You want flow? Remove friction. So at night, I’ve started to lay things out so the morning flows. No friction, no randomness. Just rhythm and clarity. You want presence? Kill chaos before it finds you.
Make It Satisfying. We track trades. Why not track wins at home?
No phones at dinner. Ticked-off task lists. 15 minutes of full attention. Long term deposits into the account that actually matters. Real life alpha.
Blow Up the Bullsh*t
Some habits don’t just underperform. They detonate. They cost you long-term returns—in work, relationships, and peace of mind. Just like the depreciating peso, not every pattern deserves to be preserved.
Multitasking? I used to wear it like a badge. Now I see it for what it is: the lifestyle version of overtrading. Sloppy execution. No edge. Secretly self-sabotaging. In certain cases this is easier said than done. But if you do have freedom to focus, feel free to flip the framework:
Make it invisible – Shut the tabs, silence the pings.
Make it unattractive – Remember what it costs (failure, stress, regret?).
Make it hard – Build friction into the wrong moves (i.e. blocks, rituals) to your advantage.
Make it unsatisfying – Track presence, not just productivity.
Integration Is the New Alpha
I used to keep work and life in separate vaults. Tidy. Controlled. But markets aren’t tidy. Neither is Life. You want sharper investment decisions? Be more present at home. You want real control? Track your time like it’s your damn net worth. Discipline isn’t rigidity—it’s rebellion against chaos. Presence is protection. Structure is freedom. And the life you want? It’s waiting on the other side of aligned execution—in your finances, and in your focus.
3 Moves that Matter Right Now
Adapt like your wealth depends on it—because it does.
Inflation's easing. Bifurcation’s real. It’s time to simplify, shift, and get intentional—both in markets and mindsets.Stop hoping for freedom. Design for it.
You don’t need a sabbatical. You need 15 focused minutes and fewer excuses. Audit your habits like a CFO audits cash flow. Or like the COA audits… never mind.Habits are the true ROI.
They’re the hidden compounders—the way small things snowball into the real thing: clarity, freedom, power. They’re the bridge between net worth and self-worth. Between busy and meaningful. Get them right, and everything changes.
Final Take
So yeah—maybe this does sound like a TED Talk written by a fund manager on his third americano. Fair. It’s actually my fourth.
But here’s the thing: None of this is theory for me. I haven’t nailed it. But I’ve lived enough of the mess to know what doesn’t (or still doesn’t) work—and where to start.
My dream life’s not complicated: Time with the people who matter. Doing work that feels like a calling—not a treadmill.
But I’ve learned (the hard way) that the life I want won’t magically show up between Zooms, spreadsheets, and the 4:00 p.m. caffeine crash. It gets built—slowly, intentionally, habit by habit.
So, before you chase the next market move or optimization hack, ask yourself this:
If your time, energy, and attention were your portfolio—would you still be holding, or quietly selling yourself short?
Start small. Start now.
And if nothing else, drop the damn phone in a drawer at dinner. Because the market’s moving. And so is your life.
Rebalance—or get rekt.