Aristotle believed in two types of happiness:
- Hedonia: short-term pleasure
- Eudaimonia: deeper, long-term fulfillment from living in alignment with your true self and purpose
But more on that in a minute… Let me tell you what happened this weekend.
37 weeks pregnant… and getting down with the Backstreet Boys.
Belly out. Braxton Hicks and all. Dancing with my husband like we were 18 again. Back in May, tickets were $130. I showed them to my husband. “Babe… you’ll be 35 weeks pregnant. Too many people. Too risky.” He vetoed it. But I kept bringing it up. Persistent wife mode: activated. Eventually, he gave in. By then, tickets were $500 each. He bit the bullet and bought them. That’s the power of financial freedom in your late 30s. You can say yes to overpriced concert tickets just because your inner 12-year-old still screams:
“Backstreet’s Back… ALRIGHT!”
The last concert I went to?
Six years ago. Kanye. San Francisco. Before babies. Before that, I used to go all the time. But then - I had two babies in six years. My priorities shifted. Concerts? Gone. That’s not to say we weren’t having fun—we traveled everywhere. Took the kids to see both sets of grandparents. Lived in different countries. Made memories. But most of our money? It was going into paying off debt and building wealth: Rental properties. Index funds. A shit-ton of crypto. Concerts just… didn’t make the cut. Not because I didn’t want to. But because I was in Build Mode. Stacking. Growing. Sacrificing. Brainwashing myself that concerts were a “waste of money.”
But when I walked into that arena?
It was magic. I sang every word. I danced. I cried.
Because for a moment— I wasn’t a mom. I wasn’t a business owner. I wasn’t 37 weeks pregnant.
I was 10-year-old Sam.
Wearing baggy jeans. Reading Tiger Beat. Singing “Quit Playing Games with My Heart” like I knew what heartbreak was.
I had never seen Backstreet Boys live.
Not once. In my 20s—couldn’t afford it. In my early 30s—too tired, too busy, no time. But now? In my late 30s— As a multi-millionaire?
I have time and money.
Which means… I can do crazy shit like fly across the country just to be a groupie. I can scream “YEAHHH!” with Lil Jon in Atlanta. Shout “My name is…” with Eminem in Detroit. Listen to Jo Koy talk shit about growing up Asian in Manila. Pretend to be 22 with Taylor Swift in any city. And that’s exactly what I plan to do next year. I wanna be that 40-year-old groupie—lol. Minus the orgies. I told my husband: “We can bring your parents or my mom with us. They stay with the kids in the hotel room, we hit the concert. Make it a family vacation.” He laughed. And agreed. Because the point of money isn’t just to build wealth.
It’s to live.
Yes, we put concerts on hold for 6 years. But it never felt like a sacrifice. We were still living— traveling, raising our babies, figuring out who we were. But now that the kids are older? We get to reintroduce PLAY into the equation. We get to relive our childhood with a lot more money—and freedom.
So… back to Aristotle.
He believed in two types of happiness:
- Hedonia: short-term pleasure
- Eudaimonia: long-term fulfillment from living a life aligned with your highest self
That concert might look like pure hedonic fun— Loud music. Flashing lights. A nostalgic dopamine hit. But for me? It was eudaimonic. Because it reconnected me to a version of myself I’d buried under motherhood, entrepreneurship, and adult responsibilities. It reminded me that all those sacrifices I made— paying off debt, skipping concerts, delaying gratification— actually led to a life aligned with my deepest values:
Joy. Freedom. Play.
And that kind of happiness? It’s the most productive thing you can pursue.
Speaking of PLAY…
That was my word for 2025. Work less. Play more. That concert? 100% play. 0% work. 0% work isn’t just for weekends and paid time off. 0% is for whenever you just don’t want to work. Because you can. I hope you’re continuing to chase your Financial Freedom journey- even during the hard days. In 5 years- I hope you’re on the other end- writing an email to your peeps about 0% work days and 100% play days- because every action you made today pushed you towards your Future Millionaire Self.
🚨 In Case You Missed It:
I just dropped a new YouTube video on how we’re raising Future Billionaires (yes, really). In this episode, I share:
- Our unconventional teaching philosophy
- Why we chose to homeschool our kids
- What their real-world curriculum looks like
- (8 months in Thailand • 2 months in the U.S. • 1 month wherever we feel like)
This isn’t your typical “school at home” setup.
It’s our method to raise independent thinkers, leaders, and risk-takers.
We left the US to travel the world + homeschool our kids
Unconventionally Yours,
Sam