The Real Fortune: Living at Home

The many truths you learn with age.

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $1,000 Home Cleaning Shopping Spree

The Ultra High End - Nugget Ice Maker

The Superpremium - Cherry Blossoms in Japan

The Premium Core - Scratch Off World Map

The Accessible Core - The Real Fortune: Living at Home

The Affordable Luxury - BBQ Social

The Everyday Luxury - BBQ Social Attempt #2

The Bespoke

Reminder: Don’t forget this is the last week to submit for the $1,000 Home Cleaning Shopping Spree!

Click on the banner to enter The Bespoke Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: $1,000 Home Cleaning Shopping Spree [ARV $1,000]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Shopping Spree

• Contest Period: May 29, 2024 at 10 AM CST to July 2, 2024 at 10 PM CST

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winner

The winner of Issue 31 Ultra High End contest is KEVIN from ARLINGTON, TEXAS! Here’s his submission for “favorite mode of transportation”:

Congratulations KEVIN, you will need to ask the tow truck to take you to get ice cream with some friends! You just won a $100 Ice Cream Social!

Check out the other submissions:

Looks like the majority of us like modes of transportation where we aren’t the driver. Or maybe it’s the experience surrounding the mode? Either way, I’m glad to see the variety.

This Week’s Contest

Click on the banner to enter The Ultra High End Photo Contest. Click here for the Official Contest Rules.

• Prize: Nugget Ice Maker [ARV $170]

• Odds: For every 110 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) Nugget Ice Maker

• Contest Period: June 26, 2024 at 10 AM CST to July 2, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is financial wealth. Many people focus on the monetary value of an item; however, most of the time, the true value of an item comes from its experiential value, or how it feels like to you not what it is advertised as.

This week I’ll be giving out a nugget ice maker. The nugget ice has been considered the fanciest and most desirable form of ice due to its size, texture, and able to chew on. The ice itself isn’t often available in a residential setting so this nugget ice maker will definitely be a fancy add-on to your home. The simplicity of changing the shape of ice (practically free), makes the value of this ice maker more valuable and if you love nugget ice, this is a must-have.

Nugget ice has many uses due to its small size and shape:

1. Just to chew on

2. Visually appealing beverages

3. Easy to blend into slushies

4. Easy to use for ice baths (for beverage or food) due to easy packing

5. Can fit into small bottle openings (like generic water bottles)

The nugget ice maker model comes in stainless steel and black stainless steel. Think about which one matches your appliances and better make room on your counter for your new ice maker!

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is Cherry Blossom Season in Japan. Normally, I write about my travels around the world. But this week, I want to write about something that is on my bucket list: visiting Japan during Cherry Blossom Season.

I’ve visited Japan before, but have not had the opportunity to be there when the Cherry Blossoms were blooming (between late March and April). Besides being picturesque, I love to see when nature is incorporated into the design of cityscape in unique ways. I also love the culture and food in Japan, so it’ll just be a plus to see the coming of Spring while enjoying the Japanese countryside and local restaurants.

I’m also curious about what happens to the millions of petals that fall. Knowing the Japanese culture, I imagine they collect it for something amazing.

From online research, it looks like one of the best places to see the Cherry Blossoms is Shinjuku Gyoen in Tokyo. Shinjuku Gyoen is comprised of 3 gardens and their English garden has 400+ Somei Yoshino trees that make it such a popular spot for viewing the Cherry Blossoms.

I can’t wait to take my family to visit Japan, especially Shinjuku Gyoen during the Spring. Send me some pictures to [email protected], if you’ve gone to see the Cherry Blossoms in Japan!

The Premium Core

When you become financially-secure, there are many luxuries that people think about:

1. Time for family

2. Eating health and/or fancy foods

3. Travel

4. Time for hobbies

5. Vacations

I hope that #3 is something everyone would want. Through my travels, I’ve been open to different cultures, foods, and experiences. All of these factors have shaped my personality and goals today. I would encourage everyone that gets the opportunity to travel, to do so. I never enjoyed taking photos when I went on my trips and so I’ve forgotten about many places I’ve visited until I see down and go through the timeline of my travels. A few years ago, I saw this scratch-off map that allows me to mark off the places I’ve visited so I thought it’d be a good gift or decor for someone that have starting or been traveling the world.

Deal #1: I’m giving a deal on a scratch-off world map that allows you to record your world travels. You can purchase it for $16, normally $25, on shop.duckytran.com. There will only be 10 available.

The Accessible Core

The Real Fortune: Living at Home

When we are younger, we tend to find any way to leave home, but as we get older, we find ways to be closer to home. This is because when we’re young, we focus on the negatives and when we are older, we see the positives.

Negatives we focused on:

• Bossy parents - parents never seem to understand but we forget they we’re kids before too, it’s probably us, as children, that didn’t understand

• Privacy - we wanted privacy but not from our friends, just our family; however, with age we realize the importance of support from our family

• Independence - we believe we can achieve anything alone, until we realize we were never alone when we achieve everything when we were young; true success is unknown when not shared with others

Positives we see as we age:

• Financial savings - just from a savings standpoint, every year we live with our family and do not pay rent/utilities, we save on average nearly $24,000.

• Support - generally, when everything is against you, only your family will be there for you (emotionally, financially, etc.)

• Adult mirror - we realize everything our parents taught or told us were true or had truth in it; we become the people that raise us

• Responsibilities - imagine if as adults we only had the responsibilities we did when we were teenagers, we would probably give everything we own

I think these points speak for themselves, but since this week’s focus is financial wealth, I will point out what you could do with the money saved from staying home.

This is directed more to high-school and college graduates, or even young adults that have the opportunity to live with your parents/family and not pay rent.

$24,000/year is $2,000/month. If you invested $2,000/month for 10 years at just 5% annual compound interest, you would have built up $300,000+. So, if you were 18 after high-school, you will be 28 with $300,000+ with little to no debt.

The average age of a doctor after medical school and residency is between 29-30. But they will come out with an average debt of $200,000.

Imagine if you’ve lived at home until 29, and invested $2,000/month. You would be a doctor making 6-figure income, have enough money to pay-off any debt, and have an additional $100,00+ to start your life. The financial savings is much greater than many realize.

All this said, it doesn’t mean you should live at home forever. There are many other considerations; however, this is just to show the possibilities and to show the real fortune that can be achieved by just living rent-free.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 31 Community Poll Results

This last week’s poll results seemed skewed, but let me know what you think:

1. I’m not sure what may have influenced your decision, but 60% of members said Rock Road was their favorite ice cream flavor. The other 40% selected ice cream. I’m surprised no other flavors even were in the running.

2. This one surprised me the most! 25% of you selected you would forego $5,000 so you wouldn’t have to sacrifice anything. But everyone else! I mean 75% selected you would work out an hour each day for 6 days a week to receive $5,000/month. But the instructions said the HARDEST choice, there’s no way this was the hardest choice for everyone else. Unless, working out is more difficult than going vegan or living with your parents!

3. I asked you to select a new Bespoke prize for July and every choice had some votes but the prize that had the most was…. $1,000 for a phone! I’ll give more information how the prize will be offered in the next issue, but something to look forward to.

This Week’s Community Poll

Here are this week’s poll questions:

The Everyday Luxury

(The referral program is only viewable on the email version of the newsletter.)

BBQ Social Attempt #2

I have found a date where I would like to try this BBQ Social again. I’ve already put a poll together above, but here is more information about it.

• Location: Hutchins BBQ @ 9225 Preston Rd, Frisco, TX 75033

• Time/Date: Saturday, August 10, 2024 @ 11AM

I will be providing family-style BBQ lunch for every member that shows up. I will host it even if just 1 member can show up. Every member can invite up to 2 other non-members to join us for lunch. If you have children, they can all come, not just 2. Food and drinks will be provided to your family and guests too. I hope to see many of you there!

Visit shop.duckytran.com with the weekly password: nugget