Invest in the Currency of Time

We all know it’s valuable, but yet we waste it away

The Pyramid of Luxuries

The Bespoke - $4,000 Vacation + $1,000 VISA eGift Card

The Ultra High End - $200 CookUnity eGift Card

The Superpremium - Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium

The Premium Core - Automatic Pet Feeder

The Accessible Core - Invest in the Currency of Time

The Affordable Luxury - Any Section Needs Improvement?

The Everyday Luxury - On Vacation

The Bespoke

This is the moment you’ve all been waiting for. The December 2023 and first winner of the $5,000 Bespoke Contest Vacation Package is…

….. not yet

…... keep reading

…… (drum roll)

…… (trying to build suspense)

…… is it working?

The winner is TAM from Frisco, Texas!

I’ll be posting a video of me surprising her later in the week, so check out Ducky Tran social media for that video!

This is her submission for “a picture of what makes you happy”:

Congratulations to Tam! The most important question is: who are you taking on vacation? Me right?

Like I said last time, the travel prize was popular enough to repeat it for a second time, so submit your entries for this month’s drawing!

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

• Prize: $4,000 Vacation Voucher + $1,000 in VISA eGift Cards [ARV $5,012]

• Odds: For every 660 Ducky Tran premium member by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) vacation bundle Prize

• Contest Period: January 3, 2024 at 10 AM CST to January 30, 2024 at 10 PM CST

See Issue 1 for more content about The Bespoke Prize.

The Ultra High End

Previous Contest Winners

The winner for Issue 7 is Ha from Lincoln, Nebraska! This is her submission for “what you like to snack on”:

You have very healthy snacking habits! You’ll be getting more healthy snacks with your FitSnack 6-month subscription boxes!

This Week’s Contest

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

• Prize: $200 CookUnity eGift Card [ARV $200]

• Odds: For every 130 Ducky Tran premium members by the time of judging, I will give out one (1) CookUnity eGift Card

• Contest Period: January 10, 2024 at 10 AM CST to January 16, 2024 at 10 PM CST

This week’s focus is time wealth and what better way to get time back than to remove preparation and cooking time.

Not only is CookUnity, a meal subscription, convenient, it is healthy. Just check out Issue 7 to find out a little more about it. Meal subscriptions can really save on time if you can afford it. Good thing you can with the Ultra High End Contest!

Meal subscriptions not only saves you time from meal preparation and cooking, but shopping, clean-up (all foods are in the trays), washing dishes, grocery planning and the “what do I want to eat” conundrum that can take days to figure out. Meal subscriptions unlike mass meal prep also has the benefit of freshness and variety. Submit to win about 20 chef-made meals you don’t need to plan!

The Superpremium

This week’s Superpremium topic is the Henry Doorly Zoo and Aquarium in Omaha, Nebraska. This is not only one of my favorite zoos in the United States, but it’s one of my favorite places overall.

Some of you may be thinking, “a zoo in…. Nebraska”. Yes! There might not be things like amusement parks or large shopping malls (unless you count Nebraska Furniture Mart), but they have other amazing things like this zoo.

It is iconic because they not only built different ecosystems for the different types of animals, the ecosystems are immersive for the guests. Like what they call the Desert Dome, which is literally that. A dome that contains a small desert inside! Even their forest exhibits have multi-level ecosystems to show the animals in its natural habitat layer.

The last big thing I remember about it was being able to camp overnight in the zoo to see the nocturnal animals. I mean that’s pretty awesome, especially if you have little ones that love animals.

There’s a lot more to this zoo, but I’ll stop here as I’m short for time. Oh just to sneak it in here, the Henry Doorly Zoo won USA Today’s Best Zoo of the Year and was 2nd place last year. So yeah, it’s that amazing!

The Premium Core

This week’s Premium Core topic is a PETLIBRO automatic pet feeder.

I don’t have pets, but many people I know do. One of the things I see nearly every time I visit them is the pet owners feeding their pets. Or worst, seeing them frantically trying to remember if they fed their pets and then just feeding them “just in case.”

Well, no more. Humans are nearly as advanced as cats now, we have automatic pet feeding machines that go on a timer! You won’t forget to feed them, unless you forget to fill it up (please fill it up). This pet feeding machine was obviously invented by cats for cats, but you can use it on dogs too. Except the cats will probably still eat from it.

The time saved may seem insignificant to some, but it’s not just time that is precious, your precious pet is probably starving because you “thought your spouse fed it.” Here’s the deal:

Deal #1: I am offering a $70 PETLIBRO 3L Automatic Pet Feeder, in white or black, for only $25 at shop.duckytran.com. There will only be 3 available in each color, 6 in total, so hurry if you have pets!

Don’t forget the password to the shop is at the end of the newsletter.

The Accessible Core

Invest in the Currency of Time

For as long as I can remember, the only thing we’re ever taught, told or read about investing involves stocks or real-estate to make money. But I was quite fortunate. Unlike many young adults, I found out about the most valuable currency in the world when I was much younger.

I have 7 other siblings and grew up in a financially-strain family due to my parents’ lack of education, immigration to the United States and large family size. I remember when I was maybe 6-years old, I stayed home with my parents while my siblings went to a birthday party. My parents were busy doing chores while my siblings were at the party for few units down. The party was in the same apartment complex we lived in, so I peeked into the unit where the party was held, and I saw kids just running around laughing and having fun. I then ran back to our unit to see my parents doing chores.

I stayed home because I felt bad that my parents were doing chores when we, the kids, got to go play. Even at that age, I knew we were poor. I would save every dollar my dad gave me or coins I’d find on the ground, thinking it would make a difference one day.

As years passed and I spent more time with my parents at home doing chores with them, I learned that they don’t care if I ever brought money home or being rich, they just want their children to be happy. Later in high school, I learned my dad gave up a job promotion that would pay twice as much but he would be away from the family more.

Since I was around 10-years old, I’ve dedicated my time to spend with my family, help my parents with my younger siblings, and make sure that my time was spent wisely.

In college, I learned of a relative that passed away at the age of 25. He had left home at 18 to make a ton of money. He was driving home to visit his parents for first time in 7 years. In his sports car was $30,000 cash and gifts for his parents. He never made it to their home. He was their old child and son.

What I learned from age 6 through age 21 was that time is the most valuable currency. Don’t just invest it like money.

1. Don’t just put it away to hopefully build a fortune.

2. Don’t speculate on things you “think” may be important, like you may with real-estate or stocks.

3. The more you have doesn’t necessary mean it is better.

Instead, treat time more literal, and take it one moment at a time:

1. Every moment is important, don’t store it away, use it today as tomorrow may not come.

2. The most important things in your life have always been in front of you, when you are on your death bed, only your family and closest friends will be at your side. Don’t assume random people, things, or ideas will come see you in that moment.

3. Time is funny because the less you have the more valuable it is, but most of the time, you’ll always assume you have a lot of it so you treat it without value. And those with the least amount of time, usually, don’t know about it until their last hour.

So don’t waste your time chasing riches that inflate, can be manipulated and does more harm than good. Invest your most valuable currency on your loved ones while they are here and while you’re around to do it.

The Affordable Luxury

Issue 7 Community Poll Results

Not too many people replied to Issue 7’s polls so it was a bit skewed but here they are:

1. How social are you? Most of you have an extensive group of friends.

2. Do you use virtual assistants? I thought it would be more common, but most of you rarely or never use them.

3. As for the virtual Murder Mystery social, it looks like I’ll be trying to set it up on a Saturday evening. Look for updates on when I’ll be hosting this event. I’m excited, I like murder mystery shows!

This Week’s Community Poll

The Everyday Luxury

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I’m currently on a vacation cruise with my entire family for my parent’s 40th wedding anniversary. To make the most of my own vacation time, this newsletter will be shorter since I can only write in the middle of the night with slow internet.

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