Blog

How I Ended Up (And Stayed) at Code School

Written by Adam on August 27, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
5 min read. Personal, Blog, adamfortuna. Leave a Comment

We started every week at Code School with a Monday morning standup. This is a good way of getting everyone on the same page about events, releases, major events in everyone’s lives, but also a chance to connect on a cultural level.

Sometimes our standup will end with a few words of wisdom from Gregg, our CEO. As time went on, more people at Code School started to tell their own stories that dive into their backgrounds and what brought them in. These have helped me understand a lot of other peoples motivations, and have humanized people to the entire company.

After a little bit of coaching from Gregg, and quite a few trial runs, I gave the following 5-minute talk in front of the team. This is a transcript that 5-minute talk I gave at Code School on November 9, 2016.

[Read more…]

All You Need is Less

Written by Adam on August 20, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
6 min read. adamfortuna, Personal, Minimalism, Blog. 4 Comments

Earlier this year we went on an epic honeymoon to Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. My unexpected favorite place we visited during this trip was Luang Prabang, Laos. We were wowed by the people, the culture and the city – which itself is a UNESCO world heritage site.

Aside from exploring beautiful waterfalls, visiting ancient temples and eating delicious amok (fish steamed in bamboo leaves) one thing we enjoyed immensely was the massive night market. Right around dusk, the entire main street of Luang Prabang closes down and is filled in by local vendors spreading out their local wares – usually on a blanket.

[Read more…]

Why I Avoid Dividends Like the Plague

Written by Adam on August 13, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
7 min read. Personal, Investing, Taxes, Blog, Minafi, Canonical. 16 Comments

When I first started investing, one of the most interesting things to me was the idea of dividends. Free money added back to my account, regardless of the price of the fund? That sounds amazing! If the fund doesn’t go up, at least I’ll still have money in my pocket. As I’ve grown to learn more about dividend funds (and more importantly taxes), my position on dividends has shifted and now I avoid them as much as possible.

[Read more…]

How We Spent $15,000 on Our Honeymoon and Why We’d Do It Again

Written by Adam on August 6, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
20 min read. Personal, Featured, Blog, Minafi, Canonical. 22 Comments

Earlier this year we planned a trip of a lifetime – a 2-week honeymoon in Southeast Asia visiting Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia. Outside of our house, car, and education, this was the most expensive thing we’ve ever purchased, with a total price tag of around $15,000. Our wedding itself was under $10k, which was in part to save money for this amazing trip.

You might be thinking “Southeast Asia is one of the cheapest places on earth, how the hell can you spend $15,000 in two weeks there?” – well, there’s an easy answer to that: Disney. For this trip, we decided to try something new and do an all-inclusive, guided vacation. You can check out the entirety of the trip on the Adventures by Disney site. They would handle everything from picking us up at the airport to dropping us off 2 weeks later. Aside from getting a Vietnam Visa and having a few passport photos taken ahead of time, we were in their hands for the entire trip.

Attempting to do this trip justice in a single post isn’t going to happen. Instead, I’m going to focus on why it could be worth the money for you (if you happen to have a spare $15k laying around).

[Read more…]

Growing Up With Computers

Written by Adam on July 30, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
7 min read. Personal, Blog, adamfortuna. 6 Comments

I was lucky enough to grow up with computers from a very early age. My dad worked at a company with a Mac-heavy environment in the early 80s — the time before Microsoft was a household name when Apple (still) was the brightest star in the personal computer market (funny how things come back around). It’s hard to explain how critical this early exposure to computers shaped my confidence and understanding of them throughout the years.

I didn’t touch a smartphone until an iPhone 3G when I was 27. Before that, it was heavy tower computers and laptops all the time. This experience shaped my education, my job prospects and creative endeavors.

[Read more…]

Minafi 2018 Q2 Summer Investment Report

Written by Adam on July 23, 2018. Updated January 8, 2023.
19 min read. Financial Independence, Investing, Blog, Minafi, Canonical, Personal. 10 Comments

At the end of every quarter, I share a snapshot of my current finances. This includes what I’m invested in, their values and the change over time. The goal in sharing this information is to show it’s possible to make money investing in super-simple ways without the need to watch the latest news. If you want to look back at past investment reports, you can view them all in one handy place.

My hope is that people realize how easy it is to invest and take control of their own investments. Whether that’s reading a book on the topic, taking my free investing course, or looking at what others are doing and learning from that. When I learned to invest it was a combination of all of these, and I always wished more people shared the nitty-gritty of their own decision making. I hope this helps to highlight what I’m investing in, why, and get feedback from people more experienced than myself about ways to improve.

[Read more…]