In November 2021, my father had heart failure and a subsequent successful heart transplant. His father, my paternal grand farther, also had heart failure at the same age and passed from it.
Cardiac disorders are often hereditary. There is a 33 year age difference between my father and I. This experience served as a wake up call. Life is short and there are a lot of things I want to do; I need to them now.
I am beginning this Medium Blog to track my progress towards these achievements.
Fitness and Health
I used to do long distance running, long distance swimming, spinning, etc. With COVID, two small kids and other commitments, my health has deteriorated. My first goal is to achieve and maintain good bill of health; not sure what the metrics will be yet. I am starting with a 90 day fitness sprint.
Though genetics may kick in 33 years from now, I may be able to delay heart failure for myself with lifestyle changes.
Philanthropic
I have been very fortunate thus far and owe it to give back.
I will be focusing on two areas: climate change and poverty alleviation. The latter is inclusive of education, health, good government, etc. The former include mitigation (how do adapt to a changing climate) and prevention (how to stop climate change from becoming worse).
To have a meaningful impact here I need significant funds. My current employer will match 50% of my charitable giving up to $10k annually. Combined with what else I can give, with my current profession and other obligations, I can likely donate $25k annually ($20k from me and $5k matches from my employer). This will not be enough.
I will need to start a business and use the excess cash flows or proceeds from there to fund my philanthropic goals.
