My Life Archives - Page 3 of 27

Oct142018

Armstrong's Garden Centers Newport Beach - Monarch Butterfly Closeup

Visiting Armstrong’s Garden Center in Newport Beach

Gardening, My Day In PicturesBy Joshua Kennon October 14, 2018 Leave a comment

After writing about the incredible Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar, I thought it was only fair to point out that Aaron and I also enjoy a place called Armstrong’s Garden Center in Newport Beach. The business can trace its roots to 1889 and holds a storied place in the history of the global rose industry (and you know we love our roses!). A few months ago, we stopped in and spotted a Monarch Butterfly hanging out on some flowers. We took a video …

Oct142018

Roger's Gardens Newport Beach - Bouquets for Sale

Roger’s Gardens in Corona del Mar Is One of My Favorite Places

Gardening, My Day In PicturesBy Joshua Kennon October 14, 2018 Leave a comment

In Corona del Mar, California there is a place called Roger’s Gardens. It is one of the coolest businesses I’ve ever seen and within moments of walking through the entrance, Aaron and I knew it was going to be somewhere we spent a lot of time.

Jun172018

ChanChan Chicken Tenders - Small - From Chan Chan Food House in Irvine

We Had Lunch at Chan Chan Food House in Irvine, California

Food and Beverages, My Day In PicturesBy Joshua Kennon June 17, 2018 Leave a comment

Today, we were in Newport Beach knocking some things off our task list. We haven’t had a chance to really explore anything in the surrounding area, nor do we expect to until at least a couple of months after we’ve completed the move as we need to execute it with speed and precision, but we did figure that we could take our lunch break to check out one of the local Korean restaurants. We settled on a place called Chan Chan Food House in nearby Irvine, California. We didn’t know what to expect but the food looked delicious and the reviews were good.

Jun142018

It’s Official: We Are Moving to Newport Beach, California

My LifeBy Joshua Kennon June 14, 2018 Leave a comment

After years of planning, research, and comparative analysis, and extensive travel around the country, we have finally made a decision: Aaron and I are moving to Southern California. Here’s a glimpse into the thought process we used to make what is what one of the biggest decisions of our lives and careers.

Mar82018

Gestational Surrogacy for Beginners

My LifeBy Joshua Kennon March 8, 2018 Leave a comment

What is gestational surrogacy? How much does gestational surrogacy cost? These are some of the questions I want to answer as I walk you through our own on-going journey to have babies.

Dec162017

Joshua Kennon and Aaron Green Coffee Christmas Ornaments

Kennon-Green Family Christmas – The 2017 Edition

My Day In PicturesBy Joshua Kennon December 16, 2017 50 Comments

It’s one of my favorite times of the year – Christmas! – and this year, I’m working on a new Christmas tree theme.

Oct82017

Chicago River Joshua and Aaron from Langham Hotel

A Week in Chicago That Changed the Course of Our Lives

My Day In PicturesBy Joshua Kennon October 8, 2017 30 Comments

Earlier this year, we visited Chicago. During the business trip, we made some decisions that will reverberate for the rest of our lives.

Aug132017

Looking at Office Space in Southern California

My Day In PicturesBy Joshua Kennon August 13, 2017 58 Comments

It’s been roughly seven months since I’ve been present or active on the site in any meaningful sense. There are largely two reasons for this. Firstly, as you can probably imagine, nearly every waking moment of our lives has been consumed by the launch of our global asset management firm, Kennon-Green & Co. This included spending a couple of weeks in Southern California looking for office space.

Dec272016

Christmas with Joshua & Aaron

My Day In PicturesBy Joshua Kennon December 27, 2016 19 Comments

Aaron and I love everything about Christmas – the Christmas decorations, the baking, the Christmas carols, picking out gifts for other people. It’s magical. No matter how busy we are, there will always be time for friends and family, holiday movies, and hot cocoa.

Dec52016

We’ve Been Quietly Learning Korean. We Just Completed Our First Semester of Studying 한국어

My LifeBy Joshua Kennon December 5, 2016 25 Comments

If life were like Civilization V, this is the point in which King Sejong the Great would be getting the message from President Obama, “My people are buying your blue jeans and listening to your music.” The Kennon-Green household has given into the 한류. First, though, we need to back up so you have some context.

It’s always odd to try and fit your life story into a few lines but here is the short version: My name is Joshua Kennon. I’m 36 years old. My husband, Aaron, and I met and fell in love as teenagers. Neither of us ever even dated anyone else – we knew we were going to spend the rest of our lives together. After graduating from high school, we moved from the Midwest to the East Coast where we studied classical music and a wide range of liberal arts.

Later, we returned to the Kansas City area to be near family. During this period, which spanned nearly thirteen years and lasted from our early twenties into our mid-thirties, we started several Internet companies and spent much of our time semi-retired, managing our own wealth thanks to the financial independence those businesses helped us achieve. I also wrote a lot during those years. In fact, the odds are good that you’ve directly or indirectly encountered me many times without realizing it. For nearly 17 years, I was the Investing for Beginners Expert at what was then known as About.com. I am the co-author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Investing, 3rd Edition.

Due to requests from family and friends to manage their capital alongside our own wealth, Aaron and I decided to exit retirement and launch Kennon-Green & Co.^®, a fiduciary global asset management firm that specializes in helping affluent and high net worth individuals, families, and institutions invest their capital around the world. In 2018, as part of our journey to have kids through gestational surrogacy, and the spin-up of Kennon-Green & Co., we moved to Newport Beach, California.

These days, we spend our time running and growing the firm, as we plan on it being the institution through which we pass on our own family’s wealth to our future children and grandchildren. The experience, particularly meeting such incredible people, has been one of the most rewarding of our lives. It’s a rare thing to have a career that allows you to not only do what you love for a living, but to do it with people you admire, respect, and like. We feel like two of the most blessed guys in the world.

This personal blog is a place where I talk about some of the things that interest me – cooking, finance, entrepreneurship, politics, history, economics. I’m really proud of the community we’ve built, in no small part because the typical reader around here is exceptional. Please note that in preparation of the launch of the asset management business, and to better protect our family’s privacy, Aaron and I removed thousands of articles, posts, and comments from this blog, reducing it to a fraction of its former size. This means if you are looking for something that existed prior to us coming out of retirement, the odds are good it simply isn’t available anymore.