Fall has descended upon us up here in the mountains of Virginia.
Every day a few more leaves turn yellow, orange, and red… and every day the morning fog seems to be a little thicker. I love it.
For some reason I always think of the frontier days during this time of year.
We are way up in the Appalachian mountains. The population here has always been sparse—and that’s accentuated now that the nearby towns have lost roughly 50% of their population over the last several decades.
Apparently this area was predominantly settled by the Scotch-Irish back in the 18th century. They must have been the only ones crazy enough to think they could farm such a rugged, mountainous landscape.
It’s also well-documented that several of the prominent American founders made the trek to these lands once a year back then. Both George Washington and Thomas Jefferson were known to visit this area often. They came specifically to bathe in the hot springs which are prevalent up here.
The springs were considered to have healing properties back then. If you ask the local resort, they’ll tell you the springs still do.
I don’t know. Maybe they know what they are talking about. This is the same resort that was around back then. It was founded in 1766. Both Washington and Jefferson would stay there when they visited.
This kind of history fascinates me. But then my gaze shifts…
We carved our Halloween pumpkins in the Withrow household this week. Personally, I despise Halloween. But I don’t know what else to call carved pumpkins.
What jumps out at me though is just how exciting these little experiences are to my children. They live in the present—moment to moment. And that makes little things like carving pumpkins so much fun. Both for them and for me.
Indeed, seeing life through the eyes of a child is magical.
Next on the docket is a trip to the nearby apple orchard. We’re going to pick a bunch of apples and then make homemade apple cider. And I promised my boy he could add a little cinnamon and sugar to the mix.
Changing gears…
Yesterday I mentioned that I’m thinking about creating an “incubator” program for The Phoenician League. In the finance space, the term incubator typically refers to a program that helps early stage start-ups get off the ground.
So I’m thinking… why don’t we do that for regular investors?
Why don’t we put together a program that will help people shore up their finances and attain financial security by building a solid investment portfolio—so they will then be ready to start building passive income with us in The Phoenician League…?
I’ve got the gears turning on this idea now. I’m still working on exactly what it should look like though, and I’d love your feedback. Do you see a need for such a program out there? Is this something you think would be valuable to people?
Please let me know. You can respond directly to this email. All thoughts and feedback are most appreciated.
Let’s leave it there for today. I’ll be back on Monday with another report from the Virginia frontier… and perhaps more on the incubator idea. See you then.
-Joe Withrow
P.S. The incubator idea came to me after I did a Q&A session with the legendary Tom Woods last week. If you missed it, you can find a replay right here: Q&A Session