お誕生日おめでとう！ / Will there be cake?

It feels good to have a birthday where someone gets you actual balloons. Especially if they're accompanied by 1) good company, 2) gluten-free cake, and 3) pretty serious Italian spread including fiori di zucchini ripieni...

wisdom always.

It was love at first sight. I wasn't even looking to fall in love that day, really—it was just another thing to do, intellectual fodder for thought. Never did I expect to encounter someone who would change my life forever.

I'm talking about Kurt Vonnegut, of course—or more like his book, Slaughterhouse-Five. (I should really describe it as "love at first reading".) It was sophomore year in high school, and Mr. Hunter had assigned it for our class to read. And I read it, and I was hooked. Kurt Vonnegut, where had you been all my life?

But what I remember most from that first reading was the quote etched into the necklace of one of the characters. I was drawn to it because it contained the word "wisdom", which is what my name means. I didn't know it was the Serenity Prayer until a bit later. But when I read it, I felt like everything made sense.

Today I am repeating the full version in my heart, though with a few changes (forgive me Father, for I am not religious). The words are beautiful; I believe them.

Money Grows on Trees!

If you're looking for a way to earn money just by sitting there, look no further. Cash Grower can help you plan your finances, make investments, and grow your cash. You don't have to be a millionaire, and it's never too early or too late to start. You've got financial goals—let's talk about how you can achieve them.

Here's a brief background: Cash Grower is an online financial consultancy that offers advising on personal finance, investment, and retirement planning. Like Capital One 360 (an online baking service), we do away with the brick-and-mortar storefront to focus on providing you with prompt, online consulting.

Unlike our competitors, (like LearnVest, Plan & Act, and NestWise (which closed in September 2013)), we empower you to choose what kind of advising you need, and when. You don't have to tie yourself to a yearlong consulting package, and you can adjust the frequency of the advising to match your financial ups and downs. We have a clean, easy-to-use Website that offers tips and videos to help you learn more about growing your assets.

Our target customer segment includes people of all ages, with any level of net worth. We can assist you when you are starting out your new job, are managing a family, and are nearing retirement.

As an online financial consultancy, social media is key. We use LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Google+ to connect with you. Don't worry, we won't bombard you with information. Our LinkedIn account connects you with other professionals interested in financial planning. Our Facebook page has you chatting with other "Cash Growers" so you can encourage each other to reach your goals. Our YouTube channel offers videos with experts on how to get into investing and more. Our Twitter feed alerts you when we post something new (or just read a cool news story). And our Google+ account lets you search for anything you thought you saw, but can't quite find because it's been a few weeks.

We've honed our SEO so that if you search for "online financial consulting" (or "personal finance" or "investment 101") we're sure to be among your top hits. Even though we don't have a storefront, we offer online troubleshooting in multiple languages—get this: English, Japanese, Chinese, Korean, Spanish, and Portuguese! Being online means we're here to work with you on your goals anywhere, any time. (Well, within reason—we go on vacation once in a while; we've got to do something with all that cash we've grown.)