I turn 50 today. This is a message to my kids but I offer it to you in case any of it rings useful. I was born in Sri Lanka in 1976 in a country that, at the time, was about to enter a decades long civil war. My father was able to get stationed at the Sri Lankan High Commission in Canada for four years in the early 80s - when some of the fighting was most severe - and which from our vantage point in Canada gave us some respite from an otherwise omnipresent conflict. He came as a diplomat but then my father filed for refugee status after four years when his life was threatened by militants. We stayed in Canada as refugees. My dad never really landed on his feet and we grew up on welfare. My mom stepped up. She did an incredible thing and put our family on her back and kept marching forward. Sometimes the steps were very small but she always tried to keep moving forward. I worked at Burger King starting at 14, giving my paycheck to my mom and dad to support our family in the role that I was assigned - earn enough to pay for our bus passes because we couldn’t afford a car. I was a loser growing up. Some friends, some good memories but mostly forgettable and lonely. I wasn’t very studious but did get my act together in my final year and got into a great university. I immigrated to the US soon after graduating and found an opportunity. Things clicked and I have been traveling a path to find myself ever since. Only in America is this possible… I worked hard, followed the rules, paid my taxes and stayed in California out of loyalty for the opportunities it has given me despite its dysfunction. I found my wife here. Had my kids here. Found my tribe here. There have been some very hard times as well - deaths, divorce, financial pain, mistakes of omission and mistakes of commission. You can’t dwell on these things - they are weights that will pull you down if you’re not careful. Learn from them. Respect them. BUT MOVE ON. To think 50 years ago I could have ever gotten a chance to meet the people I’ve met and have had the experiences I’ve had would have been mind boggling to my parents. It’s mind boggling to me now. We forget often and try to convince others it’s not true but America truly is the best country in the world. Everything and anything is possible here. I can testify. Be grateful to be here. This is the only place that gives EVERYONE a chance to live a great adventure. The first 50 years have been that for me - an incredible adventure. Notice there is nothing here about accomplishments or money. Because it doesn’t matter and it won’t matter. You will be dust in less than 100 years from now and the decision to be remembered won’t be yours so stop sweating it. It’s not in your control. So what is in your control? Be kind. Have fun. Work on something meaningful to you. Find your tribe. Try to find perspective. Find an incredible partner. Have a bunch of kids. Live an adventure. Forgive your parents - they were doing the best they could even if that wasn’t what you deserved. I will do what I can to make my next 50 years a wild ride. You should too. I love you and thank you. ❤️ 🙏🏽🙏🏽

Watch and learn.

Getting that account RESERVED now. Only at @KASTxyz

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My goal in life too!

Singapore Chinese are far more status maxi and the cost of having children significantly reduces lifestyle and apparent status. Assuming you have no kids, a reasonable upper middle class lifestyle probably includes: - continental car - 750 sq foot condo - 2-4x holidays a year, at least one to Europe - mostly eat out at restaurants / order in The monthly run rate on this is something like - $2500 on car loan + petrol etc - $5000 on mortgage - $3000 on food + groceries - $2000 of fun money (shopping, omakase, holidays etc) This is affordable for a DINK couple at 30 with 10k in employment income each. Now assume you add two kids (because having one is very inefficient). To stay in the same apparent SES bracket you must - upgrade your condo to at least 1,000 sq feet for extra rooms - put your kids in brand name pre-schools (Odyssey, Etonhouse, Mindchamp etc) - add a domestic helper / maid - bring your kids along for your holidays etc This takes your monthly run rate to: - $2500 on car loan + petrol (assuming no upgrade) - $8000 on mortgage - $4000 on food + groceries - $1000 on maid - $5000 on preschools + enrichment for two kids - $3000 of fun money (cost of holidays go up) for a whopping $23,500 per month. In other words even your top 25% quartile double income couples at 30 years old (tail end of peak childbearing age) cannot afford the lifestyle they may have become accustomed to, until they are likely around 35+ (assuming their income keeps growing) and they achieve 1 in 7 household status. Having children thus generally results in a downgrade in lifestyle, which Singaporean Chinese are less willing to accept. It particularly hits the women who have to take the shock of moving from glamorous office lady going cafe hopping and spin class with the girls to 'middle class' mother rushing home after work on weekdays and ferrying children to classes on weekends. Based on anecdotal observation, whenever my friends are able to have children without downgrading their lifestyle (very high earners or generational wealth), they tend to do it. Its those who cannot afford to do so that create endless copes about how much they hate children and prefer being child-free.

Team!!

I’m a Singapore CPF maxi

Team!

KAST

What we love to see!

First world problems - I can’t sync my darned new @Garmin watch to my @Strava account. Frustrating.

Got my physical Bitcoin Visa @KASTxyz card. Compared it to my AMEX Plat - this card packs way more heft and weight. Gorgeous!

Win by winning, not by talking.

Founder sh*t. 5X. 8X. @KASTxyz Let’s gooooooo!!!!

My biggest flex in life is that when I walk in the door at home, my wife asks me about my day and four kiddos rush to give me hugs. Get married. Put down roots. Have kids.

Thanks, KAST! Just got my 20% cashback! KAST ran a 48-hour 20% cashback campaign to celebrate its 2nd anniversary. During the promo, you got 20% cashback on payments at restaurants, fast food joints, bars, grocery stores, convenience stores, bakeries, and more.

“The Reality” The real population for the @KASTxyz product are the heavy users of stablecoins for moving money, financial stability, remote work, and solopreneurs. For the first 13-14 months you could only deposit stablecoins, no cash, not even converting crypto, so this group is where we got real PMF. That’s why we now have 3000+ waitlist for our @KASTbusiness product which will have EOR & Payroll and is in Beta now, that’s why we’re building a very cool new social money app for LATAM & Africa. Why we are building a new wealth app (self custodial). Our users/people want these products. We’re also building a new design studio in Singapore and hiring the best globally, to create beautiful brand and products. We’re also mid-way through acquiring two companies. This week, I’ve had war rooms on our new AI chat where you can dictate the KAST app to do anything you want, and war rooms on accelerating fiat even faster. I spent time with global art collabs, to push our brand to go deep into culture itself. Many of our team are in the US building direct banking and card issuance, and I’ve been up in the middle of the night on these calls. So whilst I love all of you on CT, there is another billion people to build for today. The most telling thing? We help 1000+ people a day via our Concierge, and we didn’t have a single ticket about whatever you see on CT. They mostly want help to sign up, and move money. All our products - card, fiat, earn, business, subscription, moving money with KAST Tag, and more - remain at record levels. We actually had our ATH by platform volume in the last 24hrs, annualised >$12B. When we launched two years ago, we had less than $500k in funding, and others had literally billions in funding and/or tokens. As a kid, I was an avid chess player, and especially in the fast version, my strategy was always “maximum pressure”. Always on, offensive chess. The startup versions of this, is absolute product velocity. “Shut up and Ship” is how you win. We’re more focussed than ever. Good luck keeping up…

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