PROPERTY OF™

A monthly round up of thoughts from life and work from your favorite designer/agency owner.

Dec 11 • 3 min read

Property Of ™ 12.24


Property Of Shawn Khemsurov

Hi Friends,

First, a huge thank you to people I've run into in real life that had positive words about this little newsletter, it really motivates me to keep going.

We've got a few irons in the fire, hence the space between broadcasts, but we are here now. Blessings. Alina and I finally found a nice mid-century home in East Beechwold (shout out Kareem for the assist)and will be closing on the purchase next week if everything goes to plan. I'm excited for the extra space, quiet streets, and potential for a sauna and indoor golf simulator, but obviously stressed to move and make a large investment. Thank you to those that have offered to help me move, but I don't think I can subject anyone to that agony.

Financial Thoughts:

A younger homie of mine was recently lamenting about getting a late start on investing and retirement saving, and I tried to assure him that it's never too late. I refused to participate in any type of retirement contributions in my earlier career days due to stubbornness and ignorance. Thinking about yourself getting old in your twenties is nearly impossible. I only started learning more about investing in my 30s shortly after leaving Homage. I find it a shame that financial literacy isn't clearly taught in school or anywhere else for that matter. I've learned a decent amount from owning a business, consuming youtube and reddit, and also asking people in my network that are smarter than me questions.

I recently discovered the 'financial life cycle' and thought it would be fun to line up the recommended focus to what I was actually doing during the time period:

1. Early Years (Teenage to Early 20s)

Focus: Building a foundation, Education and skill-building, Part-time jobs or internships.

Me: Worked at Jolly Pirate Donuts, Pizza Plus, Drexel Theater, Target and OSU soil lab to have money to buy hardcore records and get through college without starving. Moved to SF with an amount of money in the bank that is laughable today.

2. Emerging Adulthood (20s to Early 30s)

Focus: Entry-level jobs and career building, Managing student loans or debt, Building credit, Investing in retirement early (e.g., 401(k), IRA).

Me: Assistant Designer at Old Navy, A&F, then joining Homage startup, rented a house, scared of credit cards, didn't care about retirement.

3. Establishing Life (30s to 40s)

Focus: Growth and stability, Career advancement or career changes, Buying a home, saving, investing, spending

Me: Bought my home at 5% down with no money leftover, quit Homage to start my own agency at Electric Eye, read up on money, investing, retirement, started to save more, tried to spend less and keep a minimal lifestyle in exchange for more freedom, paid off student loans

4.Peak Earning Years (40s to 50s)

Focus: Accumulating wealth, Maximizing income and savings. Paying off significant debts (e.g., mortgage, student loans). Increasing retirement contributions. Estate planning begins (wills, trusts).

Me: Renting my current home out, continue investing, build up Electric Eye, possibly start new business or revenue streams, stay healthy

5. Pre-Retirement (50s to Early 60s)

Focus: Transition planning.

Me: Not there yet

6. Retirement (60s and Beyond)

Focus: Preservation and enjoyment.

Me: Retire at 60, golf and eat lunch with friends... stay busy with fun jobs and hobbies.

Interesting how I was loosely following the life cycle without knowing what it was. Everyone makes a few mistakes along the way and no journey is the same. I'm excited to keep learning and it would be really cool to pass any knowledge I have on to others in the future.

Work

Please follow Headshop and bookmark this site, I'm not at liberty to tell you why quite yet.

Tetra is heavily marked down for the end of year.

Electric Eye tweaked our site a bit, added some landing pages and started advertising a bit to expand our footprint. We have a couple new case studies like Highbrow Hippie and glad to be working with Ryan Shaw again on Happy Nuts :) I have a feeling 2025 will be our best year yet.

I've also made an effort to be more active on Linked In (not my comfort zone) with some great advice from Finn Mckenty. I started an outreach campaign, already met some really cool people and already started referring some business to them.

I've been playing around with some original content called Store Inspectors, where I film myself running through ecom stores and give feedback like a home inspection. Enjoy episode one here where I inspect GPen:

I also designed a Shopify Migration Checklist as a lead magnet for our website, download it here:


Inspiration:

Crazy OSU tee Jason Roehrig sent us:

This Pete Rose (RIP) photo I found on Marketplace:

What is Reverse Weave?
Property of Sports Illustrated
City of Friend
The most insane Islanders shirt ever


Audio:
I am selling a bunch of stuff on discogs, so I have been listening to random stuff in my collection to remember the good old days:
Juelz Santana - From Me to You
Cap'n Jazz
The Broadways - Broken Star
Against All Authority - Destroy What Destroys You
Realized - 21st Century Terminal World
Chokehold - Content With Dying
Ebony Tears - Handful of Nothing

Alright folks, have a great holiday break.

Thanks,
SK

PO Box 2921 , Columbus , OH 43216
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A monthly round up of thoughts from life and work from your favorite designer/agency owner.


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