Morning Grounding
Start your day with the OH MY HEART journaling practice to explore emotions, build self-awareness, and set daily priorities for a more grounded, intentional life.
Blog / Author
Timothy Rubash
Tim is an author, entrepreneur, and founder of West Egg Living, inspiring others to create a healthier, wealthier, wiser, and more meaningful life.
8 Assets That Can Make You Money While You Sleep
Discover 8 assets that can make money while you sleep, from dividend stocks and digital products to affiliate marketing. Start building passive income and financial freedom today!
Make Room For More Memories
Discover nine simple ways to welcome your grandchildren, support their parents, and strengthen family bonds through easier visits and meaningful moments together.
8 Grip Strength Exercises To Try
Discover eight grip strength exercises to build stronger hands and forearms, support everyday activities, and learn what your grip may reveal about overall health.
Money and Marriage
Strengthen your marriage with seven practical ways to manage money together, build trust, align your goals, and create a beautiful life as financial partners.
Life Wheel
Use the West Egg Living Life Wheel to assess eight areas of life, set meaningful goals, and review your progress as you create your beautiful life.
Motivation vs Habits
Build habits that last when motivation fades. Discover four practical ways to strengthen discipline, stay consistent, and create your beautiful life with West Egg Living.
Who Deserves Your Time and Energy?
Choose friendships that respect your time and energy. Learn to set boundaries, let go without bitterness, and nurture the people who bring joy and mutual care into your life.
11 Websites Every Retiree Should Bookmark
Discover 11 essential websites for Social Security, Medicare, taxes, lost retirement accounts, long-term care, advisor research, fees, and probate.
8 Practical Steps to Becoming a Millionaire
Discover eight practical steps to build wealth, reduce debt, invest consistently, increase savings, and work toward becoming a millionaire.
Food Safety Mistakes You're Probably Making At Home
Avoid common food safety mistakes from shopping to leftovers. Learn how to store, clean, thaw, cook, and refrigerate food safely to protect everyone at your table.
7 Habits That Make People Feel Welcome, Valued, and Connected
Build stronger friendships with seven simple habits that help others feel remembered, heard, and welcome. Small moments of connection can make a beautiful difference.
America's National Debt
Explore why America’s national debt has grown, why rising interest costs matter, and how today’s fiscal decisions could affect the economy and future generations.
A Clear-Eyed Look At Climate Change
How settled is climate science? Explore Steven Koonin’s Unsettled and discover what the data tells us, where uncertainty remains, and why asking better questions matters.
How To Get More Done Without Working More
Discover how to get more done without working more by managing your energy, reducing distractions, focusing on priorities, and building simple habits that last.
10 Popular ChatGPT prompts
Discover 10 popular ChatGPT prompts to help you write better, learn faster, brainstorm ideas, research topics, make decisions, solve problems, and get more from AI.
10 Financial Decisions To Understand Before Retirement
Understand 10 key financial decisions before retirement, from Social Security and healthcare to taxes, investments, withdrawals, housing, and protecting your financial future.
How to Win Friends and Influence People: Carnegie's Timeless Principles Applied to Modern Life
Dale Carnegie wrote his masterpiece in 1936, but every principle inside it reads like it was written for your group chat, your Zoom call, and your next tough conversation.
Think and Grow Rich: A Detailed Breakdown of Napoleon Hill's 13 Principles and How to Apply Them Today
Napoleon Hill spent 20 years studying 500 of the world's most successful people. Here is what he found — and how you can put every principle to work in your own life.
Atomic Habits: How Tiny Daily Changes Compound Into Remarkable Results
James Clear's Atomic Habits reveals how microscopic changes in daily behavior, layered over time, produce extraordinary outcomes — and exactly how to engineer them in your own life.
8 Fermented Foods For Gut Health
When it comes to gut health, microorganisms can make a massive difference.
Community Is The Bedrock
The Hub gives everything I create a connected home. But the relationships among the people who gather there are what can make the entire structure stronger.
10 Daily Habits For Men
As we age, fitness becomes about more than weight or personal records. One of the most important measures of long-term health is maintaining the strength and muscle that keep us active.
Devil's Throat
My first major dive took me 130 feet beneath the ocean, into darkness, tight caverns, and near panic. I went down hoping to conquer a fear. I surfaced knowing fear no longer got the final word.
What Is The Back End Of The Business?
The back end takes those new contacts and develops them into loyal, satisfied customers. It is where a business nurtures, educates, serves, and grows its audience over time.
What Is The Front End Of A Business?
Every successful business needs a reliable way to attract attention, create interest, capture leads, and turn potential buyers into customers.
Five Life Lessons From Leonardo da Vinci
Discover five timeless life lessons from Leonardo da Vinci about lifelong learning, understanding, purposeful living, character, and careful observation.
Minnesota's Historic First
For the first time in Minnesota history, voters will enter a gubernatorial election knowing that a woman will emerge as the winner.
Being A Good Neighbor
Here are seven practical ways to become the kind of neighbor most people appreciate.
Grocery Shopping On A Budget
These ten practical strategies can help you feed your household well while keeping more breathing room in your budget.
The Cowboy Code
The Cowboy Code is not really about boots, hats, or horses. It is about becoming someone others can trust. Live these principles consistently, and you will build something more valuable than ...
Will vs Trust
Wills vs. Trusts: Understanding the Right Estate-Planning Tool for You
Cutting the Cable Part 2
Cutting the Cable Part 2: Comparing fiber vs. cable, over-the-air antennas, streaming services, movies, media players, and more to find the best entertainment setup and value.
Unclogging Drains
A slow bathroom drain is one of those small household problems that can quickly become frustrating.
Cutting the Cable
Every month, many of us pay our cable, internet, and streaming bills without giving them much thought. The payments happen automatically, and before long we’ve accepted them as ...
The Psychology of Online Communities
In the vast landscape of the internet, online communities have emerged as dynamic spaces where individuals with shared interests, goals, or identities come together to connect, share knowledge, and ..
Back to Basics: Less Screen Time. More Real Learning
Are we actually improving education, or are we simply replacing proven methods with the latest technology because it's new?
23 Common Tax Deductions for Small-Business Owners
Certain expenses are specific to the kind of business you run. Here's a list of common deductible business expenses that apply to most small-business owners.
How Many Push-ups Should You Be Able To Do At Your Age?
Push-ups are everywhere, from school gym class tests to police and fire academies to military fitness assessments. That’s partly because they’re free, portable, and simple.
The Benefits Of Not Drinking Alcohol
It’s long been said that a glass of wine with dinner is a health asset, but more recent scientific research casts doubt.
8 Kitchen Items Shedding Microplastics Into Your Food
If you’re concerned about the threat of microplastics in the kitchen, you’re not off-base. Most people don’t think about their cutting board adding plastics that aren’t part of the recipe.
Does Walking Build Muscle?
Walking won’t replace strength training, but a few smart tweaks — hills, intervals, and bodyweight moves — can make every step build more muscle.
America's Best States for 2026
Each year, U.S. News & World Report ranks all 50 states using dozens of objective measurements across eight major categories to determine which states are serving their residents the best.
Five Healthy Drinks Besides Water
“Just drink water” is classic wellness advice you’ve likely heard countless times throughout your life from doctors, your parents, coaches. But there are other beverages that add to your daily...
The Best Breads for Steady Blood Sugar
Here’s some good news for anyone who’s been told to swear off the bread basket: you probably don’t have to. Finding the best bread for blood sugar mostly comes down to which loaf you choose.
5 Tests To See How Well You're Aging
Aging is inevitable, but how well you're aging is largely within your control. These five practical tests reveal where you stand and what to do next.
The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen R. Covey
Stephen R. Covey’s The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is not a productivity hack, a personality test, or a motivational pep talk. It is something far more demanding—and far more enduring.
Maximum Achievement by Brian Tracy
Maximum Achievement is one of Brian Tracy’s most comprehensive works, blending psychology, goal-setting, self-discipline, and performance into a single, cohesive philosophy.
Natural Mood Boosters: 8 Simple Ways To Feel Better
Your mental state is impacted by a variety of internal and external stimuli, all of which you can adjust, like the dimmer of a switch, to find a more optimal balance for daily mood.
The 5 Best Exercises for Arthritis
It may seem counterintuitive, but regular joint movement can ease and improve the symptoms of painful, chronic arthritis.
The 5 Minute Core Workout
A 5-minute core workout can build a stronger, more resilient core when you do it with focus and repeat it consistently.
Dedication
Dedicated with love to my mom. Your encouragement, wisdom, and unwavering faith made me who I am, and I hope this book honors the legacy you left in my heart.
Prologue
This book is not a memoir in the traditional sense. It is a collection of moments. Reflections. Questions. Lessons. Gratitude. Failures. Growth. Small discoveries that, over time, became a way of life
Curiosity as a Longevity Strategy
Staying curious isn't just good for your mood — it turns out that embracing lifelong learning in the second half of life may be one of the most powerful things you can do for your brain and your years
Mental Clarity and the Aging Brain
Your brain isn't declining — it's changing. Here's how simple, science-backed daily habits can sharpen your focus, quiet mental clutter, and keep you thinking clearly well into your second half of lif
Redefining Retirement: A New Horizon
The old idea of retirement as a full stop is fading fast — here's why people over 50 are trading the rocking chair for reinvention, purpose, and a whole new chapter.
Finding Your Tribe in the Second Half
After 50, the friendships that matter most don't happen by accident — here's how to seek out real connection and build a community that actually sustains you.
Epilogue
Some stories don't end with success—they end with gratitude. Life's greatest accomplishments aren't measured by careers or possessions, but by the people we love and the memories we create together.
The Art of Stillness
I spent much of my life climbing and chasing what came next. Only later did I discover that fulfillment wasn’t farther down the road—it was learning to be still and grateful for where I already was.
The Family You Marry Into
When you marry someone, you don’t just marry a person—you enter another family. I was fortunate enough to discover something I never expected: another chair at the table, and a place where I belonged.
Miles, Memories, and the Journey We Share
We traveled thousands of miles chasing beautiful places, but somewhere along the way I discovered the real magic wasn’t Paris, Tuscany, or Alaska. It was looking beside me and seeing Pam there.
The Friends Who Never Left
I went to ISU expecting an education and a career. Nearly fifty years later, I realize its greatest gift was something I never anticipated—a circle of friends who would walk beside me for a lifetime.
Five Years Into Retirement
I thought retirement meant stepping away from a meaningful career. I understand it differently now: the real gift wasn’t freedom from work—it was finally seeing clearly what deserved my time.
Toward the Green Light
West Egg Living began with a simple question: How could the lessons of my life help someone else? What emerged wasn’t another business, but a philosophy for making the second half of life deeply good.
A Life Among Houses
I thought I was starting over when my corporate career ended. Instead, I discovered that decades of engineering, home projects, and problem-solving had been preparing me for the next chapter all along
A Bridge to Forever
I proposed to Pam high above the water on the Golden Gate Bridge, but our journey was about more than a wedding. After everything life had taught us, I had finally found the person who felt like home.
A Tent Full of Love
I arrived thinking I had been left out, only to discover everyone had gathered for me. At sixty, I learned how profoundly the right kind of love can make you feel seen, celebrated, and home.
Best Date Ever
It was our 3rd date, but between the laughter, lingering conversation, and being the last 2 people in the restaurant, something shifted. Later I told my son, “I just had the best date of my life."
Finding My Match
After years of losing pieces of myself, I decided to choose hope, joy, and possibility again. I thought I was simply trying online dating. I had no idea I was about to meet the love of my life.
Rock Bottom
Within two years, I lost my career, my home, my marriage, and the future I thought was secure. When everything I had built disappeared, I was forced to confront one question: What remained? I did.
A Day of Triumph and Loss
One day I stood on the New York Stock Exchange ringing the closing bell, celebrating a 35-year career. Less than 24 hours later, another bell rang—and everything I thought was secure disappeared.
Finding His Strength
I watched Jake’s strength grow from a cramped basement gym to the national stage. But the greatest strength he developed couldn’t be measured in kilograms—it was discipline, humility, and character.
Fifty Candles
I turned 50 between the home that shaped me and the son who made me proud. Across 1000's of miles, I began to understand that life’s greatest milestones aren’t measured in years, but in relationships.
The Maiden Voyage
We entered the BWCA as six rookies with too much gear and plenty to learn. Somewhere between the paddling, portages, mud, and laughter, we discovered the adventure was really about being together.
Moments Marked in Paint
We thought we were chasing each other through the woods and playing paintball. What we were really collecting were stories—ridiculous, laughter-filled memories that would outlast every bruise.
The Alumni Games
Basketball followed me from a snowy childhood driveway to packed high school gyms and fiercely competitive games with my brothers. Long after the final buzzer, the game still feels like home.
Our Summer Catch
I thought I was teaching Jake how to catch, hit, and trust himself. Years later, I realized those ordinary evenings were teaching me something too: the true gift of fatherhood is simply being there.
A Complicated Chapter
Our marriage was complicated, filled with love, struggle, sacrifice, and lessons I understood only years later. But through it all came the greatest gift we shared: raising our son, Jake.
Jacob Timothy
I entered the hospital as a husband and left as a father. In one unforgettable moment, my world shifted forever—and suddenly every dream, ambition, and accomplishment had a new perspective.
My First Address Of My Own
I thought buying my first house meant I had arrived. Instead, Sunnyside Rd became a classroom—teaching me about money, mistakes, self-reliance, and the confidence that comes from figuring things out.
Long Lake Summers
For two summers, life was wonderfully simple: work hard, race home, and hit the lake with my brother. I didn’t know it then, but evenings like those would become some of my most treasured memories.
The Rotary Rocket
That RX-7 was more than a sports car. It was freedom, independence, and the swagger of being young—when the road ahead seemed endless and something wonderful waited beyond every curve.
When The World Opened
My first airplane ride showed me how big the world was. Before long, 3M was sending me across it—and every trip, project, and unfamiliar place was expanding the boundaries of my life.
Chasing Opportunities
I had offers that paid more and paths that led farther from home. But one unexpected interview, one ridiculous answer, and one shared laugh opened the door to the next 35 years of my life.
Caps and Champagne
Four years earlier, I arrived at Iowa State wondering if I belonged. Now I was leaving with a degree, a career waiting, and the confidence to discover what life beyond the classroom had in store.
The Internship That Changed Everything
I went to Washington hoping to prove I could be an engineer. Three months later, I returned with something even more valuable—a clearer sense of the career, the life, and the man I wanted to become.
The Summer of '78
I thought I was heading home for a quiet summer. Instead, one spontaneous “yes” opened the door to road trips, legendary concerts, great friends—and a summer that reminded me how to live.
Finding My Groove At ISU
College taught me engineering, but some of its best lessons never appeared on a transcript. Somewhere between late-night studying and legendary nights on Cessna, I found my people—and myself.
My Last Week of High School
Graduation was supposed to be my passage into adulthood. Instead, with my father gone and my mother fighting for her life, I learned that growing up sometimes arrives before you're ready.
My Iowa State Adventure
I arrived at Iowa State as a small-town kid surrounded by 25,000 strangers, wondering if I belonged. One unexpected point on a calculus exam helped change the answer—and the course of my life.
New Lisbon Basketball
In New Lisbon, basketball was more than a game—it was the heartbeat of winter. In a packed gym on a cold Wisconsin night, a small town could suddenly feel like the center of the world.
The Hardest Hits Came In Practice
I thought football was teaching me how to hit harder and play tougher. What I didn’t know was that every bruise, drill, and exhausting practice was preparing me for battles far beyond the field.
High School Years: Survival at Home
To everyone else, I was a normal teenager—good grades, sports, friends, a girlfriend. But behind our front door, a hidden battle was unfolding, and at fifteen, I became my mother’s protector.
Growing Up Together
I was in sixth grade when I first saw Sue Ann, and somehow the world looked different. What began with a shy glance would become my first love—and an eight-year journey from childhood into adulthood.
When Summer Felt Endless
For a twelve-year-old new kid, Wa Du Shuda Days offered everything summer promised—carnival lights, fireworks, freedom, and one girl I desperately hoped would notice me.
The Table That Held Us Together
It wasn’t a fancy table, and we weren’t a perfect family. But night after night, seven of us gathered there—and without realizing it, those simple meals were shaping who we would become.
The Shack
For one boy in a snowy Wisconsin town, Radio Shack was more than a store—it was a gateway to possibility, where curiosity met a soldering iron and imagination suddenly came alive.
Learning by Doing
Long before I owned a toolbox of my own, I learned beside my dad that almost anything could be fixed, built, or improved. Those early projects taught me lessons that would last a lifetime.
Trivia!!!
Long before trivia nights and a career built on problem solving, I was a boy with a tape recorder, a typewriter, and endless questions. I was discovering something that would never leave me: curiosity
The Halftime Game I'll Never Forget
Long before I understood discipline, I was learning it one shot at a time. What began on a driveway became a lifelong love—and taught me what could happen when passion met persistence.
Holy Pursuit
My introduction to Winona began with a motel, an open door, and three nuns chasing us across town. We had barely arrived, and already my brothers and I were making memories we’d never forget.
The Championship Goodbye
On the last day of my childhood in Aurora, I walked onto the ball field chasing a championship. Hours later, I would leave in my uniform—celebrating a victory while saying my hardest goodbye.
Mornings of Embarrassment
Some childhood struggles disappear with time, but the lessons remain. Mine was a hidden secret—one that would eventually teach me more about shame, compassion, and empathy than I ever expected.
Swinging Through Childhood
Spider-Man began as a childhood fascination, but his lessons followed me through life. What started with imagination became a story of courage, responsibility, and a bond across three generations.
Hero Of The Beach
It began with a twelve-cent comic book and a promise that strength could be built. I didn’t know it then, but Spider-Man and Charles Atlas were shaping the man I would become.
Cabin Life
Bass Lake was more than a weekend escape. It was where adventure, family, and freedom came together—and where lessons I didn’t recognize at the time began shaping my future.
Before the Phones
We didn’t need screens, schedules, or much supervision—just bikes, woods, a few friends, and daylight. In Sunset Acres, ordinary streets became our playground, and every day became an adventure.
The Quiet Strength Behind It All
She was the quiet strength behind five boys and the heart of our family. Decades later, life gave me one final gift—the chance to care for the woman who had spent a lifetime caring for me.
The Beginning
I was the youngest of five boys in a house filled with noise, competition, and adventure. Beyond our backyard waited a whole world to explore—and a childhood that would shape the man I became.
The Quiet Strength of Daily Rituals
After 50, life shifts in ways both expected and surprising — but small, consistent daily rituals can quietly anchor you through every transition, offering peace and clarity.
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