Shane Yadao and his partner discuss how presence matters more than money in relationships. When Shane worked as a barista, he'd make vanilla lattes on their balcony after the kids slept, creating a ritual that deepened their connection. He argues that truly paying attention during simple moments, rather than documenting them, is what actually strengthens a marriage.
I think the most valuable non-financial investments is experiences. You know, they don't necessarily have to be always centered around finances, but getting creative and creating experiences for us, right, as a couple, as a family. You know, I remember when we first got started on our journey in life together, we didn't have a whole lot of money, and Shane was actually working as a barista. And so he would make the best vanilla lattes. And after the kids were sleeping and we were done with everything that we needed to do, we would just sit on our little balcony and he would make me a vanilla latte. And it was so funny because our balcony wall was like this high, so you couldn't really see over the balcony. So we would just be sitting like this, you remember that? And I just light a little candle, and it was just an experience. Yeah, a moment. And it was an investment into us to give us time to talk and to connect and get to know each other. Valuable, I think, is just different experiences.
Absolutely. I think that's so good. And to add on to that, another valuable investment that's non-financial would be into being present, you know, being present. Because I think we could— yeah, we could— I think people have experiences, but they're just not present, you know. So it might be picture, you know, in the camera reel or on the, on the, you know, in the, in the gallery of your phone. Um, but it really doesn't mean as much because you weren't present, you know. So I think being present, you know, as I think about our, our coffee nights or date nights on the thing, you know, it's like it wasn't, you know, we weren't doing anything really spectacular, but because we were present with each other, they were really, really, um, powerful times in our life that we got to know each other on a deeper level, that we got to work through a lot of a lot of challenges and issues and important things that most people sweep under the rugs because they're not present. So I would say investing into being present would be huge. Yeah.
