Chad Walker

I was 256 pounds, couldn't break 100 in golf, and miserable scraping ice in Pennsylvania. Today I'm 165 lbs, carry a 13 handicap, own a beach condo in North Myrtle Beach, and I wrote a book about money. Here's the honest version of how it happened:

This is my crypto mining rig. EVGA RTX 3080 Ti cards on a wire rack in my attic. I built it in 2021. Mined Ethereum until the merge. Now it mines other protocols. It’s not making me rich. It’s teaching me how the technology actually works. Most people buy crypto and have no idea what the network does. I wanted to understand it at the hardware level. If you’re going to own something, understand it first.

Camping w my family last summer. Coffee from a french press on a camp stove. YETI cooler keeping everything cold. Some of the best mornings of my life didn’t have WiFi, a Nespresso, or a plan. You don’t need to go far. You just need to go somewhere your phone can’t reach you.

The difference between a habit and a ritual is intention. I don’t smoke every day. I smoke when the moment calls for it. If you’re cigar-curious: Camacho Connecticut. Light, smooth, forgiving. Start there. Work up

Avo XO — the slow evening. When the work is done and there’s nothing left to prove today. Creamy, complex, demands your attention. You can’t rush an Avo. Davidoff Nicaragua — when I want something with backbone. A little pepper, a little earth. For the days that earned it.

My cigar rotation says more about me than my resume. Thread:

My golf trip travel kit: Stack System speed stick. Foam roller. Two BlenderBottles. Shakeology. Energize preworkout. Beats. A phone with BODi loaded. The clubs are in the car. But this is the kit that determines whether I come home sharper or softer than when I left. Travel isn’t the reason the routine breaks. Lack of a system is.

What does your daily food actually look like? Not the Instagram meal prep. Not the cheat day photo. The boring Tuesday lunch that nobody posts. Mine: hard-boiled eggs, avocado, bacon, a protein shake, and whatever I can grill for dinner. Same rotation. Every week. Simple beats complicated. What’s yours?

Golden hour. A farm in Pennsylvania. Nobody around. Some people need a beach to relax. I need a field, a cigar, and the sound of absolutely nothing. Earned leisure doesn’t require a plane ticket. It requires permission — from yourself — to stop.

The pattern across all four books is identical: governments print money, currencies lose value, and the people who prepared are the ones who kept their purchasing power. Reading list > financial advisor. Build your own conviction.

4. Protect Your Money and Prosper — mine. I wrote it in 2016 as a CPA explaining to normal people why gold belongs in every portfolio. Gold was $1,200 then. It’s over $5,000 now.

I have a shelf full of books about gold and money. Most of them were written before 2020. Every single one predicted exactly what’s happening now. Here are the 4 that changed how I think about money:

If you’re stuck in the “I need to get better before I can enjoy it” trap — stop. Go play. Bring someone you like. Forget the scorecard. The game gives back way more than it takes. You just have to stop keeping score long enough to notice.

I spent 20 years thinking golf was about the score. Turns out the score is just the excuse to be outside for 4 hours with no phone, no email, and no agenda.

Nobody remembers what they shot on hole 14 of a random Tuesday round. Everybody remembers the golf trips. A thread on why I play golf — and it has nothing to do with the score: