Ascendant Collective

The newsletter for people who are done waiting for permission. Real income strategies, real stories, and the financial knowledge schools never taught you.

Aug 11

Salary Secrecy in Southeast Asia, and Why It Is Hurting All of Us.

Wealth Psychology Everyone in your office knows roughly who drives what. People know who just bought a condo, who went

Aug 11, 2026

11 min read

Aug 02

The Odyssey, but lessons in finance and obstacles that are stopping you.

Wealth Psychology I went in watching a man try to go home and fail repeatedly for reasons that were entirely

Aug 2, 2026

12 min read

Jul 05

Rich People Don't Have Better Taste. They Just Trained For It.

Most people assume sophisticated taste is something you're either born with or you're not. Classical music.

Jul 5, 2026

7 min read

Jun 24

Rich People's Real Hobby Isn't the Yacht. It's Something You Already Have.

Ask someone what rich people do with their free time and you'll get the same answer every time.

Jun 24, 2026

8 min read

May 26

The AP × Swatch Royal Pop Broke People's Brains. Here's Why That Should Worry You.

What happened · 16 May 2026 Swatch × AP Royal Pop Launch 🚨 19 US stores closed before selling a single watch. Safety

May 26, 2026

17 min read

May 17

The S&P Just Hit 7,500. Here's Why Some People Should Be Worried.

The S&P 500 crossed 7,500 this week. Index funds look great. Financial media is positive. Nobody'

May 17, 2026

5 min read

Mar 16

Gold in Ringgit Just Doubled. Nobody Was Watching.

Gold hit RM636 per gram this month. Two years ago it was RM293. That's a 117% gain. The

Mar 16, 2026

9 min read

Mar 13

Your Salary Is a Single Point of Failure

Engineers have a term for it. Single point of failure. It means any part of a system where, if that

Mar 13, 2026

7 min read

Mar 04

EPF Just Declared 6.15% for 2025. Here Is the Calculation They Did Not Show You.

EPF declared 6.15% for 2025. Here's what the announcement didn't tell you — and what it means for your actual retirement number.

Mar 4, 2026

9 min read

Mar 01

I Was 15, I Had a Powerbank Empire. Then I Ran Out of Customers.

There's a version of this story where I talk about hustle. A scrappy 15-year-old who spotted

Mar 1, 2026