I know what you are going to ask...” what kind of bougie blog is this?” 

And yes, this blog is going to be bougie at times. It will be philosophical, but most importantly it will be in my own words and because of that I am going to apologize in advance that not everything will always be spelled correctly. I am also choosing the content, the images and for that matter this bougie blog title.  

So, about the title Obscura POV.  

A little back story. My father was a successful portrait photographer and just as any child you grow an interest in your father’s work. One day, I think it was for a Cub Scout merit badge, my father helped me make a pin hole camera out of large Folder's coffee can. It really is quite simple. We sprayed the inside and the lid with a flat black paint and ever so slightly pierced a tiny hole mid-way up the can. We then put a piece of black electrical take over the hole. Next, we found the darkest room in the house and took out an unexposed sheet of photo paper from a box and put it into the coffee can.  Then with the tiny hole facing a candle on the table everything was setup. The tape was removed and counted to around 10 and quickly put the tape back over the hole. Later that evening in the dark room we developed that photo paper and it was magical and sadly very out of focus. But it didn't matter. I created my first photograph. 

What is the connection to the blog title? 

Well, that pin hole camera is in its purest sense is a camera obscura. Obscura is derived from Latin, describing small rooms with a single tiny hole through which light entered. It is only a small ray of light and anything outside of its viewing angle will not be recorded. To make things even more interesting the light when it enters the tiny hole it inverts the image onto the photo paper.  

So, this blog title is a hat tip to my dad and his teaching his son the beautiful art of photography. But for purposes of this blog, my little sliver of light will be shining light on wealth and personal capital. From my perspective as a Certified Financial Planner™, an expat living in Portugal and working with people and their money for over 30 years I aim to share these insights on wealth management, behavioral finance and the crosscurrents of investing from abroad. In my time, it has been a reoccurring theme working with clients, that investing is as much an emotional experience as it is a financial experience.  Along the way I will be posting photographs of mine which may or may not have anything to do with the blog post. “It’s my blog and I can do what I want!”  

And finally, don’t take my views as dogmatic truth but rather as a guy trying to navigate this world of personal capital and wealth learning every day and sharing my thoughts with you. 

Be well.