Cigarettes After Sex & Inflation

Lately, Cigarettes After Sex has been my soundtrack. Especially Sunsetz:

“And when you go away, I still see you — The sunlight on your face in my rearview.”

Dedicating the song to the life I walked away from last December.

For 4 months, I finally experienced what freedom felt like: No politics. No pretending. No performance. Just space.

But even then, guilt followed me. “You should be doing more.”

It took time to unlearn the idea that rest is lazy.

Writing became my way of healing, of understanding what I was escaping from, and what I wanted to build next.

Because burnout isn’t the only threat to freedom.

There’s something else we don’t talk about enough—Inflation.

What is Inflation

$10 used to buy lunch. Now it buys a coffee. That’s inflation stealing your lunch.

Inflation is not just about prices going up.

It’s a shift. A transfer of power from the savers to owners.

Inflation shrinks money, but it grows the value of things that scale:

1. Property

2. Equity

3. Intellectual property

4. Ownership in real businesses

5. Even debt, if used right, becomes cheaper in real terms

Most people keep chasing money the way workers were taught to: monthly, linearly, with time traded for each dollar.

But the wealthy treat money as a tool, not the goal. A tool to buy freedom, to gain time.

They don’t chase money—they reallocate it.

They don’t save harder—they own smarter.

Quietly Building

I quit my full time job to take a break and to rebuild. Slowly, quietly, with intention:

1. Investing in assets that beat inflation: startups, equity, and property

2. Building Moonscape, my startup ecosystem, a launchpad as a testing ground for ideas and collaborations

3. Writing as my thinking tool and digital presence

4. Honing valuable skills—design, strategy, product, business, investing

5. Building toward 10 income sources, so no one stream can control my time

6. Placing myself in the right circles—investors, founders, property players, nature lovers

I always look for rooms where I’m the least experienced. That’s where growth happens.

If I ever feel like the smartest person there, it means I’ve stayed too long, and probably it’s time for me to leave.

I’m not chasing noise. I’m building leverage. Slowly. Quietly. On my terms.

My Version of Wealth

Wealth isn’t just luxury and viral wins. It’s freedom.

Wealth is:

• Being happy and healthy

• Options to choose

• Resting without guilt

• Earning without asking for permission

I’ve worked for others since I was 14. Quietly. Seriously.

Never chasing the spotlight but responsibility always found me. In the end, it drained me because I didn’t own the outcome.

Now, I finally get to choose what I build. On my own terms. With no pressure to prove anything.

This isn’t about overnight success. It’s about playing the long game with patience, clarity, and ownership.

From zero. Brick by brick.

Final Thoughts

Inflation is a reminder that systems change and we need to change with them.

If you’re still trading time for money with no leverage, you’ll feel the squeeze. But if you own things that grow, inflation works for you, not against you.

So don’t just save harder. Build smarter. Place yourself in better rooms.

Start thinking like a builder, not just a worker.

Maybe stop depending on systems that were never designed for your freedom.

Maybe stop treating money like a finish line and start using it as a lever.

The system won’t save us. But we can save ourselves.

Quietly. Strategically.

On our own terms.

Till next week,

Peggy.T

Chief Moonscaper