the purpose of investment to me is a good night's sleep. knowing the goal is imperative to maximize effectiveness; what do you want? for some it would be the trappings of success, the car the house the clothes the watch...to create a mirror to view yourself as a winner.. for others it might be a legacy to pass to others reducing their anxieties about making ends meet..spending little but creating a hoard for others.. many of us will take a middle path of some to our successors and some as reward; little luxuries... the key to the speculations is building a nest egg to support these ideations..money is freedom and opportunity and when you have you own comfortable multiple of that then you might relax.... and the funny part it is a reasonable goal to develop that nest egg. but it takes, in the absence of bizzare luck (lottery?) time...the currency we can't print more of. when we get there..then all strategies are open..make the last check in life bounce to a possibly self sustaining or even growing asset bundle. again, what are your goals? this article is a conceit, a vanity; but a great one..having the bucks to have this problem is a rare and lucky occurrence...an economy and a nation that will support these aspirations at these levels is amazing...let us give thanks. sleep well....
'For instance, my instinct is to assume that others have good intentions.' you were not wrong in your twenties, you were right but quo bono, who benefits? we all have good intentions but only within our own frame...we see the world not as it is but how we are... we feed ourselves with 'feely' not necessarily 'thinky'....the difference is thinky is changeable, malleable, evolutionary; facts make our understanding different, not better. where better is 'feely' we bend our world to suit our framing. most of the time feely works just fine...we have a community of people like us that share a set of truths that are quite functional. we vote the same, we worship the same, we have a set of rules that govern our behaviors..we agree on much. but disruptions happen, the rules change, the routes to successes that we took for granted change. could be resources, could be climate, could be new ideas and disruptive tech..we might see stuff coming but maybe not. thinky is hard...we all use facts the way a drunkard uses a lamp post,for support and not illumination. and we cling to and elevate those pieces of information that validate us and are resistant to change. we are healthy today--i will be healthy tomorrow, i've invested in stuff that is safe--confederate dollars? weimar--marks? lots of ways things can go wrong or at least 'different'. we all have good intentions but they are personal good intentions and can only be understood by the study of the 'other'...we don't all have the same good intentions. we must be nimble, we must be accepting that the world DOES change and we must adapt. we must be compassionate at least to the level of understanding different ways to think and act. the point is good intentions are a variable set of personal behaviors, not a universal.
it is the down years that are the 'downfall' of managed money..in the up years the difference between 10% and 8% are ignored ..everyone's getting fat and healthy! you are healthier than me with your higher returns but we're all making cheddar. but a few years of down 10% and than paying fees of 2%+ you get poorer faster; that stings. there is a reason animals travel in a herd...the safety of the crowd..the front is in more danger but have some rewards of first pick of resources, the hindmost eaten by predators..easy pickins', but the middle just trudges on going from place to place relatively safely. it is about minimizing the effects of the lean times if you're in for a long hall..risk/reward is the game and a hot tip, a gut feeling, a sense that one is smarter when all are similar in the game is the real risk and paying 2% year in year out for the aforementioned ideations is a choice that might not pay off...spoiler..they're not all berkshire hathaway. past performance and future earnings, blah-blah verbiage is there for a reason..not advice, disclaimers. as they say every time they open the door to the casinos 'good luck!'.
one addendum is having a person..lawyer, estate para-legal, or others on tap when they they need to access all the t's crossed and i's dotted... i was my mom's executor and having help was invaluable...have them know where they can get advice..perhaps from the people that put together the will and/or trusts.. and simplify ;->
another metric to 'i missed out' because of frugality is how you slept... to me, a good night's sleep is the only metric i use...i remember all the nights i worried but few of the restful ones, they string together. an extra latte frapomochachino is forgotten but having sufficient insulation, no real surety but a comfortable illusion, to rest peacefully....that is my value and my metric. the feeling of avoiding failure....because sufficient insulation from threats is comforting.
sir: it was good that you helped your pal get her affairs in order, understood, clarified but that is the end of your utility to her. her happiness may be quite different than yours.. she had the rug pulled out from her once...the savings, the investments and the future are HERS to define. to some,money is insulation, a way of avoiding the bad stuff... and when you have enough insulation, up to you, you can relax as is YOUR will. that is the value of money...choices. of course as keynes and caroll showed jam tomorrow is never jam...but for the justifiably fearful never jam may be sweeter than the fading memory of the jam, the rolex, the jag when your child needs a kidney and the insurers just laugh... money is what you think it is if and only if you have it! for me the value of money is a good night's sleep...for others, i'm sure it's different....
Comments:
the purpose of investment to me is a good night's sleep. knowing the goal is imperative to maximize effectiveness; what do you want? for some it would be the trappings of success, the car the house the clothes the watch...to create a mirror to view yourself as a winner.. for others it might be a legacy to pass to others reducing their anxieties about making ends meet..spending little but creating a hoard for others.. many of us will take a middle path of some to our successors and some as reward; little luxuries... the key to the speculations is building a nest egg to support these ideations..money is freedom and opportunity and when you have you own comfortable multiple of that then you might relax.... and the funny part it is a reasonable goal to develop that nest egg. but it takes, in the absence of bizzare luck (lottery?) time...the currency we can't print more of. when we get there..then all strategies are open..make the last check in life bounce to a possibly self sustaining or even growing asset bundle. again, what are your goals? this article is a conceit, a vanity; but a great one..having the bucks to have this problem is a rare and lucky occurrence...an economy and a nation that will support these aspirations at these levels is amazing...let us give thanks. sleep well....
Post: Spending It
Link to comment from January 11, 2025
'For instance, my instinct is to assume that others have good intentions.' you were not wrong in your twenties, you were right but quo bono, who benefits? we all have good intentions but only within our own frame...we see the world not as it is but how we are... we feed ourselves with 'feely' not necessarily 'thinky'....the difference is thinky is changeable, malleable, evolutionary; facts make our understanding different, not better. where better is 'feely' we bend our world to suit our framing. most of the time feely works just fine...we have a community of people like us that share a set of truths that are quite functional. we vote the same, we worship the same, we have a set of rules that govern our behaviors..we agree on much. but disruptions happen, the rules change, the routes to successes that we took for granted change. could be resources, could be climate, could be new ideas and disruptive tech..we might see stuff coming but maybe not. thinky is hard...we all use facts the way a drunkard uses a lamp post,for support and not illumination. and we cling to and elevate those pieces of information that validate us and are resistant to change. we are healthy today--i will be healthy tomorrow, i've invested in stuff that is safe--confederate dollars? weimar--marks? lots of ways things can go wrong or at least 'different'. we all have good intentions but they are personal good intentions and can only be understood by the study of the 'other'...we don't all have the same good intentions. we must be nimble, we must be accepting that the world DOES change and we must adapt. we must be compassionate at least to the level of understanding different ways to think and act. the point is good intentions are a variable set of personal behaviors, not a universal.
Post: Why We Struggle
Link to comment from January 4, 2025
it is the down years that are the 'downfall' of managed money..in the up years the difference between 10% and 8% are ignored ..everyone's getting fat and healthy! you are healthier than me with your higher returns but we're all making cheddar. but a few years of down 10% and than paying fees of 2%+ you get poorer faster; that stings. there is a reason animals travel in a herd...the safety of the crowd..the front is in more danger but have some rewards of first pick of resources, the hindmost eaten by predators..easy pickins', but the middle just trudges on going from place to place relatively safely. it is about minimizing the effects of the lean times if you're in for a long hall..risk/reward is the game and a hot tip, a gut feeling, a sense that one is smarter when all are similar in the game is the real risk and paying 2% year in year out for the aforementioned ideations is a choice that might not pay off...spoiler..they're not all berkshire hathaway. past performance and future earnings, blah-blah verbiage is there for a reason..not advice, disclaimers. as they say every time they open the door to the casinos 'good luck!'.
Post: Bet on Low Costs
Link to comment from December 7, 2024
one addendum is having a person..lawyer, estate para-legal, or others on tap when they they need to access all the t's crossed and i's dotted... i was my mom's executor and having help was invaluable...have them know where they can get advice..perhaps from the people that put together the will and/or trusts.. and simplify ;->
Post: When to share estate plans and net worth with your adult children
Link to comment from June 29, 2024
another metric to 'i missed out' because of frugality is how you slept... to me, a good night's sleep is the only metric i use...i remember all the nights i worried but few of the restful ones, they string together. an extra latte frapomochachino is forgotten but having sufficient insulation, no real surety but a comfortable illusion, to rest peacefully....that is my value and my metric. the feeling of avoiding failure....because sufficient insulation from threats is comforting.
Post: Got Change?
Link to comment from February 25, 2023
sir: it was good that you helped your pal get her affairs in order, understood, clarified but that is the end of your utility to her. her happiness may be quite different than yours.. she had the rug pulled out from her once...the savings, the investments and the future are HERS to define. to some,money is insulation, a way of avoiding the bad stuff... and when you have enough insulation, up to you, you can relax as is YOUR will. that is the value of money...choices. of course as keynes and caroll showed jam tomorrow is never jam...but for the justifiably fearful never jam may be sweeter than the fading memory of the jam, the rolex, the jag when your child needs a kidney and the insurers just laugh... money is what you think it is if and only if you have it! for me the value of money is a good night's sleep...for others, i'm sure it's different....
Post: The Poor Millionaire
Link to comment from February 18, 2023