Sunday Morning Coffee

A couple of weeks ago I had a birthday and birthdays are always a good time to reflect a little or maybe recalibrate somehow. A while back I came to a theory about "tough" or "difficult" birthdays being a function of not being happy with where you are in life (no claim of originality). The only difficult birthday I've ever had was 25--my job at the time was at Lehman Brothers cold-calling for 12 hours a day. Enduring a job you don't like during some portion of your life probably helps you develop as a person but a lifetime of this sort of thing probably means a lifetime of unhappiness.

This sort of thing plays a big role with investing. When you can figure out a few things about yourself and what actually matters to you and then figure a way to prioritize your life in accordance with what is important to you then your investing should be more aligned with those priorities. As an example and tying in a point I've made before is that finding out you had too much in equities after a 50% decline is a bad place to be. Having too much can be mitigated with self-awareness. I also think self-awareness makes for a better quality of life.

To again quote our friend Bill here in Walker; "you can figure it out now or you can figure it out later but if you can figure it out now your life will be much easier."

As a matter of personal philosophy I think life can be made much easier by living well within your means and making a commitment to fitness. I also think life can be much happier by finding something volunteer-wise that you can really get into and want to spend time doing--the possibilities are endless.