Sunday Morning Coffee

The passing of Steve Jobs among other things turned out to be a stop and reflect sort of event. Some of the quotes attributed to him about his personal philosophies were very interesting and add an entire different dimension to what I think about him (maybe I was the last to know). There were all sort of commentaries written of course but I'll cherry pick a couple that resonated with me from this one at MarketWatch which listed 12 lessons from Jobs

It's Not About The Money

I've said before that if you are doing something you love for work that the money will follow. It may not be a lot of money but it may not have to be (see below). The type of passion for a vocation that I think Jobs meant (and that I know I mean) will be manifested by superior output and be apparent to others. This can lead to some level of success or more humbly some level of viability. Making a living doing something you love to do is a great way to get on in life.

Yes You Can Make A Difference

Realistically none of us will make a difference that could be measured on a Jobsian scale but we don't have to make that type of difference. We can make small differences in our own circles of influence. Several times I've mentioned that you reading this and other stock market blogs are very possibly a go-to person for investing questions for friends and relatives. This may not even be a dozen people but if you helped one person avoid doing something truly stupid, then you made a big difference for that person even if they don't fully realize it.

Trying to make a difference plays a big part in my life but these are small scale. I can't express the amount of fun I have with my involvement with our fire department and while I like to think the fire department matters to the community it is not change the world stuff. But it doesn't have to be! It is fun and might make a small difference, not too shabby if you ask me.

Your Time is Precious-Don't Waste It

One odd nugget from all of this was the Steve Wozniak riff that Jobs always thought he would die young, in this context he lived a lot longer than he thought he would. I've mentioned this in terms of life being about the journey not the destination or not wishing every week away to get to the weekend.

My views here are shaped by personal experience. I was sick my junior year of highschool. Dying was unlikely, as I was told, but not impossible. This altered my life trajectory, at least I think it did in terms of what I would and would not have in my life and what I would do with my life. The various quotes attributed to Jobs about doing what you want to do with your life and last day on earth type of stuff is how I have structured my life.

To be clear I think I am going to be around for a very long time (good genes and I exercise a lot) but that does not mean that time is not precious. I started this phase of my career with two clients which means no money to speak of but my love of the work lead to viability and then a little better than viability (fortunately).

People have disagreed with me on this but the barriers to entry here are quite low as most of this is behavioral. Live in less house than you can afford, drive less car than you can afford, find something you love spending your time on, be willing to work your ass off in pursuit of the modest goal of viability and leave yourself a healthy margin of safety (low overhead, high savings rate).

This may seem preachy but I believe it is relevant to investing and portfolio management in terms of the burden we will place on our portfolios or the risks we need to take in our portfolios. We are more likely to continue doing work (that we get paid for) that we love later into life like my 80 year old neighbor and his backhoe and our portfolios will need to create less income if we continue to work and our needs are modest. How much better will your odds of financial success (IE not running out of money) if your portfolio doesn't have to start doing any heavy lifting until you're 80?