Good morning & happy Monday!
“Marriage is hard. Divorce is hard. Choose your hard.
Obesity is hard. Being fit is hard. Choose your hard.
Being in debt is hard. Being financially disciplined is hard. Choose your hard.
Communication is hard. Not communicating is hard. Choose your hard.
Life will never be easy. It will always be hard. But we can choose our hard. Choose wisely.”
-Unknown
What a dynamite quote! I love it! And it’s so true!
I was talking with a good friend of mine recently who I’ve known since I was 15 years old, we basically grew up together. We were laughing about how many people may look at our lives with a certain level of jealousy now. We joked, “Many people want to be us now, but NOBODY wanted to be us 20 years ago.”
20 years ago, at the ripe age of 24, I was grinding in an entry-level Junior Financial Advisor position at a major national bank. The pay rate was low, the expectations were high, the corporate crap was through the roof.
I routinely worked 70-hour weeks when first starting my career at Northwestern Mutual. The first weeklong vacation I took was 1 ½ years in, and that was my honeymoon. It was quite common for me to come home after my kids were already in bed (one night I got home as late as midnight from client appointments) and I was almost always out the door before they woke up. This did not last forever, but for a season of my life this was the norm.
I knew there was a price to pay for success in my chosen profession and I intentionally paid that price very heavily on the front end. I am benefiting now for the work I put in back then. Those who were not a part of that journey may falsely come to the conclusion that my career has always been this productive, I can assure you that is most certainly not the case.
I’ve been poor more of my life than I’ve not been poor. There were tremendous lessons learned throughout the journey. That’s maybe a topic for another Monday Morning Memo. 😉
Today, my point in bringing this up is how a long-term view is critical for success in so many areas of life, most certainly investing. Patience, perspective, and a long-term view are counter-cultural. We are inundated with messages of the need for things now … advertisers try to convince us we deserve it, and we deserve it now. Our patience is virtually non-existent … if a webpage takes more than 2 seconds to load we get bent out of shape. A long-term view is a foreign concept … put it on the credit card and figure it out later is what our society tells us is the norm.
But, we are wiser than this my friends. We realize that patience, perspective, and a long-term view will pay off and we tune out the news and commentary that tells us otherwise.
I recently read a book called “Same as Ever” by Morgan Housel, it was a solid read. His chapter titled “Time Horizons” begins with …
Long-term thinking is easier to believe in than to accomplish. Most people know it’s the right strategy in investing, careers, relationships – anything that compounds. But saying ‘I’m in it for the long run’ is a bit like standing at the base of Mount Everest, pointing to the top, and saying, ‘that’s where I’m heading.’ Well, that’s nice. Now comes the test.
Long term is harder than most people imagine, which is why it’s more lucrative than most people assume.
Everything worthwhile has a price, and the prices aren’t always obvious. The real price of long term – the skills required, the mentality needed – is easy to minimize and often summarized with simple phrases like “Be more patient,” as if that explains why so many people can’t.
Those who win financially are able to have the discipline to keep a long-term perspective. Yes, even when it’s hard, because they understand that long-term thinking is exceptionally profitable.
Did anyone want to start a business in 2008 at the onset of the Great Recession? I did. That’s when I started my career at Northwestern Mutual. 😊
Did anyone want to add money to stocks when the market was crashing during the COVID-19 pandemic in early 2020? I did. In fact, I used the opportunity to significantly add to my investments at depressed asset prices. 😊
Did anyone see the inflation-driven market correction of 2022 as a buying opportunity? I did. We had a joke in my office that when my teammates would say “Oh no! Another big down day in the market,” I would dart out of my office and say, “I know, isn’t that great!? What a great buying opportunity!”
Here’s the thing … I am benefiting today from all of those decisions I made then.
Where they hard? Heck yes! Did I “feel” like making them? No way! But long-term thinking gives me a completely different perspective … a perspective that has been very profitable.
I’m incredibly honored to put these lessons and this perspective to work for you in your financial plan. I will continue to encourage everyone of my clients to keep a long-term perspective … because the payoff is significant.
Thank you for allowing me to be on the journey with you!
Have a wonderful week ahead!