One of my favorite quotes about finance is from Morgan Housel. “Most financial debates are people with different time horizons talking over each other.” Actually I take that back — a lot of my favorite quotes about finance (and life in general) are from Morgan Housel, not just one. He’s one of those guys that you’ve just
Great insight, words of reason. One of the most distinguishing characteristics needed to invest long term - is to be able to sweat it out in the short term. That’s where most Americans fall short in the “invest for the long term” equation. Once corporate corrupt elites pulled pensions from the working class and replaced them with 401k’s, they Shifted the role of responsibility to average working class people in a very short period of time. Prudent? Fiduciary duty? Investment Theory? All this did was save and make tons more $ and remove the burden of liability to properly manage the risk of their valued employees. And now, the average worker would be “in the market” to fall prey to even more disadvantages- market manipulators, and be forced to sink or swim with the same people who pushed them into this pool in the first place. Look at the top 100 congressman/women stock returns last year versus Joe average guy/gal or the S&P. It’s absurd. The market may be where we need to get our returns but it is far from efficient - far from regulated - far from fair. I agree the U.S. is on a dark path due to corruption. Waste and abuse of our tax dollars. Abuse of power. How does the average person navigate the future with knowledge against a backdrop of unethical/immoral practices? We wake up and find our stocks dropped overnight, when we can’t trade, on information we aren’t privy to - and yet someone was before us! Until we have a fair system that rewards us for 30-40 years of work, and allows us to retire and not become homeless…while a slice of people sit on $200billion - we will have work to do. Investment theory misses one big element not world into the equations: corruption. It can’t be solved. Long term in markets look amazing looking back. It would be much easier for average Joe to realize long term gains if markets were highly regulated, fairly governed, with zero corruption, and we could follow the rules of saving//investing/compound interest/gains, and all enjoy the benefits. No need for pensions, relying upon government programs. I see that as the only way we make it 100 more years. And trust in relationships is important, and good habits are important too. Nicely written!
It is absurd that the current system requires you to be good at your job AND be a nearly professional investor if you want to retire. Even better — every time you want to invest and buy a stock/index fund, well it’s likely the market is closed, it’s only open when you’re (supposed to be) at work!!
I don’t think regulation is the key tho. Generally regulations have good intention initially, but then billionaire corporate lobbyist twist and pervert them to make it even harder for us to get by.
I would never recommend this to anyone but… I’ve started to save all my excess cash in Bitcoin. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the mission (get the creation of money out of our corrupt governments hands), but more than that it’s a protest. Even if I lose all my money, fuck it, at least it’s not going back into the same system that has been rigged to screw us from the day we are born!
Can’t disagree with what you’ve stated and the Bitcoin. Seems like the titans are trying to figure out how to profit from it - or - control it. Until then they call crypto a “fraud” and some of that is true like all things money related today. But at $34 trillion now in U.S. debt, more interest that our military spending , something has to change. Adding more dollars to our system doesn’t seem likely. I wish I knew more about the future of our monetary system. I don’t want to be caught helpless when whatever happens happens.
I have learned that in any relationship disagreement, I can be right or I can be happy, rarely will I be both, at the same time.
Inspired writing as always. Looking forward to sharing your future works of art!
Right. It's a rare gift, to be with someone who lets you be right and happy. It requires someome very humble who him/herself is happy.
Thank you as always.
And ofc Morgan Housel has a quote on this
"Good decisions aren't always rational. At some point you have to choose between being happy and being 'right‘" The Psychology of Money, pg 194
Great insight, words of reason. One of the most distinguishing characteristics needed to invest long term - is to be able to sweat it out in the short term. That’s where most Americans fall short in the “invest for the long term” equation. Once corporate corrupt elites pulled pensions from the working class and replaced them with 401k’s, they Shifted the role of responsibility to average working class people in a very short period of time. Prudent? Fiduciary duty? Investment Theory? All this did was save and make tons more $ and remove the burden of liability to properly manage the risk of their valued employees. And now, the average worker would be “in the market” to fall prey to even more disadvantages- market manipulators, and be forced to sink or swim with the same people who pushed them into this pool in the first place. Look at the top 100 congressman/women stock returns last year versus Joe average guy/gal or the S&P. It’s absurd. The market may be where we need to get our returns but it is far from efficient - far from regulated - far from fair. I agree the U.S. is on a dark path due to corruption. Waste and abuse of our tax dollars. Abuse of power. How does the average person navigate the future with knowledge against a backdrop of unethical/immoral practices? We wake up and find our stocks dropped overnight, when we can’t trade, on information we aren’t privy to - and yet someone was before us! Until we have a fair system that rewards us for 30-40 years of work, and allows us to retire and not become homeless…while a slice of people sit on $200billion - we will have work to do. Investment theory misses one big element not world into the equations: corruption. It can’t be solved. Long term in markets look amazing looking back. It would be much easier for average Joe to realize long term gains if markets were highly regulated, fairly governed, with zero corruption, and we could follow the rules of saving//investing/compound interest/gains, and all enjoy the benefits. No need for pensions, relying upon government programs. I see that as the only way we make it 100 more years. And trust in relationships is important, and good habits are important too. Nicely written!
It is absurd that the current system requires you to be good at your job AND be a nearly professional investor if you want to retire. Even better — every time you want to invest and buy a stock/index fund, well it’s likely the market is closed, it’s only open when you’re (supposed to be) at work!!
I don’t think regulation is the key tho. Generally regulations have good intention initially, but then billionaire corporate lobbyist twist and pervert them to make it even harder for us to get by.
I would never recommend this to anyone but… I’ve started to save all my excess cash in Bitcoin. Don’t get me wrong, I believe in the mission (get the creation of money out of our corrupt governments hands), but more than that it’s a protest. Even if I lose all my money, fuck it, at least it’s not going back into the same system that has been rigged to screw us from the day we are born!
Can’t disagree with what you’ve stated and the Bitcoin. Seems like the titans are trying to figure out how to profit from it - or - control it. Until then they call crypto a “fraud” and some of that is true like all things money related today. But at $34 trillion now in U.S. debt, more interest that our military spending , something has to change. Adding more dollars to our system doesn’t seem likely. I wish I knew more about the future of our monetary system. I don’t want to be caught helpless when whatever happens happens.