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Similar to what you describe above, one fiduciary I know says, "The first rule of running a marathon is that when you cross the finish line, STOP RUNNING."
To his very affluent and even legitimately wealthy clients (north or $100 million), he counsels repeats to them over and over that they ran a marathon, and they've crossed the finish line, so they should stop running. That is, he cautions his clients not to take any risk they don't need to take once they are wealthy.
The problem is only the very very wealthy may know they won the race …for most of us the race never ends until we do ..
Our health can cost us a fortune ….. 20 year bear markets like those in the 1960s coupled with inflation can have us trip and fall before we reach the finish line .
So while Swenson likes to always say why keep playing if you Already won the game ,the fact is we don’t know we won until the game is over when our lives are over.
A retiree in 1965 or 1966 may have thought they reached that finish line ..boy were they wrong as within a few short years prices tripled to quadrupled .markets and fixed income were slaughtered.
For most of us there is no winning the game while we are still playing , there is only changing our strategy to better fit life along the way
........For most of us there is no winning the game while we are still playing, there is only changing our strategy to better fit life along the way
That's a good way of looking at it, and it is logical. Problem is, life, in a sense, isn't logical. We are told, if we listen to the intelligent people, to "be prepared", however we don't have any idea when the game will end. For example, one of my wife's aunts was married to a man who was very frugal, and saved every penny he could, worked every minute of overtime he could, and wore his clothes until they fell apart.
He invested every penny he could, and was proud that he had accumulated well over a million dollars, when he was still in his 50s, years before he retired. And speaking of retiring, they pretty much had to drag him out of where he worked, as he thought that he wouldn't be able to survive, without that weekly paycheck.
My point? The man had all sorts of money, "saved for a rainy day", but so far, it hasn't rained. He "made do" with things, all his life, never enjoying any of the fruits of his labor. He's 91-92 years old, his wife died a couple of years ago, and the last we knew, he's still moping around his house, most likely by himself, because he's too grumpy and too cheap to have any friends.....after all, people are only friendly to you, so they can get your money away from you, was the way he looked at life, so he didn't socialize too well. And his "grumpyness" certainly alienated my wife and I.
That's a good way of looking at it, and it is logical. Problem is, life, in a sense, isn't logical. We are told, if we listen to the intelligent people, to "be prepared", however we don't have any idea when the game will end. For example, one of my wife's aunts was married to a man who was very frugal, and saved every penny he could, worked every minute of overtime he could, and wore his clothes until they fell apart.
He invested every penny he could, and was proud that he had accumulated well over a million dollars, when he was still in his 50s, years before he retired. And speaking of retiring, they pretty much had to drag him out of where he worked, as he thought that he wouldn't be able to survive, without that weekly paycheck.
My point? The man had all sorts of money, "saved for a rainy day", but so far, it hasn't rained. He "made do" with things, all his life, never enjoying any of the fruits of his labor. He's 91-92 years old, his wife died a couple of years ago, and the last we knew, he's still moping around his house, most likely by himself, because he's too grumpy and too cheap to have any friends.....after all, people are only friendly to you, so they can get your money away from you, was the way he looked at life, so he didn't socialize too well. And his "grumpyness" certainly alienated my wife and I.
I would say he never won the game by my standards .
My standards are to live the lifestyle we set that is enjoyable and yet not run out of money under the worst case scenarios.
It is a balance.
The difference between cheap and frugal is when your cheapness effects other people in a negative way .
I worked with a guy so cheap he owned no air conditioning and made his wife suffer all summer
Similar to what you describe above, one fiduciary I know says, "The first rule of running a marathon is that when you cross the finish line, STOP RUNNING."
To his very affluent and even legitimately wealthy clients (north or $100 million), he counsels repeats to them over and over that they ran a marathon, and they've crossed the finish line, so they should stop running. That is, he cautions his clients not to take any risk they don't need to take once they are wealthy.
Case in point: My father in law. Self-made wealth through property purchases. My spouse got involved with his investments as they approached an age where we knew they would be needing our assistance and help in transitioning them to nursing home care. The dementia was setting in.
He was gambling with his money. In the stock market. And he wouldn’t stop. If my spouse hadn’t stopped him - they might have lost their shirt and not had the money to pay for their care.
And there was no way we could afford to pay for them.
I would say he never won the game by my standards .
My standards are to live the lifestyle we set that is enjoyable and yet not run out of money under the worst case scenarios.
It is a balance.
The difference between cheap and frugal is when your cheapness effects other people in a negative way .
I worked with a guy so cheap he owned no air conditioning and made his wife suffer all summer
We don't have central AC here either.... not because we're cheap....but because the ceiling fans do the trick 90% of the time. Got other priorities.
I would say he never won the game by my standards .
My standards are to live the lifestyle we set that is enjoyable and yet not run out of money under the worst case scenarios.
It is a balance.
The difference between cheap and frugal is when your cheapness effects other people in a negative way .
I worked with a guy so cheap he owned no air conditioning and made his wife suffer all summer
I agree, he didn't win by a longshot. His entire life has been about accumulating money, so he can be the richest guy in the graveyard....
We should revisit why we’re accumulating money in the first place. Is it for a rainy-day, for security, to fund a certain level of consumption, to advance charitable causes? Or is it a vanity-project, to maximize what’s possible for the sake of the thing itself… in which case, the quest never ends, because it’s perpetually a sort of game, and the game never ends, because it’s perpetually a sort of quest.
Can a sprinter be too quick, a glamour-model too beautiful, a fusion-reactor too hot? Likewise one can never be “too rich”. I do not fathom how Bezos or Gates or Musk would suddenly cease growing their fortunes, turning instead to projects such as space-flight… unless of course those are vanity-projects by another name! The quest for wealth no longer fuels vanity, when the threshold is so astronomically (pun intended) large. Then something else must assume the role of vehicle (again pun intended) for one’s vanity.
In a gauche and derivative way, yes, the aim is to become the richest corpse in the graveyard… although that likely simply means that the graveyard isn’t sufficiently prestigious. But while alive, the aim is to nurture and feed one’s vanity. It is neither about thrift nor prowess in business/investment; those are mere ingredients, means to an end. The end? What is the end? It is an anti-Solomonic chasing after wind. Run quickly.
We should revisit why we’re accumulating money in the first place. Is it for a rainy-day, for security, to fund a certain level of consumption, to advance charitable causes? Or is it a vanity-project, to maximize what’s possible for the sake of the thing itself… in which case, the quest never ends, because it’s perpetually a sort of game, and the game never ends, because it’s perpetually a sort of quest.
Can a sprinter be too quick, a glamour-model too beautiful, a fusion-reactor too hot? Likewise one can never be “too rich”. I do not fathom how Bezos or Gates or Musk would suddenly cease growing their fortunes, turning instead to projects such as space-flight… unless of course those are vanity-projects by another name! The quest for wealth no longer fuels vanity, when the threshold is so astronomically (pun intended) large. Then something else must assume the role of vehicle (again pun intended) for one’s vanity.
In a gauche and derivative way, yes, the aim is to become the richest corpse in the graveyard… although that likely simply means that the graveyard isn’t sufficiently prestigious. But while alive, the aim is to nurture and feed one’s vanity. It is neither about thrift nor prowess in business/investment; those are mere ingredients, means to an end. The end? What is the end? It is an anti-Solomonic chasing after wind. Run quickly.
Like Matt M. Says, that’s the question we always have to ask: what success means to YOU. “Be brave, take the hill but first find out what my hill is. Find out what success means to you, and then put in the work to maintain it. Take that daily tally. Tend to our garden. Keep the things important to us in good shape”
Last edited by Thatsright19; 06-07-2021 at 12:07 PM..
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