Tag: Value

Investing

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. This week has seen a flurry of activity in the stock market surrounding a few select companies and a “short squeeze”. With no intention of turning this blog financial, I wanted to talk about investing.

In my crusade away from mindless social media scrolling and towards productivity, I decided to read John Maynard Keynes General Theory of Employment Interest and Money, last year around this time. Despite what was a painfully dry reminder of why I am a pilot and not a mathematician, economist, or theorist, I found some unconventional wisdom in Keynes that applies decades later. You can find that post here. This past week reminded me of my headfirst flop into economics and investing.

What we saw in the stock market over the last week was more about making a quick buck, than it was about an appreciation of value. Without picking sides, or evaluating the morals and ethics involved, both those with short positions, and those who applied the squeeze, were trying to make money without any concern for what that meant for the other parties involved, including the companies they were buying. This was more like gambling than investing.

Speedy standing up, and El Duderino inciting the house of bounce

Investing was always meant to be a rising tide to lift all boats. A way of getting resources to those that need them, as a means to increase production, efficiency, value, etc… Not a game where money flows in and out of accounts despite no tangible change in value to the core business being invested in.

See if that type of “investing” works anywhere else. Fitness, parenting, your job, your education, your marriage. “I had call options on our marriage so you have to stay with me for a few more years even though I’ve been neglecting you.” Or maybe “I shorted my weight position at new year’s but was forced to close the position after the super bowl party artificially influenced the scale”. It just doesn’t work.

Anniversary dinner on the Zgrill. Pork belly burnt ends, pulled pork and smoked green beans, with a skillet cookie for dessert

Yet we find ourselves with an incredible amount of fiat currency changing hands, without any real change or production of value.

Investing is intended to increase value. Invest money in a business and it can grow. Invest time and energy in yourself and you can become stronger, faster, smarter, healthier. Invest time and energy in your relationships and you will be a better parent, partner, or friend.

A beautiful Fl winter day for some rounds on the heavy bag

Real investing, whether it is in the market, or in yourself requires doing the work, day in and day out, and patiently attending to those positions, while they appreciate and mature.

So the real question is, what are you investing in these days?

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

My pace seems to have stabilized and returned back to normal with nasal breathing feeling more natural

Value and Balance

Thanks for joining me for another edition of the SerenityThroughSweat blog. If you’ve been a reader for any length of time, (thank you) you know that I’m a big proponent of challenging endeavors.  Today I want to share my thoughts on the value of those endeavors and the necessary balance that we should gravitate towards.

The bar I built for our wedding, designed to hold kegs in the blue buckets and be mobile.

I think there is value in doing difficult things above and beyond the obvious intrinsic rewards. Whether it is learning a new skill, competing in a race or grappling event, or finishing a project at work, when we challenge ourselves we grow as humans. Challenging endeavors offer us the chance to grow our skill set, learn about ourselves, and foster a resilience that carries over to other endeavors.

COVID-19 obviously presents its own unique set of challenges, that give us an opportunity to grow. For me personally, I have been driven towards pursuits in self sufficiency. One of the things I’ve always appreciated about wrestling and Jiu Jitsu, is the sense of calm I have in most everyday encounters because of the confidence in my training. I don’t see a downside to that kind of training, or that kind of self assuredness. But, what about other forms of self sufficiency?

DIY plumbing to retrofit a kegerator into the bar I built for my wedding, and resize it to live inside

Jiu Jitsu is it’s own form of magic, but it isn’t going to feed my family of four the way say, gardening, hunting, or fishing would. These endeavors meet all of the criteria we have discussed; difficult, check, value in self sufficiency, you bet, learn something about your self, absolutely. So where is the down side? Here is where the balance comes in to play.

Resized and redesigned to facilitate swapping kegs and cleaning lines. It still needs some trim work, but it’s fully functional

As we continue through week fifty-leven of lockdown, the economy, especially small businesses are hurting. Small business is a term that can be glossed over more easily than say “mom and pop”. Mom and pop, families, are the ones that are hurting. Unfortunately, many endeavors of self sufficiency are a zero sum game. In other words, if I’m providing veggies for my family in a back yard garden, that’s one less purchase at the farmers market.

Master bath shower renovation

Any sort of DIY trade work falls into this category as well. Plumbing, flooring, electric, HVAC, landscaping, the list goes on. Most trade work is either done by Mom and Pop companies, or the craftsman themselves are working class bread winners for a larger company. There is value in any difficult DIY project, above and beyond the finished product, but there is a balance to be found in how far we lean in to total self sufficiency and isolation.

I don’t know what the answer is, or where the right balance lies. That’s the tricky thing about balance right, it’s not a fixed point. If you’ve ever walked on balance beam or even just an elevated curb, you need to adjust with every step forward. Self sufficiency and supporting local businesses and trades are not mutually exclusive, but it is a precarious relationship that needs constant balancing. I think COVID-19 has shown us the value in being more self sufficient when things go awry. It has also shown us how much we miss all those mom and pop establishments when they are taken away from us. A lot will change as we make our way through this global challenge into a new normal. Walking the path to serenity requires determining value and constantly seeking balance.

Thanks for joining me, stay safe and stay sweaty my friends.

This week’s SerenityThroughSweat, a few simple and sinister kettlebell sessions and a stroller run with El Duderino. The cumulative sleep debt staying up with speedy is starting to take its toll, but I always feel better after a good sweat.