Way back in high-school Spanish, hace muchos años as they say in the vernacular, I learned an expression that is customarily said as a toast to one’s friends before knocking back some cervezas:
Salud, amor y pesetas, y tiempo para gastarlos.”
That means “health, love and money, and time to spend them.”
Baja California is the only place I’ve ever visited in the Spanish-speaking world, and only briefly, so I have never had occasion to try out that phrase, nor have I had much reason to think of it – until this very day when reading an article on Bloomberg whose theme was diametrically opposite the Spanish saying. The article is entitled, “Americans are Retiring Later, Dying Sooner and Sicker In-Between.”
Que lástima! I could forgive the “retiring later” part if that was the worker’s intention – but the two other segments of the title imply a connection between them, as if to say that Americans are working themselves into sickness and death (preceded by an impecunious retirement).
The article presents fresh data from the Society of Actuaries showing that the trend toward increased longevity has done a sudden about face, with the number of deaths per year increasing 1.2%, the first year-over-year increase in a decade. What’s more, this bleak article suggests that Americans are now working longer out of necessity and getting sick at earlier ages. The “good” news is that pension funds are expected to get healthier as Americans get sicker and die sooner; their obligations may fall by as much as 1% according to Society of Actuaries calculations cited in the report.
This is not the way to solve our pensions crisis – no es bueno! – and deserves heartfelt contemplation. This digest is dedicated to the idea that everyone can be successful at investing and achieve financial independence. There are different paths for different people – many will benefit from collaboration with a financial advisor, some will make the journey unaccompanied – but getting there fundamentally requires making sustained lifestyle changes including spending less, saving more, investing for the long term, along with broad asset-class diversification.
And yet, the Bloomberg article is a jarring reminder that we dare not detach the financial aspects of life with life in general. It’s all connected. Without your health, you cannot enjoy your wealth. That’s what triggered my memory of the Spanish phrase, which wisely encompasses this connection. Suffering a major malady or low-grade aches and pains materially reduces your pleasure in other areas of life: If you’ve got an amazing luxury car, but it hurts to sit in it, what value does it have to you? More consequentially, sickness hastens death. The implication is that just as small actions can help build your wealth (e.g., spending a tad less each month until you eliminate debt, then channeling debt payments into investments), the same sort of small actions can and should be invested in your health (for example, replacing one unhealthy meal with a healthy one each day, until you feel ready to increase that to two, and so on).
Equally vital is the work factor. We need the income from work to sustain us in our post-employment years, and yet not a few workers dread their work. I don’t think one needs special expertise to suspect that misery on the job is unhealthy! And is it not ironic that one would spend his life working at a job he dreads dreaming about the kind of work he’ll do when he no longer needs to work?
There’s something wrong with that picture, and I can think of two primary ways to change it. One way would be to migrate to a job that you do love and the other would be to learn to love the work you currently have. In the first instance, the typical objection is that a person can’t “afford” the pay. But it’s not unusual for people who think this to be glued to a very high-cost structure, for example by occupying an expensive home. An astute financial advisor I know observed that people manage to enjoy themselves in their hotel rooms, which are tiny. Why? Because they look forward to what they’re going to do that day! We shouldn’t wait for the rare vacation to have such feelings.
As to learning to love your current job, the key goal should be autonomy. It has been said that independent workers are happier workers; of course, the way you earn your independence at work is through steady accomplishment. In short, work hard at it and accomplish a lot, and the autonomy and love should follow.
A financially solvent lifestyle, due consideration to health and a decent professional life that pays psychic benefits as well as material ones should all contribute to realizing our Spanish saying. What’s more – or amor actually– having someone to share such a life with improves health outcomes and, in my considered judgment, financial outcomes as well; (I have no study on this point, but believe it to be true). Ultimately, a successful retirement has more to do with getting into this positive feedback loop than it does picking the right dividend stocks or making accurate inflation calculations.
In your experience, is financial success connected to health and companionship, and are poor health and isolation related to financial distress?
Please share your thoughts in the comments section. In the meantime, here are a few more links to today’s best investing content on the web.
- David Pinsen argues you can limit risk while generating competitive returns.
- Lance Roberts: Markets don’t compound.
- Downtown Investment Advisory: When your “fixed income” is not really fixed income.
- Nicholas P. Cheer looks at building an income portfolio that includes corporate credit.
- BlackRock is downgrading U.S. credit.
- Janus Henderson Investors: Abe’s snap election is a victory for Japanese stocks.
- For more content geared to FAs, visit the Financial Advisor Center.
Article source: https://seekingalpha.com/article/4115813-health-love-money-time-spend-them-financial-advisors-daily-digest