As I wrote this in the run-up to the holiday season, markets seemed to be on the mend from the bear that started January 3rd, the air was coming out of the inflation balloon, and talk of recession probabilities was the new crisis du jour (it ALWAYS has to be something). The biggest surprise to me is always that anyone is surprised by these things...
The best way to completely destroy any chance for lifetime investment success has historically been to sell one’s quality equity portfolios in a bear market. In Warren Buffet’s words, it is wise for investors to be “fearful when others are greedy, and greedy when others are fearful.”
Beauty is around us all the time. Sometimes we can’t see it. Sometimes we won’t let ourselves see it. Beauty, like everything else, is impermanent. It arises, it abides awhile, and it goes. When it goes, it is replaced by a new experience – some will be painful, some will be wonderful. Reality is a river of these experiences, one after another.
One of the good things about terrible loss is that it opens the heart in ways you cannot predict. No one can handle this alone. We can only handle this sort of loss in community. Human connection is the thing that makes our lives meaningful. Human connection with a shared purpose can make them amazing.
“The question pounds my head, ‘What’s a Lifetime of achievement? If I pushed you to the edge, but you were too polite to leave me." I can’t get the lyric out of my head. As I grow and age, it's a good thing that new realizations lead to change.
Last quarter, our Advisory Council let us know that we should be more vocal about our work. So, here is a quick summary of our last year...
At the completion of the first ½ of 2021, the global economy and their associated equity markets have made significant progress towards “recovery.” As always, we divide our mid-year report into two parts. First, we recap our shared investment philosophy; second, I share our perspective on the current situation.
Where the employment recovery from the Great Recession was long and slow, the recovery from the Pandemic looks to be surprisingly fast.
Once in a very great while, there comes a year in the economy and the markets that may serve as a tutorial—in effect, a master class in the principles of successful long-term, goal-focused, and planning-driven investing. 2020 was just such a year.
Rather than looking at where we are and seeing how many things are wrong (which, of course, is a totally reasonable choice - many things ARE wrong), let's instead look at where we are and see how incredibly far we have come... if only for a moment.
This is a detailed issue that pushes you in one direction while pulling in another at the same time. Depending what you choose, you may maintain low property taxes, but sacrifice stepped-up basis. Or, you may keep your stepped-up basis, but your family would lose the low-assessed value for property tax purposes.
The coronavirus is still very much with us, as is much of the economic dislocation occasioned by the virus and accompanying lockdowns. We are closing in rapidly on a number of vaccines. But it may be quite some time before most of us will have access to them, and there will inevitably be frustration in the process.
The first six months of 2020 saw the advent of the worst global public health crisis in a century. In response, the world locked down, putting its economy into a kind of medically-induced coma.
Mindful Money remains committed to our community and supporting causes closest to our hearts. We are always looking for ways to do more.
This is not a market forecast. We are planners, not prognosticators. It is simply an invitation, as we look forward to 2020, to see the cloud over the market… but to also its silver lining.