Consider investing in yourself for a while. It might be the best return you ever got.
A few days ago I was writing an article about Longer term investing, and the first thing that generally comes to my mind is the FACT that “most” people don’t invest in the most important thing of all. Your own health and wellbeing.
I remember as a young kid, my dad was your typical blue-collar worker. He was in the oil industry as a chemical operator. He made just enough to keep a roof over our heads, take us on vacations, keep two cars, keep food on the table and get my sister and I educated. But there was one particular day that sticks in my mind.
We were talking about money, and happiness and all manner of things one day, and I said to him something along the lines of “you’re always in a pretty good mood, yet you’re in no way rich. Doesn’t it bother you that you don’t have the money to buy the things that you’d really like?”
His response was perfect. He said “My dad raised 7 of us through the great depression. Times were pretty tough. Then when the war broke out, I was shipped to France. I’ve been frozen to the bone, scared, shot, hungry, and tired. Now look at me. I’ve got a home, a job, all I can eat, a fine wife, a boat, a car, and two decent kids. I’m as rich as I need to be.” Wow. I never thought about it like that.
It made an impression on me, even though I was only maybe 10 or 12 years old. Maybe “rich” isn’t about having a billion dollars. Maybe rich is being healthy, and having the things you need, more than the things you want.
Fast forward 50 years to the present and there’s a “meme” you might see pop up here and there from some motivational site. It says something along the lines of “Happiness is enjoying what you have, not what you think you might want”
I think my dad hit that nail on the head a long time ago. Job one might just be to invest in your state of mind. If you’re reading this In the United States, you’ve already been blessed. You could have been born into the slums of South Africa. In fact, to be among the wealthiest half of the ENTIRE world last year, an adult needed to own only $3,210 in net assets (minus debts), according to the data. To be in the top 10 percent, a person needed to have only $68,800 in wealth. If you have 69K in assets, you are richer than 6 Billion people. You’re blessed, be thankful for what you have.
Yet now it’s 2019, and in a lot of ways the world is the most bizarre place I’ve ever seen. We’re living in a country where “money wealth” supposedly abounds, but where 60% of the people couldn’t find 400 bucks to cover an emergency without selling something they own. A country where 70% of the people live paycheck to paycheck. A country drowning in more debt than all the last 200 years combined.
A nation divided not just politically, but racially, spiritually, and “mentally.” A nation where gender “fluidity” has prompted some 70+ sexual “identities”. A Nation where anti depression drugs are the single largest prescriptions, behind pain killers and ED medicines. A nation that literally feels like it’s tearing itself apart from the insides.
It’s a time, at least for me, where “investing” for more wealth isn’t nearly as important as “investing in myself and my family.”
I don’t peddle fear porn. I know it sells, but that’s not my style. However, I don’t for a minute think that it’s fear porn to suggest that we’re on the verge of some major transformations in this country. Maybe transformation isn’t the right word, maybe “events” would fit better.
Look at what’s happening in France. For over a month, the “people” have been protesting in the streets, wearing their “yellow vests” and shouting down their Government. They’re tired of the Brussels elites, tired of the taxation to pay for migrants that then burn their towns and rape their women. Tired of the tangles of red tape. In a lot of ways, it’s a modern day version of the “French Revolution”.
Our socialist media won’t cover it on the nightly news, because resistance against the elites doesn’t fit their script. But it’s huge folks, and it’s becoming ever more violent.
Is that possible here? Again, in some ways it already is, as idiots like ANTIFA clash with Trump supporters. We see people getting beaten up over a MAGA hat. We see people on the left saying they wish trump supporters would all die. We’re heading not for a revolution, but a civil war.
We are LESS than 2 years out from the next Presidential election. We’ve not even gotten past the last one. Every single day on every single media outlet, we’re bombarded with attacks on the President. And every single day, the President lashes out at the crooked media, the “dirty cops” in the FBI, and the Pelosi’s of the world. Trumps people feed off his lashing out, and the left feeds off their anger. Each day it gets louder, more brazen.
Can you imagine what’s in store for us as we get into 2020? Can you imagine the smears, the attacks, the rhetoric? Can you imagine what will happen when/if the Mueller investigation is ever concluded? What if instead of Trump/Russia collusion, the report shows the Clinton Foundation/Russian collusion instead?
Here’s what I’m getting at in all this. I don’t think there’s ever been a time where making sure your family is prepared has been so important. Add it up for yourself. We’ve got a stock market bubble of epic proportions. We’ve got more debt than before the 2008 crash. We’ve got a society “never before” this divided. IF something major is going to happen, we have a very interesting situation here. See, we have a time frame.
It’s my guess that between today and November of 2020, the door is wide open for an “event”. I don’t know what it might be, maybe the Deep state pulls another 9/11. Maybe they release a pandemic. Maybe who knows what. Maybe it’s all out war with someone. Maybe the Fed’s really have been instructed to take out Trump via crashing the market. I really don’t know, but you can almost smell the desperation. The divide. The anger.
Reality says that most of you won’t “prepare” for something like an EMF attack, or civil war in the streets, because you doubt that in this day and age that it could happen. But please, look at France, look at Venezuela. The old saying is that Risk develops slowly, but then happens fast. We’re in the “slowly” period right now.
So, while we’re all intent on growing our monetary wealth, I think it’s a perfect time to work on our spiritual and physical health, and our safety and wellbeing.
If you had 500 bucks in your hand and your option was ‘place it in the bank, or buy a nice gun” I’d buy the gun. If your home is totally connected, where everything about it relies on someone else, I’d work on some back ups. If the water company couldn’t pump water for a week, do you have enough to get by? If the electric company grid went down, do you have at least a small generator and fuel?
Did you ever buy that great water filter that turns pond water into potable drinking water? Did you ever put up some bins with dry goods and canned goods, just in case one day the supermarkets were bare for a week?
I’m not talking about going out in the woods and building a bunker. If you have one, “good on you!”. I’m talking about the bare minimums to get through a rough patch if one was to come about. I think there’s a possibility of that rough patch hitting and the time is short. Consider investing in yourself for a while. It might be the best return you ever got.