A Narrow Lens
A Narrow Lens
I asked in the past if the financial independence community is close minded and got quite a response. Obviously, we as a community, do things in a different way. This difference not only defines us, but is often what we like to consider the secret sauce. There are tenants to financial independence. We like to ruthlessly apply them, and sometimes go as far as to shame people who do things differently. But are we close-minded? Are we looking at the world with a narrow lens?
I have been asking myself this question often lately. Maybe there are many different paths to wealth and happiness, and mine is just one. No better or worse than the others.
Here are a few of my viewpoints that are changing.
Financial Advice
Everybody knows by now that I fired my financial advisor. After much reflection and thought, I wonder if I am too hasty at decrying the benefit. While it is quite possible that I no longer needed an advisor at that point and time in my life, it does not mean that there is no value. Even if returns can be better and costs lower, a good advisor can help with so much more than just investments.
Was I looking at the world through a narrow lens? Even if I wasn’t benefiting at the moment, there are many who don’t have the patience nor time to learn what I have. Maybe anxiety about asset management is enough to make help worthwhile for some of my readers.
Better yet, maybe when the market tanks, a good portion of individual investors will panic without the steady hand of a knowledgeable advisor. There are many who are guilty of selling low and buying high. Couldn’t they use some help?
Stock Picking
Ok. So I will never be a stock picker. I have neither the time, interest, nor insight. But should I let my proclivities dictate how I feel about others? I have in the past.
In the past, I would hear about some stock investment or another and sneer. I remember thinking so clearly. If they just invest in an index fund they will do better. They may, or they may not. But I suffer from a narrow lens if I dismiss such behavior without understanding it more.
If done correctly, a well thought out non index allocation can perform well too. Even if that’s not how I do things.
Spending
There is definitely such thing as a frugality treadmill. Communities always tend to push groups of individuals to the extremes. So it is not surprising that I have started to criticize people about spending. How do I not get judgy when I see others complain about having enough when they are driving expensive cars and wearing high priced clothes?
It is easy to see life through a narrow lens, and just tell them that they are doing it all wrong. And possibly they are. Or maybe their priorities are just very different than mine. There is nothing wrong with spending money. In fact, that’s actually the purpose of having it in the first place.
It is none of my business how people spend. These are individual choices that have individual consequences.
Final Thoughts
I am trying to evolve. I am trying to not see life through a narrow lens. In order to do so, I have to question my assumptions. When it comes to personal finance, this means letting go of my tirade against financial advisors, stock picking, and spending in general.
These are individual choices whose value and merit have little to do with my opinions.
OMG you’re turning into me!
It’s not either/or it’s both/and. Buffet’s philosophy is buy at a “good price and hold forever”. That’s good advice except if you never sell anything how do you get money to eat? The answer is sell something of value which violates rule #1. “You can’t make money on individual stocks” except if you bought AMZN for $1.67 back in ’96…. I bought BTC for $275 and I’m up 1400%, but we all know BTC is worthless. It’s a tulip I tell ya! Yet it’s prospered since it was born in 2009. I could sell the worthless thing and eat me some hamburgers for a long time. FB went public in 2012 @ $38 and closed yesterday at $138 but of course you can’t make money in individual stocks. Re Advisers, the average DIY investor leaves 4% of their return on the table. They flunk in following their plan on both the efficiency side and the risk management side. The pick a 80/20 AA robot style investment plan using something like an inefficient BH3 portfolio, talk about how market timing is a no no and drone on and on about “diversity”, and then sit around with $500K cash in the bank waiting for a correction. An AUM investment adviser costs about .3 – .4% and typically has access to institutional funds which have different trading rules that lower the risk. They can tax loss harvest for you since they have software that tracks ALL the tax lots. They are there managing the plan for your wife when the widow maker makes her a widow, why the bastard he actually takes care of business for you and you have to pay him a little for the service! An AUM adviser is the best move I ever made next to an account aggregator. I wouldn’t bother one second with a per hour adviser. He just spouts Taylor Larimore dogma. I can buy the book for $15 on Amazon and it takes 10 minutes to set up a Vanguard account. Who’s Taylor Larimore? He an investment club guy who got pissed off at being churned by his Merrill Lynch broker. Investment club guys are loaded with ego. He made a system that didn’t fail and suddenly he was a Guru and rode that pony to fame and fortune. There is zero evidence the system is “best” but it’s easy and likely good enough over 4 decades or so if you actually follow the system. It’s “goodness” is a marketing operation in my opinion. Then there’s that issue of leaving 4% on the table. The problem isn’t the aperture of the lens it’s being wedded to a narrative. We all fail at the discipline. Personally I think there is “truth” out there somewhere and it likely comes from a variety of shared experience. You have to suffer the challenge of being “wrong” in order to find a truly better “right”. In the mean time have a hamburger.
As I get older I realize that I was at least partially wrong often. I’m trying to improve that not by being right more often but by recognizing my wrongness.
One thing I see in all the advice is a desire for perfection. My “advise” is to avoid that at all costs.
Totally agree with Susan. An axiom of medicine is that perfect is the enemy of “good enough”.
I bristle especially when confronted by the frugality police. No one, except in some cases my wife, gets to tell me how I should spend my money. I am not going to shame someone else for spending in ways that I consider frivolous (except, in some cases, my wife 😉).
My wife gets to tell me how to spend money too.
Yes. And to each their own.
You nailed it Doc G! There are many paths to wealth. Wealth means something different for many people. Different choices, priorities and experiences.
Kudos to you on your growing awareness and self reflection !
It is so easy to succumb to our triggers that judge, label and comment on others . As you have realized, this is not so much about others. The triggers other people are presenting are bringing up these topics, for us.
It’s something to look at . And presents a valuable opportunity for our self understanding and improved relationships.
Yes. It says more about me than them.
Photographers have many lenses in order to choose how properly light, focus, and frame the point of reference and the depth of field of their subject as it is and as they wish to see it.
I think this distinction is important. As it is vs how we choose to see it. I’m trying to experience both.