Patience and Planning
Over the past few weeks, I have been reminded of the importance of both patience and planning in three key parts of my life.
The first was traveling with my 6-year-old son. Normally, I would look forward to the opportunity for just he and I to travel without the rest of the family, but—as is typical with kids—he was diagnosed with a double-ear infection two days before we were to leave. So, we loaded up on “pink medicine” (amoxicillin), and planned ahead by packing plenty of tissues (it wasn’t enough) and gum since we would be getting on a plane. Patience for both of us certainly came into play, and in the end, I was actually pretty proud of how he handled everything. Admittedly, there were times when I felt like we should cancel the whole trip, but I think we were both happy we persevered.
The second was with this recent snowstorm or Snowzilla as some have been calling it. We planned ahead by getting all of the necessities and assumed we could be stuck in the house for up to a week. I also lined up two different snow removal options, as I knew my meager snow blower and shovel would be no match for what Jonas would bring. Again, patience would be necessary for all of us. As luck (or lack thereof) would have it, our street was the last in the neighborhood to get plowed, and neither of my snow removal folks could even get to me. Needless to say, I ended up getting far more exercise over the past couple of days than I had planned.
Finally, the recent market behavior has been a less than friendly reminder to have both patience and a plan when it comes to investing. We all need to remember that markets will go down, but with proper planning and investing, markets have historically rewarded us with returns that we cannot get with the so-called “safe” options. Planning ahead, sticking to the plan, and updating that plan as situations warrant, will always be the best way to approach any type of market. Oh yeah, and patience helps a heck of a lot too.