Disney Cruisin’ – Vacation Diversification
The week before Thanksgiving, my family and I were fortunate enough to go on a Disney Cruise from Port Canaveral (Florida) down to the Bahamas. For a family of our size and ages, we have found that it is close to a “perfect” vacation for all of us. I don’t know that there’s any option that keeps two adults, a 7-year-old, a 5-year-old, and a 2-year-old happy all of the time, but a Disney Cruise comes pretty close.
As you might expect with Disney, kids activities abound, but they also do a great job of catering to the adults. The boats have kids-only areas that are fully equipped with electronic tracking bracelets (slightly creepy, but effective!), and the adults are provided with phones that allow the staff to alert parents of any issues. This allows the grown-ups to roam the ship, and head into the many adults-only areas to do some relaxing on their own. Inevitably, the phone rings too soon, and “kidless” time can seem fleeting. But, it is certainly nice to get away for an hour or two without worrying about the safety and entertainment of your children.
If you asked each of my family members individually what their perfect vacation would be, my guess is the answers would vary quite a bit. My idea of a vacation at a nice golf resort would make all other family members a bit unhappy, much like my youngest daughter’s idea of a “Wheels on the Bus” musical on repeat would disappoint the rest of us. So, a Disney Cruise is the ultimate ‘vacation diversification’ for everyone. No one is happy all of the time, but we all find some level of enjoyment at various times.
In the current market environment, holding all U.S. Equities (stocks) has been the “perfect” investment for this year. If you compare U.S. stocks to almost any other category, you will see that there has been significant outperformance. However, much like the kids won’t stay in the kids’ area for the whole cruise, the S&P 500 won’t always be (and has not always been) the best performer. Maintaining a diversified portfolio means that there will always be things in your mix that aren’t preforming as well as others. It’s almost impossible to predict exactly when trends will change, but staying the course and rebalancing on a periodic basis remains the best strategy for the long term.