Dogs and Financial Freedom

Jason’s Random Words

We recently added a new member to the Hall household. No, not another kid; we got a dog. Objectively speaking, dogs are terrible investments. They cost money to acquire. They take a lot of time to deal with. The recurring costs can be exorbitant. It's a losing venture if you're talking dollars and cents.

Heck, they're probably also going to make you very sad in about a decade; maybe 15 years if you're lucky. Dogs don't live very long.

But man, do they bring a lot of joy to your life. Few things are as loyal, loving, and full of life as a puppy. And when trained well and cared for, they will make your life better.

But when you don't start them off on the right track and don't put in the effort to keep them happy and healthy, you end up with an angry, frustrated – and often destructive – animal wrecking your home. To paraphrase John Lennon on kids, if you don't give them time and attention when they're young, they'll take it from you when they're older.

And this makes me think about two things, one investing-related, and one more important.

First, investing can be a lot like owning a dog. You have to put work into it, and not all the work is fun (and can occasionally include dealing with unexpected shit). Sometimes you find pee on the rug, and you have to throw the rug out. (That's a poor metaphor for buying a bad stock and losing money.) But just like with the dog, your portfolio needs to know what it's doing. For a dog, it's not peeing on the rug or chewing on your furniture (or you). For your portfolio, it's building wealth, generating income, whatever you're trying to accomplish. Putting in the work early, and then maintaining it, goes a long way towards financial success, and solid returns as a dog owner.

Which brings us to the second part. Owning a dog is obviously a bad financial decision on paper. But in reality, it gives us exactly what more of us should be pursuing: More good experiences. Chasing financial success and freedom to the exclusion of pleasure is a mistake. Be frugal, sure, but particularly on things that don't compound you and your family's happiness. As the saying goes, don't buy stuff you don't need, trying to impress people you don't like. I refuse to verify this, but owning pets probably leads to longer life expectancies. Send Jeff a Tweet if I'm wrong.

I guess what I'm trying to say is wealth comes in multiple forms. Financial freedom is a laudable goal, but I've come to believe it's entirely because I can turn financial wealth into control of what I do with my time, and I believe my time is the most valuable thing in the world.

And right now, I choose to take my new dog for a walk. That she probably needs to poop has nothing to do with it; this is my choice. And that's true wealth..

Jason

Jeff’s Random Words

This week, Jason and I recorded our second “Rough Cut” podcast episode. I have to be honest, they’re a lot of fun to do. I hope that comes across when you listen. Jason’s rant about Warren Buffett’s Coca-Cola investment brought me back to one of the themes we return to often on the podcast; goals.

Often, when reading articles or Tweets (I refuse to call them anything else) about investing, the emphasis is on the individual asset (a stock, crypto, ETF, etc.) and its performance. This performance is sometimes benchmarked against “the market”, which usually means the S&P 500. To build off what Jason was mad about (other than unexpected dog feces), I think this puts the emphasis in the wrong place when it comes to investing.

Maybe your goal is to have a ten-bagger. Maybe it’s to beat the market over time. My goal is to have enough money to retire comfortably. Other possible outcomes I view as icing on the cake. When my wife and I decide to stop working, I want us to be able to travel, spend time with family, and generally have fun for (hopefully) decades. That’s it. That’s the goal.

Would it be cool if one of my stocks ended up helping me pay for college for my kids? Sure, but that’s not my goal. Would it be fun to sell a stock and buy a car, or put a downpayment on a vacation home? Yep. Sounds great. Will I be sad or disappointed if those things never happen? Absolutely not. Those things were never my goal.

So what’s the point? Having a clear understanding of my goal helps me make smart decisions, prevents me from over-trading, and generally makes investing more fun. Don’t get me wrong, I still find opportunities to swing for the fences (a new car sounds fun!). But if anything great happens it will be a nice bonus. And I’ll be sure to gloat about it to Jason.

Jeff