For many people, recent day-to-day life has affirmed that we want to be closely involved in what matters most to us (80%), and that we’re better off delegating the rest to someone we trust (20%). Naturally, our productivity stalls when our workday (and personal time) is interspersed with teaching and caring for our children, preparing meals, or cleaning packages.
We care deeply about the outcome of these activities, but rarely want to be involved in the process. Unfortunately, recent circumstances are such that we’ve taken back many of the responsibilities we had previously outsourced to, as David Attenborough would say, “specialists”. Think about it…
If your housecleaner retired, your childcare facility went out of business, and every union (teachers, transit, and restaurant workers) went on strike all at once, we’d be exactly where we are right now. On top of that, many people are working longer hours. Why? Because tasks expand into the time we allow them to, and without a commute (or much else to do), most of that has been absorbed by work.
Surely, we don’t miss transit service delivered by the MBTA, but listening to music, reading a book, or simply zoning out are useful means of decompression. Even some of the most mundane tasks, such as grocery shopping, have become a production.
At what other time have you cleaned groceries before putting them away, strategically timed food shopping, or felt great satisfaction in the unlikely chance that you found…toilet paper? I’ve even observed that when I return from a “supply run” to Costco, I’ve developed a habit of amassing all items into a single pile in the middle of the room after they’ve been cleaned.
If that sounds like a Viking showing off his/her spoils from a recent voyage, I came to the same conclusion…and I’ve probably streamed too many episodes of “Vikings” on Amazon lately.
Ultimately, my point is this…
Uncertainty and complexity have attached themselves to all parts of our lives, and we need to delegate some aspects of what we do to someone we can trust so that we can focus our time on what we enjoy.
Clients that I work with get peace of mind knowing that their hard-earned savings and investments get the attention they need, from a full-time professional. They also understand the value doing of things on their own terms, which means taking action when they can, rather than waiting until they have to.
Remember, it’s easier to make investment changes when markets are high, and we’ve recently seen a sharp rebound in the stock market in the face of the weakest US economy since the Great Depression.
If you’d like to discuss strategies to grow and protect your investments (they aren’t mutually exclusive), please contact us.
This blog was written by Jeremy Bohne, Principal & Founder of Paceline Wealth Management. Paceline is a fee-only investment advisor serving clients in the Boston area, and on a remote basis throughout the country. Paceline specializes in helping tech and biotech executives, physicians, and those seeking financial planning services.