Alright, alright, alright—tax season is over, and I am back in your email inbox.
First things first, I’m switching it up. I won’t be sporadically flooding your inbox with everything I write. Instead, I’ll be sending you one email each Friday with everything I’ve written or read for the week.
I’m also branching out—instead of just writing about coasting to financial independence, I want to touch on a variety of topics. I’ve been having some fun writing about fatherhood, self-help, relationships, lifestyle design…pretty much, all.the.things.
And fittingly, that’s what I’ll be calling this experiment: Anders On All.The.Things.
So, if you like what you’re reading please make sure you’re subscribed!
Weekend Reading (May 6-7) 2022
On Money
The 1 Piece of Advice Long-Term Stock Investors Need to Avoid Panic-Selling — From a Best-Selling Personal Finance Author
By Anders Skagerberg, CFP®
Nothing is free.
If you want great returns, you’ve got to be willing to pay the price. If you zoom out and view the stock market over any 30-year period in history, getting decent returns looks easy.
But, according to best-selling personal finance writer Morgan Housel, the problem many long-term stock investors have is they think the stock market dropping 5% in a day is a fine — something they should be actively avoiding — when in reality, it’s simply a fee — the price they pay for great investment returns over the long haul.
This may seem like a trivial distinction, but the devil is in the details.
A fee is what you pay in exchange for something. If you want to watch the Knicks play ball in The Garden, you pay a fee to buy tickets. If you want access to tens of thousands of shows, movies, and comedy specials from the comfort of your couch, you pay for a Netflix subscription (or share a login with friends, but I digress.)
The point is — if you want something, you are willing to pay a fee. But, a fine is different.
A fine is something you try to avoid. It’s a speeding ticket you get for driving ten over on your way to work or the underpayment penalty the IRS charges when you fail to withhold enough in taxes throughout the year.
A fine is bad — nobody wants to pay a fine because it’s a punishment.
In the end, Housel writes that everything has a price, and “a key to a lot of things with money is just figuring out what the price is and being willing to pay it.”
Read the full article here:
Coasting to Financial Independence—Not too hot, not too cold: A new retirement strategy that’s just right.
By Anders Skagerberg, CFP®
I used to want to retire early, but now I’m not so sure.
The more I read and write about retirement, the more I wonder: is it a good idea? Don’t get me wrong — I’m all about financial independence. But I’m not convinced that retirement is all it’s cracked up to be.
Here’s a different option: coast to financial independence.
Coasting realizes that you don’t want to retire — you just want flexibility in your work.
It's a valuable reframe: instead of focusing on the destination of financial independence, it puts the focus on the journey.
Read the full article here:
On Fatherhood
3 Simple and Effective Ways Young Dads Can Connect With Their Children
By Anders Skagerberg, CFP®
Most young dads want to do a good job — they just don’t know how.
There’s no playbook for fatherhood. We go through years of schooling learning how to read, write, and do math, but no one ever teaches us what it takes to be a good dad. And truthfully, all the studying in the world couldn’t fully prepare you for the role of fatherhood. Kids change your life forever, in all the best ways. You want to be the best dad you can be for your kids, but you’re not always sure how to do that.
Here are 3 simple and effective ways young dads can connect with their children:
1. Say I love you daily.
2. Realize your kids want you more than they want your money.
3. Embrace the poop.
Parenting is a skill — the more you learn and practice, the better you’ll do. So don’t hesitate to tell your children I love you every chance you get, remember that your kids just want to spend time with you, and jump in and embrace the poop. If you do those three things, you’ll have no trouble connecting with your child and developing a solid foundation for a lifelong relationship.
Read the full article here:
On Living a Better Life
The 1 and Only Mental Model You Need to Transform Your Life
By Anders Skagerberg, CFP®
The first time I heard about the "model" I honestly thought it was a bunch of crap.
It seemed way too simple that you can choose your thoughts, which create your feelings, drive your actions, and produce the results that are your life.
But, I kept using it, identifying and analyzing the thoughts I was having, and mapping out what those thoughts were creating. And then, as I kept at it, I started to see different results.
I realized that it really is just that simple: Every thought you have, conscious or subconscious, creates a feeling. Those feelings push you to take action, and those actions drive your results. Those results are your life.
The fundamental key to the entire model is that you pick your thoughts.
Once you realize that you are in charge of your thoughts, and those thoughts have a trickle-down effect that shapes your entire life, it’s game on.
Read the full article here:
On Everything Else
18 Little Stories That Will Have Massive Impact on Your Life
By Ryan Holiday
Enough. Two writers are at a party and one says to the other, how does it feel knowing that the billionaire host may have made more money in a single day than your novel has earned in its entire history? The other writer simply replies that he has something the host will never have: enough.
How you do anything is how you do everything. A heckler tried to embarrass President Andrew Johnson on the campaign trail by bringing up his blue-collar past as a tailor. President Johnson, unphased, replied: “…when I used to be a tailor I had the reputation of being a good one, and making close fits, always punctual with my customers, and always did good work.”
Just work. Dancer Martha Graham tells her students that they need to want it more than the birds—as they say in the army “You don’t have to like it. You just have to do it.”
Always stay a student. Even as the most powerful man in the world, Marcus Aurelius still gathered his books and headed to class.
It’s harder to be kind than clever. As a child, Jeff Bezos explained to his grandmother how many years of her life she was losing with each puff of her cigarette. She burst into tears, and his grandfather took him aside and explained that “Jeff, one day you’ll understand that it’s harder to be kind than clever.”
Your work is the only thing that matters. Jerry Seinfeld was approached by a young comedian who asked for advice about marketing and exposure. Seinfield was appalled by the question, telling the young comedian: “Just work on your act.”
Get moving. Amelia Earnheart once accepted an opportunity to sit in the back of a plane “like a sack of potatoes” just because it meant she got to be in the sky. Just start, do whatever it takes, swallow your pride and you can go on to do great things. Just get moving.
They still hide money in books. Knowledge is power.
How to create anything of consequence. Deliberate, consistent, and incremental work is the path to greatness. “Well-being is realized by small steps but is truly no small thing.” - Zeno
Be the red. Most people see themselves like threads in a garment and believe it’s their job to blend in so all the fabric will match. But some realize it is their job to be the red, standing out amongst the rest: “that small and brilliant portion that causes the rest to appear comely and beautiful…” - Agrippinus
Use it all as fuel. At age sixty-seven, Thomas Edison’s research and production campus went up in flames, literally. Rather than despair, he told his son, “Go get your mother and all her friends. They’ll never see a fire like this again.”
Do what you have to do. After a series of financial setbacks, West Point graduate Ulysses S. Grant was selling firewood for a living. When asked by a colleague what on earth he was doing, Grant replied: “I am solving the problem of poverty.”
Never question another man’s courage. An anonymous member of the audience calls out the man on stage, questioning where he was during a recent confrontation. The man on stage calls back, identify yourself. Silence. The man on stage replies, I was where you are now. Anonymous, intimated, doing nothing.
Alter your approach. As a young actor, George Clooney shifted his mindset for auditions from I’m here to get a job, to, I am here to help the producers do theirs better, by filling the role. And that made all the difference.
You only control the effort, not the results. A writer, so distraught that his book was turned down by every publisher at the time, takes his own life. His mother finds the book, advocates on its behalf, and it eventually goes on to win a Pulitzer Prize. Nothing changed about the book—it was the same when he wrote it as when it was published, sold copies, and won awards. Focus on what you can control.
Good things happen in bookstores. A man loses everything in a shipwreck. He stumbles into a bookstore and comes across the work of Socrates. That began a philosophical journey that led to the creation of Stoicism and the work of Seneca, Epictetus, and Marcus Aurelius—all because of a chance encounter in a bookstore.
Follow the process. “There is no task, however seemingly mammoth, that is not just a series of component parts.”
Remember that you will die. After a near-death experience being flung from a galloping horse, Michel de Montaigne went on to “write volumes of popular essays, serve two terms as mayor, travel internationally as a dignitary, and serve as a confidante of the king.” Any day could be your last, so live life accordingly.
Read the full article here:
That’s everything I have for this week—thanks for reading!
If you have any feedback or just want to chat, feel free to comment below.
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