I had a post queued up for Monday but it was about trust law and a bit dry!

I’ll re-work it and release it at the end of the year. A low traffic period of time.

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Last week, I finished a book called Wanting. An easy read, filled with short anecdotes, about desire.

Having spent my life in the business of money, I know about conventional desire. My time in athletics exposed me to another aspect, Victory & Vanity.

Greed comes in many shapes and forms. As I age, one form I contend with is wanting to get back to the past – a past remembered as better, stronger, more vigorous… this longing doesn’t serve me well.

For example, a longing for vigor can cause me to do too much exercise, thereby assuring exhaustion (ie a lack of vigor)!

The Wanting book was a guided personal review => considering the source of, and the likely results of, my desires.

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A Simple Case Study – the source of desires

A decade ago, shortly after visiting Aspen, I found myself wanting to buy a Range Rover. This desire appeared to “come out of nowhere”, but it didn’t really.

I’d been in Aspen for a training camp with three guys in my age group. Let’s call them the Three Amigos. I had visited their houses, been driven around in their cars (Range Rovers) and elevated my heart rate with some very competitive swim/bike/run.

The Three Amigos were people in whom I was able to see different aspects of myself. In many dimensions they were more than myself. With my heart rate up, this is a very powerful modeling situation – both consciously and unconsciously.

The Range Rover desire was the first thing I noticed. There was more.

Here’s the tip: I tend to notice my material desires before the deeper stuff.

When I notice that I’m wanting to buy the same socks as a buddy (Doc J you have a pair of very nice purple socks BTW)… pause and consider.

When I notice the mimetic transfer of a material desire (socks, car) then I pause and consider what else I might be sucking up from this person. Because I know it’s happening strongly in my unconscious.

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Thinking about an earlier draft of this post. I realized that the influence of my friends runs far deeper… watch, skis, bike, entree selection, career nudging for my children… my desires are influenced, to a point of external unconscious control, by my mentors (nears and peers).

Choose (very) wisely!

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Risk of Ruin in Close Peers

Here’s a tip about ruin => in a group of peers, the group will tend towards the risk-seeking level of its most risk-seeking member.

We drift upwards, until something goes wrong, then we blame the situation.

Smart systems avoid catastrophe – here’s a simple one, teams of three, most conservative opinion binds the group. I use this in the mountains, and on my investment committee.

Life is a game over time.

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Anti-Desires

The power of desire works in reverse => consider people (and their specific choices) who repulse you.

The book asks the reader to consider, “Who are you not rooting for?”

It helps to be brutally honest. Owning my greed is easier than acknowledging secret envy!

It took a couple weeks (and 48 hours off my screens in Utah) to dig into my hidden desires. Part of the Wanting discussion centers around “thick” and “thin” desires.

Let’s start with a “thick” desire => do right by my kids. Where’s that going to lead us? A series of strong downstream families that endure beyond my life.

When I see someone crushing the family-side of their life, I’m happy for them => alignment with my thick values.

Compare to “thin” desires => the Range Rover, a fancy ski jacket, etc… Thin, material desires are relatively easy to spot.

Envy is less easy to spot. Disgust, however, is easy to feel => there’s the feeling again… let me consider it.

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A story.

My kids are doing great in all domains – school, sport and social. Notwithstanding this reality, I often hear a voice in my head saying…

You could be so much more…

Funny though, the voice predates my child! It’s a voice that’s been following me around for many years.

But what does this voice want?

Fame, likes, the approval of strangers!

If you repulse me then you likely have these things, all of which I secretly want…

Thin, hollow desire that, most importantly, can NEVER be satisfied.

When I started publishing, I had a desire to help 1,000 people. I wrote it down as part of The Artist’s Way, bought in July 2000. Having far exceeded my goal, you’d think the desire would wane.

My desire for recognition, when fed, only grows stronger!

I see hidden desire through my anti-desires, my envy of others. What am I thinking about when I feel disgust? How might I deal with those feelings of envy?

Don’t water the seeds of envy. Simple, not easy.

Let’s get into tactics I’ve been experimenting with…

#1 – get myself to play a different game by competing in a different environment. This started in 2000. To get myself to step outside my innate monetary greed, I had to leave my daily exposure to high finance. To think clearly, I need to power down my phone and lock it in my car for a couple days.

Reduce my drive for material consumption and constant external approval… Axing Facebook/Instagram was a huge win for me. Not easy. Like stopping drinking, what am I supposed to do with all this extra time?

Not racing => the removal of a constant incentive for “more” in my physical life. Signing up for a race is a step towards fatigue. Fatigue that works against my thick desires.

On the screen you are reading this post on… who is on my screen most often? who’s like me, but more? who’s triggering my disgust?

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Write it down

Several times in my life, I’ve had a moment of clarity. A moment where I realized my thin desires were carrying me towards an outcome I didn’t want.

The moments are fleeting, so I write them down: the change and why I need to make it. Often, I try the change for 30-days and pay attention to how I feel.

The path forward is not always clear. I know people, who have a deep feeling “this isn’t it” and want to make a change. Other internal voices might be, “you gotta get out of here” or “this isn’t me.”

Write down what your hear.

Or maybe you wake up and realize your choices are destroying your health. In the early 1990s, I got kind of fat and didn’t like it. When I’m tempted to deviate from my system of healthy eating/exercise, I remind myself just how much I didn’t enjoy being chubby!

If you’re anything like me then your thin desires will persist and keep trying to lead you astray. The stronger they get, the more I need to slow down, reduce stress and consider where I want my choices to take me.

Strong downstream families enduring beyond my lifetime.

Like all my stuff => this is not advice to your family. Speak with local experts before making tax, legal and portfolio changes in your life.

Iñaki asked, “what to do when the world seems crazy?”

I build my life so I don’t need to be right.

Related, I want to be able to unplug for 72 hours, without worry, whenever I feel like it.

This strategy is based on knowing that I’m prone to error and don’t want to spend my life connected to the matrix.

Further, even if you have 100% confidence in yourself, your kids/spouse are going to need something robust for when you’re gone.

Across 2019, I wanted to lean into equities but there wasn’t an event that gave me an opportunity. So I rolled along, rebalancing and living my life.

In March 2020, the pandemic created an opportunity. Personally, I leaned in (fairly hard) by increasing %age exposure to equities, at a time when rebalancing alone would have triggered buying.

In a fiduciary capacity, we only leaned a little. Two members of my investment committee, with wider views of the world, advised caution. Using the principle, most conservative view rules, we were conservative with allocation.

• Both decisions made sense at the time and worked out.
• Time matters. “Good enough” becomes more powerful the longer your time horizon.
• Returns across generations are driven by a famous Munger-ism => “just try not to be stupid.”
• The family’s position, 10 years past every generational transition, is impacted more by what you burned than what you earned.

At the end of 2021, given the whacky stuff I’m seeing around me, I don’t plan in leaning in at the next correction. Rebalancing will be good enough.

Recreational Capital and Associated Spending

A dominant focus on return/allocation in your financial portfolio, misses an important source of value creation => efficient use of “recreational” capital, and associated spending.

Recreational capital is any asset that’s held for non-financial reasons. This is a material slice of many balance sheets:

• Boats, RVs, Cars
• Offices
• Second homes, vacation properties
• Sizing up personal residences
• Renovation projects, furniture, collectibles and art
• Charters, vacation spending, travel spending
• Any asset with a negative yield

You’ll see I included a line for the expenses associated with those assets. Some assets, when bought, lead to more spending.

By way of example, INVERT and consider…

When you sell all your assets in a remote location then… the spending associated with the location will plummet. Now that we spend our summers “at home” vs commuting to/from Canada, we cut spending by a big number.

Even if you don’t buy… for skiing, we stopped renting a condo in Vail. Our 2021 ski season cost will be less than what my last rental cost me. Skiing is a choice with a stack of associated spending, and negative-return investment opportunities.

It would be nice to think that these decisions were driven by being smart. That would be a mistake! The Canadian exit was driving by local tax policy and COVID forced a change in approach for skiing.

We did not realize the true cost of our “recreational” choices. We had to remove them, and watch for a couple years.

The choices above:

• Create a larger working portfolio
• Reduce annual spending
• Increase the flexibility to change one’s mind
• Don’t involve admin, maintenance or exit costs

In our financial portfolio, conservative nature means we “missed out” on much of the run up. However, because we adjusted our recreational capital, and associated spending, we greatly increased wealth over the last five years.

The wealth gain, from shrinking the recreational portfolio, is locked in. These gains are hidden from conventional metrics, that your advisor might show you.

Now we move along to KC’s questions

GB: total debt will remain modest relative to assets and cash flow

KC: How do you define “assets” and “cash flow” here?  Completely paid off asset or total value of asset? All assets – or just the assets on the investment side (excluding primary home?) Cash flow from all sources after expenses? What do you define as a modest target? 

I have a spreadsheet that shows me… gross asset value, deferred taxes, tax basis (as at last tax filing year) and deferred agent’s fees (for real estate). So I can quickly look at real estate from gross to net after-tax realizable value. I compare those figures to gross rental income, and net cash flow (from my tax return).

I’m conservative with gross asset value on real estate, a discount from Zillow and my real estate agent’s estimate on value.

I assume 6.3% cost to exit, from real estate gross value, then tax the realized value at 25% of the gain over basis.

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Cash Flow

I look at… total debt service, core cost of living, total cost of living => each of those numbers gets a little bigger, and I have less control over delaying payment/spending.

Then I look at the inflows by source…

• real estate (net and gross — consider vacancy risk)
• employment (by role and client — consider concentration)
• passive (royalties, dividends, distributed gains)

I want to understand my concentration in expenses (what I can cut/control) as well as income (where the risks lie). I never want to be placed in a position of being a forced seller.

My total family debt stays under 10% of net assets. Assets calculated net of all taxes and agent’s fees.

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The Role of Time

My thinking in my work, and family, is multigenerational… I look at assets, leverage, cash flow and spending at many levels…

• What I actually own, owe, control, earn => me
• Family level
• Family & Corporate level => me, my family, my business
• Multi-generational level => consolidated, over time

I think about expenses, earning power, saving power, asset utility (what benefits members) over time. I have a spreadsheet that projects the age of all living family members over time (2021, 2035, 2050). This helps me consider family asset strategy and consider when generational transitions are going to occur.

KEY for assets and cash flow => When generations stop working/saving, when kids start working/saving?

It’s not just “what you own.” It’s also when you own it, and when you sell it.

I see many people buying assets they will HAVE to sell in ten years time, mainly real estate. Now, if it’s your main home, then I get it. See below for the option value in the mortgage.

In this market, Boulder up 30% this year, it’s easy to convince yourself that you are silly not to supersize your balance sheet.

But if it’s a secondary market…

• 10% in/out cost for the real estate
  • vs…
    • Less than 1% cost to go variable (AirBnB, Hotels.Com)
    • Total flexibility with capital (you don’t deploy into a low-occupancy, negative yielding asset)
    • No admin hassle (I really dislike organizing maintenance and cleaning)

Why are you doing it?

If you want to dazzle peers, suppliers and key relationships… …then you might be better off with a high-end club membership.

Your mind may try to convince you the joining fee is a waste of money. Note that the club joining fee is usually < 5% of a condo cost, and club dues run <10% of the condo’s cost to own.

With leasing we compare to “do nothing” => most people with ready finance will “do something.” If you’re going to do something, regardless, then something smaller can be a better option.

Your mind doesn’t see the rest of your portfolio performing better, with less hassle, by not owning an asset that’s a drag on return.

And… my mind at least, doesn’t remember how much I hate cleaning and dealing with remote maintenance issues!

KC: Tax bill as a %age of net assets-Where do you think a healthy range should be? 

Every year, I look at the tax bill relative to net assets on a consolidated basis. This lets you consider the impact of tax policy on your portfolio – smart savers free themselves from exposure to changes in tax policy. Taxes paid, as a percentage of net assets, should trend downwards over your working life.

I don’t think the taxes vs net assets number, itself, is important. What matters is trending down and asking yourself if you are worrying about the right things in your life. Lots of (wealthy) people fail to recognize how little impact the Feds have in their financial life. Others could use a nudge to save more, spend wisely.

GB: At that point, you’ll have built yourself an inflation-proof, tax-effective retirement annuity

KC: Can you help me understand the inflation-poof aspect of this strategy? Is it the income producing asset that is locked in at an low interest rate? How is RE more inflation-proof than other assets?

Real estate isn’t “more” but it can be “different”.

Local rents are influenced by local real economic growth. I like the prospects of Boulder, the Front Range and Colorado.

Local real estate values are influenced by macro (national interest rates, credit cycle) and local (replacement cost, demand) factors.

So a slice of local real estate can create an element of hedging between national, regional and local conditions. There are some other benefits…

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Hidden Options

Here in Boulder, Colorado, I believe our real estate values have a hidden option. There is a chance the best neighborhoods explode upwards towards the highest valued parts of: the Rockies (Vail/Aspen), California (Bay Area) or NYC. 

Now, I don’t have the $$$s to own trophy properties, but I don’t need to. As I wrote in The Next Doubling, it’s good enough to be nearby. For the option to pay out, we don’t need to get to the highest prices per sf => we merely need to close the gap, a bit, over time. That sort of option doesn’t exist in an index fund.

Another hidden option => we own a two-unit rental. We always have the option to move into one of the units and “live for free” by renting out the other unit.

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Option Value of Fixed Rate Debt

30-year fixed rate debt, with an option for the borrower to repay, is a valuable (oneway) option in an uncertain world. Unlike margin debt, the lender can’t call the loan on a whim.

Long rates have been declining for 40 years, so the value of this option is overlooked by many. In an inflationary environment, having a multiple of my core cost of living in low-cost fixed rate debt is a useful position.

A mortgage on a personal residence seems like a good deal to me……and if it turns out to be a bad deal then I exit via repayment or refinance.

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Saving 2% p.a. and giving Goldman an option to close you out…

Quick note on margin debt, even at <1% p.a. cost, seems like a very bad idea.

Smart people borrowing money they don’t need, to make money they are unlikely to spend in their lifetimes. Everyone figuring they will be able to unwind their financial structure before anything bad happens to them.

This strategy never ends well and only makes sense when you are playing with other people’s money.

A general principle, some things only make sense when you ignore the rebound. Fasting, margin debt, intensity-bias for endurance sport… I have found one gets a better long-term result from building smarter habits.

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Optimize over time. When I started paying attention to myself, I realized I needed a whole lot less spending, which implied less capital, which gave me much more time.

INVERT that last sentence => spending you don’t need, increases the capital you think you need, to spend more time doing what you want. I broke that cycle in 2000, got wrapped back up in it in 2005, got tossed back out during the 2008/2009 recession and, these days, cycle in/out depending on my moods!

Nearing 53, I laugh because “less” is being forced on my physical life, by time.

In my early 40s, “less” happened due to kids and a nasty recession.

In my early 30s, “less” felt liberating, and made time for a lot more self-directed time.

“Less” is a useful process!

I watch where people send their kids to school. It’s a revealed preference for their values. Amongst my pals, Boulder is one of the few locations were public schools are the default choice.

One of the challenges our district faces is declining kindergarten enrollment – we don’t have a good idea “why.” Some things I’ve noticed with the families that have gone private:

• Private school is contagious, by neighborhood, by family and by peer group. It would be great to get those families back into the district. I’m not sure we’ve asked them what it might take.
• As elementary school enrollments shrink, the impact of a single weak teacher increases. How we support weak teachers is not clear to me.
• Having switched one of our kids to a full-enrollment, school… there is a quality of experience issue with the schools that aren’t full. The overall experience at a “full” school is better.

Thinking about the phases of our kids’ education…

New Parents: The #1 thing we got right, eventually… Listen to professional educators. My default position is seeking to understand why staff’s view makes sense. Take time in forming opinions.

Age 2 to 6 => choose your daycare/preschool/early education based on where the child will get the best socialization skills. This is particularly important if you have a high-energy kid. Early socialization trumps preschool “academics.” All three of my kids started Grade One at the bottom of the class, all three caught up in 18 months.

Parents: model the socialization techniques the kids are learning at preschool. Learn from the teachers so the child is in a consistent environment at school, and at home.

Remember during this phase… the most important money you spend is childcare that benefits your marriage. You are under more stress than you realize – make time for each other.

Age 6 to 8 => a daily focus on learn-to-read and learn-to-learn. Learn-to-learn is building on the early socialization work that happened before they arrived in Grade One.

Parents: 20-minutes a day (read-to, read-aloud) in this phase has the highest return in your kids’ education career.

No joke!

10 minutes before school (read-together). 10 minutes before bed (read-to). HUGE.

The confidence boost from being able to read provides a positive association with learning. INVERT: smart kids (who can’t read) will wonder if they are stupid.

=>100 hours per year time investment. The highest return parenting time you will ever have.

PS => the read-together before school, should morph into read-to-self each morning. I used a summer reading prize (100 mornings = $100) to establish this habit.

Age 9 to 12 => Our theme here: don’t mess with the streak!

Siblings, routine and habit form a virtuous circle of positive reinforcement.

“Read to self” every morning, summer reading prizes, consistent bedtimes, 2-3 different after school activities, consistent weekly schedules. This phase is about locking in a routine and keeping it rolling.

Be the brand.

If you’re not then they’re going to call you on it.

My expectation on the kids is “perform at grade level.” This lets them take all the credit for above-average performances.

Other thoughts

Earned Enrichment: there’s a joke that every parent thinks their two-year old is gifted. This is funny because it’s true.

In order to keep as many families in the public channel as possible… make it clear that all kids who want to accelerate their learning will be supported. Fairness of opportunity for all kids.

Related: make it clear that teachers will be supported. I’ve watched two weak teachers cause a (very polite) gradual exodus from a wonderful neighborhood school.

Some stories:

• My son wants to take combined Grade 7/8 math next year. We have a simple policy, if you want to accelerate then you need an “A” in current year math. You need… A’s to Accelerate.
• Seeing her older siblings ahead… our youngest wants to get ahead in math. At the start of each academic year, she gets a chance to test out. Once that test is done, we won’t intervene on the kid’s behalf. You gotta earn it, yourself. She’s been trying for two years and has a good shot next September!
• Overall, I’m in no rush for the kids to accelerate their learning. Just like their sport, they have 10-20 years (!!!) of formal education ahead of them. The heavy lifting will come when I’m out of the picture and must be internally motivated. Our job is to set the schedule and not screw it up!
• Same deal with sport. If school work falls apart then we will be dialing down the training load. You need to earn the right for extra training.
• Fair doesn’t mean equal. My kids are always comparing who-gets-what. My focus is on supporting them, fairly, to get whatever outcome they can achieve on their own merits.
• I was very unequal when they were young. In any given year, I over-allocated toward the kid who needed an early intervention of my time. I think school districts should do the same – prioritize early interventions across all demographics.

Finally, schedule time to focus on your stars. It is very easy to get wrapped up in problems.

1// One-on-one trips/special events in your best environment.

2// Acknowledge that successful parenting means getting out of their way — building their ability to live in the world — letting them go.

3// ABC => Always build confidence, or competence… depends on the situation!

INVERT: don’t crush their confidence when they are small.

The confidence point is a big one. Bad habits don’t take your family where you want to go.

That last point is a good one => take time to ask around…

Where do we want to go?

All too easy for strivers to keep striving, across generations.

A favorite observation from Scott Molina

You don’t need to feel good to do good.

He was talking about race performances. Time has shown Scott’s observation to apply more broadly, say, to families and parenting.

Related to my last post about the phases of early education, you are unlikely to regret the difficulties required to set your family on a better path.

Go further… regardless of the outcome for the generation that follows you… providing a wonderful childhood, to any kid, will be a source of longterm satisfaction.

I’ve been at the fatherhood game for more than a decade. Often I feel worn out. The “worn out” seems to be adaptive. Our oldest is now a teen and my fatigue provides motivation to continue the process of getting her ready to leave us.

So that’s the family bit… occasionally awful, often fatiguing, always satisfying in hindsight.

Physically, my early 50s are much different than my early 40s. The rate of decline isn’t clear to me. The downward trajectory, however, is clear!

Specific tactics I’ve been using, and considering:

Anaerobic & Tempo Load – my ability to “do work” remains at a high level. What’s missing is the capacity to recover quickly from those efforts.

I can see why people choose to supplement their recovery hormones. I’ve skipped that path. I’ve skipped it because the last thing I need in my life is an increase in aggression. I also like the challenge-of-figuring-things-out.

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Strava – I ditched it at the start of this month. I felt the public posting was nudging me towards fatigue.

=> Limiting crowd size appears to help the quality of my decisions.

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Oura Ring – I bought the Gen 3 ring and have had it on for six weeks. It’s been a help. I particularly like the ability to look at what’s happening across the night.

Other Changes: turned my morning alarm off, stopped counting days skiing, stopped counting ski vertical and ditched all notifications.

Nothing buzzes, rings or flashes in my life.

Wonderful.

Oxygen Room – When I lived in Christchurch (NZ), I had an altitude room that I used for work/sleep. It was a low-oxygen room, created by running O2 concentrators, and pumping oxygen out of the room.

The company that sold me the system is now creating oxygen-rich rooms, to let people sleep at “sea level.” A friend installed one at her ski place and she loves it. When she caught COVID (breakthrough) with Influenza (same time), she headed “up” to be at “sea level” for recovery.

With the O2 room, I’m considering:

• What’s the goal? Perhaps better recovery. Sea level sleep, when physically tired, is bliss.
• Assuming better recovery, how’s that actually better?
• How would I use the better recovery? History indicates I’m likely to add load until I am just-as-tired as before!

So maybe it’s better to save the $$$s and modify my load.

Time’s going to force load reductions on me, regardless of recovery protocols. Another reason to avoid hormone supplementation => I might as well figure it out now.

Do you notice what you’re not doing to yourself?

It is difficult to wrap my head around things “not done.”

My demographic doesn’t write much about all the alcohol, edibles, prescription drugs and hormone supplementation that’s going on. I’ve decided to skip all that.

When my kids ask why…

Reality is enough for me.

Also…

You will need to decide what you want to get done in life.

Preparation & Prudence

Our family feels like it’s moving into a new phase. The changes are impossible to ignore.

• My challenges with “preparing” physically.
• Watching my kids track into self-directed learning, and living.
• The shortening window, of years, that lie ahead.

On every metric, my life (and the lives of those close to me) is on track.

A new question arose this year…

What was the goal of all the preparation and prudence? Amazing wife, all-star kids, cash burn under control, balance sheet on target, body doing better than I ever expected… what now?

Back in the summer, I wrote a small “to do” list. One of the items was 20 blogs in 20 weeks. This one is #20.

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Thanks for reading and for getting in touch from time to time.

This holiday season, I hope you get outside and give yourself a chance to enjoy the view. I’ve been trying to look around more.

Picture below is moon-set from the middle of December. I never wonder “what now” when I’m enjoying the outdoors.

PS: Iodine is element 53 on the periodic table.

There’s a saying in Private Equity that the best decisions we make can be the deals we don’t do.

Related, we all have thoughts that we are obligated to not act upon.

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The holidays can be a tough time for many.

Being surrounded by kids, Christmas is good for me – frequent socialization with very happy people. Their enthusiasm is contagious.

Childhood enthusiasm, sea-level sleeping, a two-month reduction in anaerobic load… combined for a pleasant finish to 2021.

The sort of finish that made me deeply grateful that I didn’t act upon a desire to dismantle my life. This desire followed me around June to October. It wasn’t much fun.

I have a policy to never leave myself in a position where my last interaction is a poor one. So, with a useful blog queued for Monday… I can share that 2021 was one of the toughest years of my adult life.

Externally, it was a great year. The kids absolutely crushed, the family’s net assets rose by a lot, my wife remained wonderful, my extended family took positive steps in their own lives, but…

But…

I was often very dissatisfied…

…very very very dissatisfied

…with the amount of money we were spending relative to the quality of my life.

Despite having a single residence, no mortgage, sending my kids to public school… cash out the door had crept up and up.

Not worth it (even when net worth is tracking upwards at a decent multiple of the spend).

“We can afford it” carries little weight in my internal life.

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Here’s something about dissatisfaction.

If you’re prone to getting _really_ upset, occasionally then this might help…

Looking deeply, I found it wasn’t with me all the time, or most of the time, just sometimes.

Like any emotion, it comes and goes. So an important thing to remember is not to act upon passing negative emotions.

Impulse control, learned in elite sport, has proven to be one of the most valuable assets I possess.

There’s also utility to be found in painful emotions. Persistent dissatisfaction nudged me to try some new things, and consider where my beliefs were making me miserable.

Clearly, it was my beliefs, rather than my situation that were causing the problem. My situation, by all measures, was great across the year.

Whittling down to misery-causing beliefs is not straightforward… …but these beliefs are usually obvious to those around us!

So my new things came primarily from saying “yes” to suggestions from my wife and kids.

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As I’ve written many times before, I also pay attention to when I am feeling content, serene and engaged.

• One-on-one in nature, with friends/family.
• Writing
• Teaching
• Reading
• Learning

Things turned around, quite quickly, when I stopped sitting around and got to work on being engaged.

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If you have an extreme personality then you may be prone to fooling yourself into thinking you need to dismantle your life (to get to better). The desire to “chuck it all in and start fresh”… comes back again and again.

However, my emotional states are so fluid, a few small changes can be all it takes to nudge myself from “totally unacceptable” to “sustainable across the medium term.”

Once I arrive at a “sustainable” mindset, my task became noticing the good stuff that’s all around me.

Anyhow, I ended 2021 grateful I didn’t burn it all down… and/or… take out my temporary feelings on those who provide the joy in my life.

I’m going to write this in the context it arises in my life. I have a hunch it applies more broadly. A variation pops up at least once-a-week in casual conversation.

Ten years ago, a wise preschool teacher shared a quote with me. I liked the quote so much, it’s been on my fridge ever since.

I have used the quote to guide my life for the last ten years.

• Give time, not money.
• Share experiences, not spending.

There’s another aspect of the quote… If you run into an adult who’s childhood emotional needs were unmet… assets, and spending, will not fill their void.

The void cannot be filled from the outside. This is an area where we need to heal ourselves.

Go further… to the heart of addictions…

Quite often, the attempt to “be a good provider” for these folks, makes their emotional problems worse. Further, they are going to feel crazy because they will be miserable while surrounding by conventional “success.”

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Let’s step back from the underlying emotional issues and discuss how parents, and spouses, can guide family spending and investing.

First, we need to sort ourselves.

My spending sets a floor above which everyone will operate. This might sound backwards but it’s my observed reality. My choices anchor “down” everyone around me.

INVERT: constraining myself is less likely to trigger resentment.

I’m the most powerful (spending) role model in my children’s life. I do them a lifelong favor by setting a consumption standard they can easily attain.

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Second, be brutally honest with yourself… Am I meeting the emotional needs of those around me?

When you are already a good emotional provider, it is very difficult for someone to trigger your need to be a good “financial” provider.

Rather than a high-stakes bargaining session… discussions about money end up closer to a 7th-grade math problem. An example… the ski-place…

• 20-25 days spread across five resorts
• Total cost of hotels/airfares ~$15,000
• Shows the folly of seeking to “save” money in a single location by locking up capital

Clothes => let’s start by wearing everything in our existing wardrobes first

Cars, Furniture, Art => is there a more effective way to scratch this itch?

Recreational assets, out-of-town commitments, 2nd homes => …are you sure you want to give me an incentive to be away from you and the kids?

On and on and on… think past the purchase to overall incentives, habit creation and the impact of repeating the action for the next 5-10 years.

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Third, the “what are you going to do with the money” argument.

Related to, “but we can afford it…”

Ability to pay is probably the toughest one to control. It’s hard not to spend money in your checking account.

SIDE NOTE: this is a good argument to move cash out of places where it’s easy to spend. This was a (somewhat bizarre) benefit from a choice to STOP earning so much money when I was a young man. Financial success was making it harder to be who I wanted to be.

Here again, pause and consider,

• What game do my actions show I am playing?
• What is the game I want to be playing?
• What game would move us towards “better” five years from now?

If you have kids then these questions usually point towards up-skilling independence via parental investment of TIME, and modeling behavior.

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Fourth, after you’ve done 1-2-3. Sit down and talk it over with the key people in your life.

If you are unable to convince them then have the humility to consider the possibility (albeit remote) you may be wrong!

In family systems, I’ve found it’s better to wait for a consensus to arrive than pulling rank.

Bonus: slower decisions are usually better decisions.

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Finally, related to the what will you do with the money discussion…

If you are focused on sharing time with the one’s you love then, hopefully, you will favor “experiences with them” over “making more money for them.”

Trustees, entrepreneurs, managers, exemplars, fiduciaries, parents, students, citizens…

We care for what we’ve been gifted by circumstances and pass it on.

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As a package, incorporating this process into your life results in a better allocation of time AND capital.

The expectation “we each take care of ourselves” is a good one. Even better when the parents model the behaviors required, and pass along the skills required to pull it off.

Let’s pull it together…

• Sort myself first
• When triggered, pause and look for the unmet emotional need
• Smart leaders set the anchor with intention => I anchor those around me via my effort, personal standards, emotional control and personal spending.
• Within family systems, remember my role is to meet emotional needs while teaching/modeling how to be self-sufficient financially.
• Have the humility to see: (a) when helping-isn’t-helping; and (b) my own capacity for error.

Twelve years ago, I found myself in an uncomfortable position. I had unlimited liability related to a nine-figure (USD) corporate insolvency.

It was a reminder => assets are best protected before they need protection.

After the dust settled, I went to work, adjusting the legal structure of my life.

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Below are ideas for you to discuss with tax and legal experts in your local jurisdiction. Always keep in mind that you are not trying to avoid tax, you are seeking to avoid ruin.

Once you’ve spoken with the trust & tax advisors, invert the situation and spend time with an expert litigation attorney. Find out what they are looking for when they decide to go after someone’s balance sheet and future earnings.

Financially, there are two things I want to deliver to my kids:

• Debt free education to the best of their ability (5-20 years time horizon); and
• US$ 250,000 (15-25 years time horizon, 2022 purchasing power) per kid

The debt-free education is what I really care about. Get that done, and model wise choices, they won’t need any financial support from my generation.

Aiming for a capital bequest forces me to be conservative with my own choices, greatly reducing the likelihood my generation becomes a financial burden on the one that follows me.

The financial deliverables, to the kids, are done within my life expectancy.

My true legacy will be non-financial in nature.

529 Education Accounts – Our contributions had the benefit of a state tax deduction, which mitigated the increase in expense ratio. Gains and income roll up tax free. The assets can be swapped widely within families, and descendants. Assets sit outside the contributor’s balance sheet, and are treated as a completed gift. This can be an effective way to build assets for kids, grandkids and between extended family members.

=> This provides comfort, today. Having that much capital tied up in a non-discretionary account constrains my action. I ignore these dollars when I plan for the future BUT I can also ignore the contingent liability of wanting to help my kids get educated.

=> I also give them a big financial incentive for figuring out how to educate themselves, for less. In my mind, that money is already “theirs.”

Other tools:

Irrevocable Trust – if you are in a line of work that could result in litigation, or simply don’t want to give a financial incentive to anyone to sue (or divorce) a member of your family, then this can be an appropriate vehicle to establish. Assets within the trust sit outside your balance sheet.

Intentionally Defective Grantor Trust – an irrevocable trust where the tax liability stays with the grantor for their lifetime. A benefit of this trust is the income, and gains, associated with the assets are rolling up outside the grantor’s balance sheet, gross of tax.

=> example here might be a high-earning professional, in a field prone to litigation, setting up a trust to benefit their spouse/kids.

=> another example: I stick an investment property in a Grantor Trust and it rolls up to benefit my kids. That’s the capital bequest I want to deliver. Worried about possibly needing the money? Then one could add their spouse to the beneficiary class as a hedge against future circumstances.

There are other asset settlements, and other trust structures, that can be effective for families. Experts can tell you more.

Contingent Beneficiaries – Talk to an estate attorney about using a trust as a contingent beneficiary of any inheritance you might receive. Wills can be drafted offering you the ability to disclaim assets in favor of a trust. Separate from asset protection benefits, this could be a useful feature if the taxation rules around estate taxation change.

=> example: in 2021, the estate tax threshold is US$11.7 million (double for married couples). Current law has the threshold dropping to $6.2 million in 2025. Go further… what might happen to your potential estate tax liability if that threshold went to zero? Ask your local expert to explain how you can use part of your $11.7 million exemption, today.

Private Trust Company – how does one “run” the entire structure without ownership? Establish a private trust company and have someone reliable act for the corporation, this individual could be a family member, or not. Be very careful with decisions/officers concerning: investment strategy, trust agreement amendment capacity, beneficiary classes and distribution policy.

Move slowly, with intention.

Done well, these structures do not cost much (to establish, and to run) relative to the benefits they offer.

Thinking Ahead – with all this stuff, it’s not about where your family is “today.” Think about where you might be 5, 10, 15, 25 and 40 years from today.

• Our 529 Accounts are an example. We set them up when the kids were born, contributed heavily in our high-tax years and did “nothing but watch.” They’re super flexible and my kids could elect to roll them forward.
• The Grantor Trust => set up many years ago, it didn’t seem like it received a lot of assets. However, those assets have been compounding for a long time (gross of taxes). Change the tax law, and extend my lifespan, a trust could save real money for my family.
• Try to cast your mind back, say, to 2009. Asset values had been hammered. Roll forward to 2021, many assets classes are up by a factor of 3-5x and salaries in your field are likely up 2-5x. If inflation cranks up for a few years then the thresholds will seem even closer.

All Family Is Optional – We’ve built everything with the ability to be collapsed, split and changed… changes will happen after my death (certainly) and late in my life (with my consent). Siblings, blended families, step-parents… anticipating a split into separate vehicles should be the default position.

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Things I learned from the process:

• Our structure paid for itself in reduced insurance premiums.
• Despite in-family expertise and external professional advice, “getting it right” took years and a few iterations.
• Move assets slowly and watch what happens. My kids’ financial education started in kindergarten. Next big step will be discussing allocation of 529 accounts – use, roll forward or trade? When appropriate, discussions about intergenerational capital allocation.
• Take advice from an expert in establishing these structures then… take advice from an expert at attacking your proposed structure. Know what can go wrong before you make irrevocable changes to your family’s balance sheet.
• Give each generation, and each individual, the flexibility to live their life as they see fit.

Remember, seek local advice. This post is meant to get you thinking, not offer professional advice.

Sometimes, we need to look at information that make us feel uncomfortable. As a leader, I acknowledge “bad” news, as well as my capacity to receive it.

I like simple metrics, especially those that don’t require purchasing hardware or subscriptions!

The first one… can I spend a random weekday with someone I love? Shared experience is a form of wealth.

Another… last year, how often did “yesterday” screw up “this morning“? => hangovers, days without exercising, days without writing, days waking up late… depends on your goals.

Keep it simple.

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High-Performance Tracking

The amount of data coming from wearables has exploded over the last few years.

Like the early years of power meters, the data is best used to make our mistakes visible.

With health, the big ones might turn out to be: alcohol, intensity, salt, carbohydrate timing, inactivity, anaerobic load… time will tell.

In my life, the valuable information is in the mistakes. Most of us know what we ought to be doing. What’s helpful is clearly seeing my errors.

Soon, we will be able to be constantly connected to our physiology (blood lactate, HVR, HR, glucose, breathing rate, blood pressure). If we want then data will be constantly scrolling across our phones.

A lesson of Taleb’s Fooled By Randomness… the less often you check the data, the better the quality of the signal you receive. Nassim was writing about portfolio returns, the lesson applies widely.

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Consider the one thing you are seeking to achieve in 2022, and write it down. The One Thing is the thing, if I happened, that would create a positive cascade in your life.

One things from the last 20 years…

• Get a loss-making business to profitability (reduce cash burn)
• Launch a new product (make money, while saving time)
• Launch a new company (create options for financial wealth creation)
• Cash flow breakeven (increase self-directed time)
• Write a book (establish expert credentials)
• Improve my relationship with my daughter (become a world-class father)
• Take care of a dying relative (learn about death)
• Become an expert skier (mastery)
• Win an Ironman (mastery)
• Find love (connection)
• Increase the kindness I show my wife (2022 goal)

Before you move forward, look back…

• Where did I sleep last year?
• How many nights did I spend away from my One Thing?

Where I am… a revealed preference.

My inability to remember facts does not remove the ability of the past to influence my choices.

I want to move closer to my kids’ schools. The idea is to free up time, enable them to socialize with their pals at our home, and cut my annual car-hours.

Win, win, win.

Thing is… my local real estate market is not acting appropriately.

• Median prices up 35% year-on-year (sustained upwards price momentum)
• Lowest inventory on record before…
• We lost 1,000 homes due to the recent Marshall Fire (constrained supply)
• Mortgage affordability at multigenerational lows…
• With a near-term expectation of increasing rates

It’s a perfect storm and creating a frenzy of FOMO-driven bidding.

It’s not just in real estate.

Three-year total returns on SP500… 31%, 18%, 29%… a dollar invested at the end of 2018, now priced at two dollars.

If you rode that wave at 2:1 leverage then you’re up 4x. Nice work, especially if you’re taking a share of profits on other people’s money.

The above puts 7% inflation in its proper context.

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I need to allocate capital in 2022. I’ve asked a wide range of contacts for ideas. One buddy responded with a series of questions:

• What did you do the last time you had to make this decision?
• What did you learn from your prior choices?
• What is the impact of being wrong, both today and in the future?
• Where are the sunk costs, and FOMO, in this decision?
• You have time to make these choices, be wary of collapsing your decision timing, maintain your freedom of action as long as possible.

The questions above are the value for you. The next section is notes for my future self.

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At the last peak, just before the 2008 credit crisis, I bought a really big house (about triple the size of what we needed). I over-bought because I felt flush, after a liquidity event. Fortunately, I held a chunk of my investment capacity in reserve and was able to buy into the recovery (2010-2012).

It would be nice if a “buyer’s market” was around all the time. Life doesn’t work that way. In my lifetime, buyer’s markets happen six months per decade. Families need strategies that work for the other 95% of the time.

One of my goals is to avoid strategies requiring directional calls. In our case this means we will sell an investment property, before purchasing a new residence.

Downsides with selling: (a) the potential to “miss out” on the continued run up; (b) crystalizing tax liabilities; and (c) being priced out of the market if there’s another 35% pop.

The downsides are real but they don’t have any impact on our quality of life. This is a lesson. Identify fears, concerns and risks… write them down, make then real and ask… what are the true costs associated with them and does that matter to what the family is seeking to achieve.

Accepting the downsides enables us to avoid things that would impact our lives: being over exposed in a downturn and risking a future cash squeeze.

Also, think about family “problems” from a non-ownership point of view. Having “ability to own” creates a bias towards ownership. Many goals can be reached without deploying capital.

Take my desire to reduce time spent driving the kids around… $9,000 per annum buys me a lot of driving support, Looking at the problem in terms of money and time, I’m $25,000 away from having a third driver (our oldest) living with us.

I also know that I don’t need to remove a problem to feel a lot better… $100 a week worth of driving support is going to make me feel a whole lot better. So $10,000 of spending could solve a “problem” that’s nudging me to move across town.

…and I don’t need to place a large, new bet

…and I don’t need to go through the hassle of moving

Related to my story about solving problems without capital / ownership…

• The joy from “being a coach” is different than the role of running a coaching business.
• The satisfaction of teaching is different than the reality of running a school.
• Purchasing assets nearly always constrains freedom of future action, in a world that’s constantly changing.

If you are a skilled practitioner then be wary of placing yourself in an administration role.

You don’t need to own it, to benefit from it.

Something about this melt up… Family net worth has exploded upwards but there hasn’t been big changes in family balance sheets.

Put simply… real estate is worth a lot more but it’s the same addresses, it’s the same assets.

The capital stock is the same, all that’s moved is the price.

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Another way I look at wealth, cash flow. Take the SP500… it’s doubled in price.

• End 2018, $100 generated $2.14 in dividends.
• End 2021, the $100 is now worth $200 and generating $2.54 in dividends

The 100% increase in price, is associated with a 19% increase in cash flow. One could argue that 80% of the increase in “wealth” has been a price move.

Using earnings yield, the numbers are different but the message is the same. There’s been a large price-driven move across our portfolios.

I see the same thing with real estate, a disconnect between price and cash flow.

When we look to the crypto-bros and think their gains aren’t connected to reality… humility could be in order.

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Here’s a boom-time risk assessment you can do…

Consider risk in terms of time (more detail here)…

• Look at family assets in terms of years current spending.
• Re-price those assets on a lower-multiple of cash flow, then see the impact on time (measured in years current spending).

You still OK?

Consider: What might this choice cost me, and my family, in terms of time?

My best decision of the last 20 years was moving away from a path that could wipe out my (enviable) lifestyle. I was in the middle of the 2005-2007 boom so the risks seemed very remote.

I made two changes: (a) banked the equivalent of ten years family spending off the table; and (b) removed all personal recourse funding from my life.

Then, as now, I didn’t have to make radical changes. I made adjustments to limit the downside from external financial circumstances.

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My points…

• Consistent upward price moves are impacting our collective psychology.
• These moves are mostly price driven.
• Because price moves can happen in both directions… consider risk in terms of how much time you lose with an error.

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Finally, raise your prices!

If you can generate recurring cash flow (for yourself, or others) then there’s never been a better time to re-price your services.

$100,000 of cash flow is being priced at $3-5 million by many markets.

As a private equity investor, seven years represented our maximum investment horizon. Everything beyond seven years was, essentially, forever.

Well, we’re coming up on our 17th wedding anniversary and it doesn’t feel like we’ve traveled “twice” beyond forever!

It does, however, feel very good to be traveling together.

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My focus on 7 is related to turning 53.

7 + 53 = 60

I suspect 60 will mark the end of my middle age.

The signs — less of everything — are all around me.

A book which has guided my life is Too Soon Old, Too Late Smart. I read it at the start of my marriage and applied its advice, gradually – point by point.

I would notice Dr. Livingston’s advice in others, then change those traits in myself. Ultra endurance sport gave me a set of skills related to not responding to others. Time and time again, I was rewarded when I overcame my urge to engage.

Outside of sport the game was to not-encourage certain aspects of my personality. I came to his writing with an understanding that my approach to relationships didn’t work, and a powerful desire to find a better way to love.

Like a new parent, I did not have confidence in what-to-do, so I focused on avoiding the big mistakes.

• Don’t act on anger => easier than… be patient all the time
• Focus on de-escalation => easier than… seeking to fix whatever seems to be the problem
• Wait until the energy leaves the situation => better than… heated engagement
• Schedule time together => better than… expecting my family to serve me
• Avoid those who bring out the worst in me
• Place myself in my best environment, especially with those I love

Lots of guys, and it is mainly guys, get themselves into unnecessary trouble with regards to sex. Tactics that have proven the test of time. I encourage these in my son…

Strength Training – very useful for anger modification. Like everything, I have tended to over-do-it.

Consistently toss plate and you’ll make less mistakes. Just seems to work.

As a young man, I used (extreme) endurance training. At 53, endurance-fatigue removes too many of the filters I use to manage my family life.

About those filers… I’ve come to realize that the greatest risk my family faces isn’t some external shock. It’s me. Specifically, the personality traits that I burnt off in my 30s will resurface and screw up an enviable situation.

Life gives each of us opportunities to start fresh, take parenthood. Not easy, often not much fun… very rewarding in hindsight, much like endurance sport. My kids have an experience of me that starts in my mid-40s. I love what they see in me. Fatherhood is a reminder that we can change, for the better, at any stage of our lives.

Pick a habit, learned young, that might be useful NOT to pass along.

Break the chain.

Dr. Livingston has ideas for you.

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Athletic spouse – when I pointed out the utility of this tactic, my son asked me to detail specifics!

With him, and you, I’ll leave this advice at “it just seems to work.”

By the way, to end up with an athletic spouse I needed to embrace everything implied, both in myself, and subordinating my “needs” to my goals. Again, elite sport was a useful teacher.

As a couple, we support whatever is required to have the physical partner we desire. We live in the fittest zip code in the US, have an extensive home gym, start each day with a workout… a mutually reinforcing positive cascade.

Having “fitness” as a core value creates blindspots:

• desiring access to fit-folks we’d do well to avoid; and
• being slow to embrace not-fit teachers, who are masters of subjects that can change our lives for the better.

Even with the blindspots, fitness crowds out choices that lead us astray. Having tried the not-fit path, it’s a good trade.

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Here’s an idea about freeing one’s self from the fears and anxieties that typify the mindset of high achievers.

As an endurance athlete, most of my efforts went into my sport. Prior to that, my energies went into finance. Prior to that, they went into school. However, in finance & in school, there was energy left for pursuits that could have led to ruin. Dr. Livingston covers most my mistakes in the first 20 pages on his book on love.

Despite its realities, elite endurance sport has a strong association with health. That association was enough to nudge me into seeking to be better person outside of sport.

Neat.

5, 10, 20 years of better… the compounding effect is real, especially when I transferred a “be the brand” coaching model to fatherhood.

There’s a very old teaching that was taught to me by Mark Allen…

If you want the full power of your actions, then tell no one.

From a walk in London (1993) to a couch in Hong Kong (2000) to a wonderful family (2022).

Brief moments, seemingly small choices, gradually reaching for better.

January is the month where I pull together financial information and think strategically about how I allocate time, and money.

One of the most useful tools for understanding what’s really happening… as opposed to what we think is happening, or what we budgeted to happen… is an operating account.

I’ll illustrate with a range of examples.

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Cash movements matter.

If you’re going to get ruined, financially, then it will be due to running out of cash.

So, how to track the cash?

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Family Joint Account — every dollar that runs through my household leaves via a single checking account.

Annually: I do a 12 month search on every credit entry into that account. Where did I get my cash?

Monthly: I check total outgoings in the account. How much did we burn this month?

This gives me an understanding of the big picture. While figuring out how to save 20c on a gallon of gas makes me happy (CostCo FTW)… gasoline could be free and it wouldn’t move the needle for my family spending.

Knowing the big numbers, keeps me from making my family miserable by distracting us with the little stuff.

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House Account — From 2008 to 2012, we lived in a very big house.

Aside from the time spent taking care of the place (65 bags of leaves each October!!!), I was curious what this place actually cost me. So I opened a checking account, gave my wife a checkbook and took one for myself. Every-single-thing connected to the house went through there.

Monthly, check the out-goings. Boom, you know exactly what the asset is costing.

You can do this for RV, boats, second homes, you name it.

By the way, the real costs were time, emotion and opportunity cost. We fixed that in 2013.

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Nanny Account – When the kids were little, we spend a ton on childcare. It was the best money we’ve spent since being married. Always remember to structure your childcare so it benefits the marriage.

Preschool, while part of childcare, is where I give consideration to what benefits the child. Everything else runs through the filter of strengthening the marriage.

Get a debit card for the account, run payroll and all other expenses through the account.

Making the cash easy to track saves many ethical mistakes.

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Business Checking Accounts

#1 // When I was running my athletic coaching business, I had a habit of blowing cash that was in the company account. I’d use it for “business related expenses.” When there is a tax deduction, we can justify a lot of marginal spending.

To give myself better spending discipline, I set a target of paying MY WIFE’S account $5,000 a month.

Worked great. The year I started to focus on cash generation, the business saw a $100,000 swing in profitability.

#2 // These days, in my fiduciary services business, I have a brokerage account at Vanguard. Right now, the account invests in a money market fund (VMFXX). To see what the business is _really_ making, I check the account balance at December 31, 2021 vs a year prior.

The business has two checking accounts. I keep the minimum balance in those accounts for free checking, and sweep the excess to Vanguard. The Vanguard balance tells me how things are going.

#3 // I sit on the board of an investment company in Hong Kong. All operations related expenses flow through a single account. Monthly, quarterly, annually… we check the outflows against what we think the operation is costing us.

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Virtual Accounts

#1 // My kids have accounts with the Bank of Dad. These spreadsheets help me teach them the power of compounding (BoD pays 10% per annum).

The first entry into these accounts is October 2016. It’s been a useful teaching tool. I break out the “earnings” component of their weekly interest and they are amazed at the “free money” they earn from investing with me.

#2 // My own Dad lives outside the US and has me pay things from time to time, we have a simple spreadsheet we use to track (Item, Amount, Date, Reference).

We’ve been rolling it for three years. So, much better than when I used to run QuickBooks to track family spending outside my household. We check the total at the start/finish of the year and we know the cash outflow.

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Cash Tracking

Rather than making myself miserable with (endless) low-value bookkeeping, I do a monthly review of every account where money can leave my life.

I enter the closing balances for everything. I compare account balances, and totals, to the prior period. One page.

I also run a monthly cash flow projection (March to February) so I remember to make lumpy payments. One more page.

• Federal / State / County Taxes
• Insurance
• Retirement account investments
• All of the above by legal entity, subsidiary and currency

When I create the forecast, I insert calendar reminders (7 days ahead) to make sure I haven’t swept the cash away.

I nearly bounced a payment to the IRS this month, so the system isn’t perfect but it’s better than jamming my head with dates and payments.

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All of these systems let me quickly get a feel for the key numbers in my life. They let me know what’s happening with a minimal investment of time. With accounting, it is easy to spend hours (and hours, and hours) bookkeeping, while generating zero useful information.

The overall system quickly shows me when my expectations are out of whack with reality.

I’m back on Twitter, daily – sharing ideas about living better. The focus is health & wellness with financial education for you and your family.

It’s a good place to ask me Qs on my writing.

Capital over and above the needs of current adult family members can be considered multigenerational.

• When I was younger, I focused on building net assets. I started saving out of my first paycheck. If a young adult aspires to a family leadership position then this is where they should start.
• Looking backwards from 53, the big gains have come from moderating personal choices, particularly associated with assets that don’t produce cash flow. Being an exemplar, here, is the role of senior family leadership.

A better way of viewing financial wealth…

• Assets “divided by” current-year spending => gives you a figure expressed in “years-spending”
  • $2 million of net assets means something very different when…
    • There’s $2 million of debt sitting on top of it vs being debt-free
    • Baseline spending is $125,000 vs $250,000
    • Average age of the earning membership is 35 vs 55
    • Context matters
• Time Horizon also matters!
  • Family is a dynamic process. I visit for a limited period of time. I change continuously while I’m here.
  • Years-spending can be compared to life expectancy of senior members and working-life expectancy of earning members.
  • Each adult member pays their own way.
    • This is HUGE for long-term returns.
    • First, because there are no “bad” deals in the family system.
    • Second, because the high-earners are free to live their lives in a way that most benefits the family system
      • HINT: teaching young members about life generates a higher return than creating more unearned capital within the family system.
  • Often overlooked => years left until the youngest members take over their own living expenses. Family is a dynamic process with clear generational shifts (deaths, retirements, careers, graduations, births).
• Families don’t need to budget for taking care of everyone, forever. When I started my kids’ allowance, I began teaching the concept of pay-your-own-way. They’ve also been raised with an expectation that they will move out. Living nearby is OK!

As a family, you need to decide the split between future-focused and present-focused capital. Until I was 52, I was totally future-focused. A change we are gradually making is shifting some capital towards present enjoyment. I like to call this capital “recreational.”

If you are going to deploy capital in a “recreational capacity” then consider the nature, and likely impact, of a mistake. Mistakes can come in many forms. Here’s what we’ve learned.

• Multiple, smaller bets, with the minimum capital deployed to solve the issue.
• Make sure you factor in the cost of ownership, forever. A high cost of ownership can turn a gift into a burden. I know families who spent many years unwinding the financial legacies of wealthy elders.
• Remember, the highest form of endowment is the TIME of a parent. How will this choice impact the family member’s time? Don’t tie down your most effective members with admin!
• More than comfort, consider how you might be able to deliver “time” to future family members. What is it going to take to assist my children in having the time to be great parents?
• Related, my children will have a range of financial “success” in their lives. Constraining myself, today, reduces lifestyle friction in the future (at no cost to their nature-loving Dad).
• The role of the family is to support its members in living the lives they choose to live, not to facilitate consumption. My current choices will become the (unconscious) baselines for my grown children.
• Adults have a preference for individual family utilization, over collective utilization.
  • From my dentist, “My kids will use my ski place a lot more… when I’m dead.”
  • From a friend, “They like to visit… when we’re not there.”
• Single geographic locations, with separate living arrangements, have proven a popular way to strengthen families.
  • From a friend, “Close but not too close.”
• Choose peers, and location, with intention.
  • Our environment exerts a powerful, often invisible, influence on our desires and actions.
    • Vegas, Aspen, Global Financial Centers… these locations strength traits that lead me astray
    • Far easier to reach-for-better in Boulder, than struggle with my past.
  • Where will this location, this choice, take our Human Capital?
  • What sort of people will we meet?
    • Availability heuristic, in all things – friends, choices, life partners
• Zillow & AirBnB enable families to quickly compare capital-to-own with fully variable access.
  • I did a quick check for Edwards, CO => $5 million homes available for $7,000 per week in August, the summer peak.
  • The same capital in VTSAX yields $60,000 per annum.
  • The smallest real estate mistake is usually 10% in-and-out costs. Even a “money-back” error on a $1 million house has a true cost of at least $100,000 (because you might have to have to hold for a decade).

Wise allocation of time is what grows human capital.

Assets are often a distraction from what needs to be done.

Specific tactics, I’m working on in 2022.

SELL an investment property to enable a market neutral move into an asset the family will use for shared experiences.

At 40, I had too much runway left to finance to make this choice.

At 53, I don’t want to wait until I’m old for (some of) my assets to better serve my life.

It might be tempting to borrow and defer the tax/agents’ fees => recourse leverage is a risk we don’t need to take.

An aside… at the back of my mind, I want to purchase an all-season van. I used to own a Sportsmobile and we had a lot of fun.

I worked for a guy who loved cars and a wise investor noted, “It’s better for Ferraris to be bought from carried interest than management fees.”

If you’re going to do something indulgent then: (a) pay down debts, (b) take some money off the table, and (c) limit the size of the outlay.

++

BUY equities at a reduced weighting.

At this stage of my life, I tend to balance “current enjoyment” with “future protection” on a 50/50 basis.

I’m nervous about current valuations. That said, I’ve been that way, FOREVER!

So… stay invested, at a reduced weighting => buy less.

• In March 2020 I increased equity allocations to 72% of my Vanguard portfolio.
• Allocating additional capital in 2022, I made a reserve for “an investment that benefits the present”…
• …then rebalanced to 60% equity allocation.
• This reduced the size of the new investment and got me past decision paralysis, driven by a fear of near-term loss.

“Buy less” got me to “stay invested.”

++

HOLD quality local real estate

Years ago, my family purchased a quality piece of real estate where my kids are growing up. Holding the asset, for 10-20 more years, would help my kids get on the property ladder. It’s also a good-enough hedge for an uncertain future.

As I wrote a couple weeks ago, the main financial deliverable for my kids is debt-free education.

If I can hang onto to the real estate asset then they will get a bonus above the debt-free educational start in life.

Simple decisions, good-enough decisions, can free your thinking.

++

WATCH

Be patient, change slowly and focus on sharing experiences with those you love.

For the next 15 Thursdays, I’ll publish a tool, or a lesson, to help you with family finances.

Tweet your Qs at me.

Start the game this weekend.

Here’s a template you can use.

If you have Qs then tweet them at me and I’ll help.

++

We are going to play a ten-year game, the purpose is to build an EMOTIONAL attachment to the power of compounding.

You’re going to need the emotional attachment to counter the impulse to spend what you have.

++

The best way to play is to check your portfolio no more than once a quarter. My kids have gone close to a year without asking me to update.

Give the game YEARS to play out, eventually your students will be amazed.

Investment: each Monday, each player gets $1 for each year they have been alive. I started my kids in Kindergarten so we kicked off with $5 or $6 per week.

Return on Investment: the “bank” pays 10% per annum on invested capital. My template has a little math embedded which converts the annual rate to a daily rate. This allows the player to see, and get excited about, weekly earnings.

Earned Money is Your Money: Most kids have a piggy bank, some kids have side-gigs where they earn spending money. If a player wants to invest that money then they can grow earnings faster.

++

There are two types of spending from the family account.

Investment spending – if the money came from “the bank” then spending approval needs to include Mom & Dad, or another savvy adult.

Earned income spending – Mom & Dad have no veto rights over money the players earn on their own. This allows real world learning to happen. Lending to friends, pain of crappy impulse purchases…

Teaching this to your kids, or grandkids, will change your relationship with money.

The inspiration for this game came from a 2015 post by MMM. What I’m Teaching My Son About Money. We started the day I read his advice. I’m grateful for his sharing.

Keep it simple, be patient, and remember the goal is an emotional attachment to compounding.

Here’s a Dropbox PDF and a link in Google Docs.

Please like, share, follow and retweet so I can see where our interests overlap.

Monday I published Multigenerational Capital on WordPress, shared tips for Parenting Alpha Pups on Twitter and discussed How An Olympic Sports Doc Uses HRV in his life on Twitter.

Tuesday: 20 years after winning, I looked back on Ultraman Hawaii on Twitter.

1. Attempting the impossible changes our lives in unexpected ways
2. We can be unaware of our limiting beliefs
3. Public success can be highly addictive
4. Life gives us feedback
5. Don’t quit, change the game
6. Metabolic Fitness Matters
7. Stay Humble

Wednesday I shared a worked example linking time and money for the self-employed on Twitter

Thursday I published The Allowance Game on WordPress and shared How I Use HRV on Twitter

Friday I shared When To Eat on Twitter and gave a tour of my home gym on Twitter.

In the home gym thread are two goals of mine: hang with my kids through my early 60s and hoist my carry-on (with ease) at 80!

Saturday I shared Losing Five To Ten from my WordPress archive. It’s on the impact of elite environments.

I was asked about asset allocation by a reader on Twitter and pointed towards a PDF, a book and free Vanguard resources.

One of my 2020 goals was to establish “ski week” as a family tradition. I booked a week in Telluride for each of February and March.

Feb 2020 : Ski Week 1.0 => Everything was going according to plan. The night before we drove through a storm and arrived ready to shred.

Two hours into our powder day, after dropping a double black in style (!), my daughter slipped on a catwalk and fractured her wrist.

We drove home that afternoon.

March 2020 : Ski Week 2.0 => Our trip was blown out by COVID.

I’m not the sort of guy to be put off by setbacks.

I’m patient with execution.

We checked out JHMR last summer.

Feb 2022 : Ski Week 3.0 => Vail, Beaver Creek, Steamboat Springs then Jackson.

We currently have two family traditions, matching Christmas PJs and Christmas in Mexico. Adding Jackson fits with my medium-term goals.

It gives me a forum to relate with my kids in my best environment. I should be able to rip until our youngest is done with high school.

It gives me a forum to expose them to my mentors, Doc J was there.

It gives me a forum to introduce them to younger, role models of outstanding character. Justin Daerr, Ironman Boulder Champ, all around good bro, was along for the week. I’d like to get his wife out for Ski Week 4.0.

As an athlete, I learned “the first time you go somewhere is usually a hassle.”

This was a reminder to stay put and train… as well as a warning against thinking life is better somewhere else.

The first step is making it work, where you are.

The next step, once it’s working, don’t mess with a streak.

Jackson worked great, eventually.

++

When we arrived, we were greeted by an AirBnB that smelled like stale cigarettes and dog!

My wife and daughter were flying in the next morning.

My son kept asking me… “Are you OK, Daddy?”

I was not OK.

I couldn’t fall asleep.

I got up.

Rather than spending energy assigning blame, I jumped on a travel app and made the problem go away.

I booked a very nice room, slope side.

The bill was large. However, just like I recommend with taxes, I compared the bill to my family net worth… it was manageable. I will remember the lesson, and not miss the money.

My thirst for blame and revenge was replaced by gratitude that I had the insight to make the problem go away.

I slept great, despite the staleness!

Doc J has an athletic wife, kids both older / younger than mine and a family tree where elders live a very long time.

He faces many of the same challenges/concerns as me. Plus, he actually went to med school…

He also has a proven track record of giving me advice that nudges positive change.

He’s a better listener than me.

The list goes on and on…

The good doctor is helping me with a project and we are talking about compensation…

You could pay me, but I’m good at earning my own money. What would be better is if you could teach my family in an area where I’m not an expert => finance, money, forms of wealth.

A strategic family relationship, combined with a family tradition, combined with the kids not noticing we are teaching them while they’re having fun.

Similar to bible camp, but we shred.

A thought on kids.

You don’t need to be a parent to have a child reflect your inner goodness back to you.

Teaching kids has proven to be a surprising source of strength, and quiet pride, within my life.

It was really nice to spend time with old friends.

Recap:

• Spending time, and money, in a way that meets the family’s strategic goals of building its human capital.
• Exposing young family members to various lifestyle options, of friends with strong character.
• Providing a forum for young people to speak with young adult role models.
• Listening to the advice of friends who know me well.

When I moved to the US, I went from a 5 to 30% tax rate.

Why move?

Because it saved me money.

Taxes are one slice of your family budget

I used to live in Hong Kong, a low-tax part of the world. Thing is, it’s a high cost location – especially for school fees and residential housing.

Landing in in the US, I chose a part of the country with an excellent public school system. With three kids, that choice saved me a lot of money.

But there are trade-offs.

I grew up in Canada and my family’s basic healthcare needs were covered by the provincial government.

Not so in the USA.

My insurance, HSA contribution and dental cleanings mean I pay $25,000 before anyone’s gotten sick.

I run the $7,000 HSA contribution down against my family’s $14,000 deductible.

Anybody breaks a leg, I’m quickly over $30,000 for the year.

Still cheaper!

In my last year in Hong Kong (2000) I was living in a place that cost $100,000 per annum to rent. The senior partners paid 3-5x that amount.

School fees: friends pay up to $50,000 per kid, per annum. Mine go to public school, a $75,000 saving.

Taxes are the price we pay for living a wonderful life.

Clean air, pleasant climate, easy access to nature, an ability to avoid traffic.

As a friend pointed out, all those Californians moving to Austin are going to find out something… they’re still complaining about taxes, it’s hot as stink, they’re sitting in a traffic jam AND they lost the benefits of living in Cali.

The ability to escape tax policy is 100% in our hands.

Here’s the game.

Take your tax bill and divide it by your net worth.

In my mid-20s, I worked in London. I earned $75,000 and paid $18,000 in taxes. My net worth was $20,000. My tax bill represented 90% of my net worth.

A change in tax policy, or a move to Hong Kong, would have a material effect on my family finances.

Most of us, can’t change hemisphere’s for work.

Many of us, can work remotely from a lower cost location.

Go deeper.

Consider time.

My former self, he saved 50% of his take-home pay from 1990-2008.

Year after year, his family net worth grew.

The government’s 90% take is now under 5%.

We freed ourselves from tax policy.

It’s in your hands.

Teach this to your kids.

• Taxes are one piece of the family budget
• The goal is a wonderful life
• Taxes are a cost of living well
• Over time, we control the government’s tax take

PDF Link on Dropbox

gDoc Link with view rights open, make yourself a copy.

I think these ideas were inspired by The Millionaire Next Door.

Teach your kids to become experts at applying wisdom across time.

You can follow me on Twitter. Likes, RTs and questions help guide my writing.

Getting A Better Body

• Starting from scratch
  • With strength (12 min a day, 2-3x per week, 10 wks)
  • With plyometrics (5 min per day, 2-3 per week, 8 wks)
  • With nutrition – lingo summary
• My winter week structure
• What “easy endurance” feels like
• My strength coach’s library of exercises

Generating Family Wealth

• Three Truths About Taxes – meet my 20-something self
• How Wealth Endures – meet the richest person in my family tree
• Building a Family Tradition > blind spending

Using High-Performance Insights

• Facing the fear of less
• Training metabolic fitness & idea generation
• No Secrets – The usefulness of envy
• Applying insight
• Overcoming self-sabotage
• How to place load

Elite Athletic Performance

• Thread of my wife’s swim workouts
• AC on overreaching, includes my note on HR suppression
• AC shared what I did when I was fast
• Building volume safely

Last week, I was in Telluride with my buddy, Mark. He asked me a question, very much on point…

Aren’t you afraid you’ll gain weight?

Why yes, I am terrified!

The context was my current “far less than I used to” training program. Sure, I was scared, and that’s why I kept the volume rolling for so many years.

However, like so many fear-based quirks in my life, my fears proved groundless.

Further, creating a lifestyle catered to misplaced fear crowds out a lot of useful work!

Get Off the Wheel of Sugar

AC has been crushing with a series of threads encouraging athletes to improve their stamina and fat burning. The lessons run much, much deeper. Creativity, cognition, and metabolic health – all benefit from working on the low-end of our fitness.

Many of us use training protocol as a way to justify our food choices. With the best intentions, we remove a food group, and end up replacing it with sugar.

OR

Starting to train, we shift our nutrition towards “sports nutrition.”

My buddy, Jonas Colting, calls this getting caught in Gel Hell.

Not a win.

Two tips work here:

1. Aim to eat more veggies than my vegetarian pals.
2. Stay below my sugar threshold.

#1 requires a bit of effort, but not too much. My main gig is salads and stir-frys.

#2 can be scary – it implies less total duration, less intensity.

Both these changes nudge us towards sustainable choices and, as we age, reduce the risk of ruin from following a Chronic Endurance lifestyle.

Get Strong

Back in the day, folks used to debate the utility of strength training for endurance athletes. Do y’all still do that?

I’m not into debating, I’d rather use something that works.

Strength Training Works.

There is a conscious, and unconscious, attraction to people who move powerfully – moving well, is attractive.

You want to be more attractive, trust me (see below).

Being attractive improves our self-image, which sets up a virtuous circle in our larger lives.

Remove One

Trying to change everything at once leaves me feeling scattered and distracted.

It doesn’t work.

Again, here’s what works:

One person, one habit, one pattern, one choice…

Each of us has a habit, relationship or pattern that we can eliminate, for gains.

• 2 beers before bed
• A basket of bread with lunch and dinner
• Cheese
• Bread + cheese = pizza
• French fries
• Soft drinks
• A friend who’s a feeder

Don’t try to do everything.

Don’t think you need to change “forever”.

Simply take a break for 30 days and pay attention.

With all this stuff, letting go of my fears seems daunting.

No way, I’ll be able to pull that off.

You don’t have to.

Try it out for 30 days and pay attention.

Iterate towards better.

I am going to show you how to connect spending, time and wealth.

Let’s bring back my 20-something self. He was living in London, working in finance and renting a room to keep his overheads down. 

Coming out of college, having more cash flow than he needed, he felt rich.

But was he?

He earned $75,000 and was spending $32,000. How wealthy was he?

Remember from last week, his net worth was $20,000.

Net Worth “divided by” Spending = WEALTH IN TIME

His WIT was 7 ½ months.

Roll forward to my early 30s. I’m a young Private Equity partner and hit $1 million net worth.

I was spending $250k a year, felt flush, but was I wealthy? Let’s find out.

$1,000,000 / $250,000 = 4 Years

Not wealthy, especially when you consider my life expectancy (>50 years).

++

At 31, I realized my spending was buying me NOTHING. What I liked to do was swim, bike and run. I had fantasies of leaving the corporate world. I took action.

I applied to emigrate to New Zealand. Arriving in Christchurch, I was able to buy a five-bedroom house for US$110,000. My cost of living plunged to $25,000 (NZ$60,000).

My WIT jumped to 40 years.

I didn’t return from my leave of absence. Most of my family thought I was nuts.

Best trade I ever made.

Getting A Better Body

• My WordPress article about Gel Hell and staying lean
• A thread about Big Guys getting fit
• Phase Two of Strength Training: Push Pull Press

Breaking Free From 9-5

• My WordPress article about Wealth in Time
• My take on @dvassallo’s thread about self-employment

Athletic Performance

• Monsy Swims of the Week
• Jeff asked me how I’m applying HRV in my own life
• More on me and HRV
• Hamstring (P)rehab – break the cycle of injury & eccentric loading
• Straight-legged athletes and my daughter’s dryland link
• Weekly workout structuring tips in this thread, expand the replies

Using High Performance Insights

• Set the higher strategy, first
• “LOL” is info – a reminder from Stephen

Family

• Kids & Screens
  • a daily habit of reading, chores and sport
  • know your why
  • my best strategies for kid tech