Investments - A Different Perspective

I’ve never ridden an actual roller coaster in my life.  While I generally don’t get carsick (unless I’m trying to read on a bumpy, twisty road), I do get seasick on a cruise ship in open water or if I need to use the head in the cabin of our 21’ power boat while we’re underway.  I know enough about whatever inner ear issue I have to understand that any enjoyment I may get from an amusement park ride is not worth the dizziness and nausea that will accompany it.  However, this past week, I’ve been on a virtual roller coaster that has more speed, twists and heart-stopping vertical drops than any other roller coaster in the world.  Yup, I’m invested in the stock market.

I know there are plenty of other riders on this coaster that are experiencing the same highs, lows and frightening lurches along the way, hoping that the wild and nightmarish ride will end before we lose our lunch – or much more of our financial security.  As long term investors, Alan and I have always chosen to ride out the wild times.  Our assets are diversified and allocated properly in reference to our ages and our risk tolerance, and we’re fortunate in that we have more than one income stream.  I may be optimistic, but I truly believe that the market will rebound sooner rather than later once the threats from COVID-19 have bottomed out, although it might take a while to get back to the lofty levels we’ve seen in recent times.  So, while our stocks and bonds are embroiled in the volatility that has defined the markets of late, let’s check on my other “investments.”

When most people use the term “investments,” it’s almost always in relation to stocks, bonds, mutual funds, ETFs, and other financial products.  Admittedly (and as my husband is quick to point out), I’m not like most people.  Our financial investments are, indeed, one tool that we use to sustain our financial stability and better our lives, but I believe that the investments made outside the financial arena are just as important to our quality of life.

Alan and I were married in the fall of 1979.  In the spring of 1980, we started clearing a portion of a three acre lot we bought in a rural section of the Northeast so that we could build our country home, surrounded by nature and enveloped in solitude.  We were both working full time jobs, and we lived on my paycheck while banking Alan’s and using those funds to pay for building materials.  Working on evenings and weekends, we built our home with cash and sweat equity.  While it’s true that Alan did the majority of the work, I can assure you that I’m able to swing a hammer and put up sheetrock with the best of them.  Well, maybe not with the best of them, but I held my own and learned a lot in the process.  (Like do not EVER use 16 foot pieces of sheetrock on the ceiling just because you don’t want to tape and spackle 8 footers.  Those suckers are unbelievably heavy!)  The ability to achieve home ownership in our 20’s without the necessity of a mortgage allowed us to fund our retirement accounts at a younger age and at a higher percentage.  Volatility: LOW.  Level of risk:  LOW (My guy can build anything.)  Rate of return on all those hours of sweat equity: HIGH.
 

In progress, but missing the addition on the right

When Alan and I were first married, neither of us wanted to have children.  (Don’t worry; our kids know this.)  We were too busy building careers, our house and our marriage to want to throw kids into the mix.  As the ticking of our biological clocks became incessantly louder, we realized a “now or never” decision was needed.  Well, you all know how that turned out.

Kyra was 5 and Ryan was 10; I don't know how old the Park Ranger was.

Alan and I were of one mind when it came to raising children.  We had always agreed that, if we ever decided to have kids, we wanted one of us to be home with them, and it didn’t matter to either of us which one it was.  As it so happened, when we decided that it was time to welcome kids into our lives, Alan was making more money in IT than I had been in banking, and he had excellent benefits, so we knew we’d be in a better financial position if I stayed home.  And so I did.  This is definitely a situation where I say “different strokes for different folks” and “to each his own.” The fork in the road that we chose to follow would not have been the route chosen by others for a variety of reasons.  But, for us, it just felt right.  We sacrificed my income for more than 15 years, but we gained the knowledge that our kids’ early childhood education was guided by our values and our priorities, and I was able to participate in and support Ryan’s and Kyra’s activities through their years of formal education.  Alan and I both loved the idea of parenting the kids well, and we truly enjoyed (and still enjoy) the time we spent with them.  Well, most of the time we spent with them.  No topic was off limits, and conversations about all kinds of things took place around the supper table each night.  Love and laughter were abundant, and we viewed family time as sacred.  Traveling with our kids from the time they were tiny tykes allowed them to enjoy all kinds of fun and educational experiences that broadened their horizons.  Parental bias aside, we now have two confident, young adults with wonderful senses of humor who get along well with each other, can and do converse intelligently with people of all ages, have steady employment in jobs they like, consider kindness and respect important to their business and personal relationships, and still enjoy family camping adventures at the lake with Mom and Dad.  Volatility:  OFF THE CHARTS (especially during those middle school years when both of our kids temporarily turned into aliens).  Level of risk: HIGH (It’s a complete crapshoot, in more ways than one.)  Rate of return on trading 15 years of income for reading The Cat in the Hat 4,572,896 times and delaying our early retirement plans by at least five years: HIGHER THAN I EVER THOUGHT POSSIBLE.

Taken a few years ago when she was 17 and he was 22

When my job handling the Personnel function in the Business Office of our local school district began keeping me up at night and raised both my stress level and my blood pressure, Alan and I agreed that it was time for me to escape from the workforce.  Our original plan was for me to “graduate” the following year when Kyra graduated from high school.  But the impact on my health caused us to re-think that plan and pull the plug a year early.  Luckily, we were in a stable financial position that allowed us to do so.  I immediately jumped into helping Alan with the major construction project he was working on at a rental property which proved to be a demanding, but extremely rewarding, experience.  More importantly, I set a regular sleep schedule and, without the stress of worrying about my upcoming workday, those hours of lying awake worrying at 3:00 a.m. disappeared, and I actually felt refreshed and energized when I woke up in the morning after a good night’s sleep.  I focused more on what I was eating.  With more free time, I found I was able to pay closer attention to the nutritional value of the food I was buying and the quantity I was consuming.  Over the years, I’ve been lucky – my body seems to have a natural set point and I haven’t varied by more than five pounds one way or the other from what I weighed on our wedding day 40 years ago.  Truth be told, I had been quietly changing the way our family was eating over the past two or three decades with small changes here and there that slowly moved us into better and better eating habits.  Being out of the workforce allowed me the time to plan better, make smarter choices and prepare meals at a more leisurely pace – all factors in upping the nutritional content of what we were eating.  It’s not that we weren’t eating good-for-you foods; it’s just that we began eating more of them, and the impact on my energy level has been extremely positive.  (That being said, ice cream is still an important food group in my personal food pyramid, and always will be.)

I began exercising on a regular basis – a great improvement over the sporadic exercise I had been squeezing in as a full time employee and working Mom. These days, if we’re not traveling or out for the day on a special excursion, I’m either walking four miles on our peaceful, wooded country roads or biking fifteen miles indoors while catching up on my reading or binge watching Law and Order.  If we’re traveling, we’re often out in nature - walking, hiking, biking or kayaking – and the ability of the great outdoors to keep us active and restore our spirits is phenomenal.  Volatility: LOW.  Level of risk: MODERATE (Let’s face it: any type of physical activity comes with a certain amount of risk; however, keeping extreme sports off your bucket list will go a long way toward keeping you out of the HIGH risk category.)  Rate of return on focusing on and improving my physical and mental health:  CAN’T BEAT IT.

Over the years, Alan and I have purchased both kayaks and bicycles for ourselves and the kids.  With the exception of our daughter, no one in the family is a “team sport” kind of person, so these purchases allowed us to participate in the type of individual athletic pursuits that provided a regular dose of physical activity.  While not exactly cheap, this equipment, once purchased, usually lasts for years, and having it at the ready means we can get up and go at the drop of a hat.  When I consider the many happy memories generated by our bike rides and kayak expeditions, I realize that choosing to own these items has opened up a whole new world of memorable experiences for our family.  Volatility: LOW.  Level of risk: MODERATE for most; HIGH for some members of the family who shall remain nameless to protect the klutzy.  Rate of return on the purchase of solid outdoor equipment:  HIGH (unless, of course, someone takes a spill, wrecks a bike and sustains bodily injury, then it’s DISMAL).

Enjoying a bike trail in Burlington, Vermont

In 2006, after a ten year hiatus from camping, we bought our first travel trailer – a Jayco Jay Flight bunkhouse model.  We put over 40,000 miles on our beloved Jayco and, along the way, introduced Ryan and Kyra to the wonders of America.  The time we all spent together traveling produced some of my most cherished memories.  To hear a teenager in the back seat repeating, “Oh, wow!  Oh, wow!” (accompanied by the steady clicking of a camera shutter) as you’re driving through the spectacular scenery of a National Park warms a parent’s heart and an adventurer’s soul.

Alan and I have seen Ryan and Kyra go places and do things their young minds would never dream possible - like viewing the city of St. Louis from the top of the Gateway Arch, being surrounded by bison while driving through Custer State Park in South Dakota and hiking among the colorful hoodoos in Bryce Canyon National Park.  The ability to stay on the road for weeks at a time, all the while traveling with the comfort and safety of our own home on wheels, provided our entire family with unimaginable experiences and priceless memories.  Volatility:  LOW (But this depends on how well your kids get along.  Your mileage may vary considerably.)  Level of risk: MODERATE (Until you try it, I don’t think anyone really knows if they can live with other people in a 240 square foot box for an extended period of time.  Of course, you can always sell the RV after your first trip if things don’t go well.)  Rate of return on logging tens of thousands of miles to see America with your children while they’re young:  SO HIGH THAT IT’S ALMOST INCONCEIVABLE.

Bryce Canyon National Park

Alan and I love the mountains, and we love the rivers, lakes and oceans in and around this magnificent country of ours.  Rather than purchasing any type of cabin in the mountains or cottage near the seashore when we retired, we decided that a retirement home on wheels would be an ideal solution to our wanderlust and love of all things in the natural world.  On a whim we could easily swap the view out the windows with not much more than a quick clean up and an easy hitch up on our way to . . . anywhere.  When the kids aged out of traveling with us on a regular basis, Alan and I decided that a travel trailer with a rear living floor plan, sleeping accommodations for the kids for whenever they were able to join us and a slide out to provide additional space would be a perfect fit.  We eventually decided on a Creek Side 26RLS made by Outdoors RV Manufacturing in eastern Oregon, and we drove nearly 6,000 miles round trip from the Northeast to the Pacific Northwest to buy one.

Could we have purchased something smaller/less expensive/closer to home?  You bet.  Would we have been as profoundly happy with any other rig as we are with this one?  No way.  Volatility: NONE (as long as all parties involved are in agreement on the course of action; otherwise, EXTREMELY HIGH).  Level of risk:  HIGH.  (What if we don’t like it when we get out there?  What if there’s something wrong with it and the dealer doesn’t have time to fix it right away?  What if it’s a bear to tow?)  Rate of return on discovering an absolutely perfect way to spend your retirement years with the love of your life:  IMMEASURABLE.

Happy camping on the shore of Great Lake Sacandaga

So, while my investments in the stock market are as volatile as the moods of a two year old on a sugar high (I see there was another tantrum today), I’ll simply take a deep breath, wait it out and focus on my other investments – the ones that continue to pay dividends on a daily basis by enriching my life and bringing infinite joy, good health and a blissful contentment to every single one of my days.  Those investments are doing just fine, thank you very much.