Mailbag 02

Does successful investing always require finding something new and clever before everybody else finds it?

Her question sounds simple, but underneath it is the fear that ordinary people must somehow become financial fortune tellers to succeed.

Fortune telling would improve my investing enormously because I already own a table and can probably acquire a crystal ball by Thursday.

My concern is whether the Securities and Exchange Commission recognizes the spirits seemed optimistic as adequate research.

That would be, um, how do you say, um, no.

moving on everyone karen eventually stopped hunting for dazzling predictions and concentrated on consistently setting aside money for her future while understanding what she owned and why she owned it her success came from becoming more deliberate rather than more exotic which is considerably less cinematic but much easier to repeat

I

resent any success story that cannot be improved by dramatic lighting and somebody shouting, buy, from a helicopter.

Yet nonetheless, DT is not the Wolf of Wall Street.

Still, repeatable behavior has the annoying advantage of remaining useful after the helicopter runs out of fuel.

Our second letter comes from Raymond, who received a raise and discovered something peculiar because his lifestyle immediately began volunteering to spend it.

Instead of treating the raise as permission for every expense to become slightly fancier, he successfully chose to direct part of the increase toward his future before getting accustomed to spending it.

Lifestyle inflation is sneaky, because nobody announces that the household has entered a more expensive historical period.

Suddenly, the ordinary towels are emotionally inadequate, and the toaster requires Bluetooth for reasons civilization has failed to explain.

Pairing mode on.

Pairing mode on.

Raven's story matters because he didn't have to make his present miserable to strengthen his future, and he deliberately enjoyed part of the raise as well.

Successful investing can coexist with enjoying life now, provided tomorrow receives an invitation before today's appetites consume the entire buffet.

I can support tomorrow receiving an invitation as long as tomorrow doesn't eat my dessert.

My future self has already contributed nothing toward tonight's cheesecake, and I question his standing in this negotiation.

Wow.

Hey, Jessica.

Yes, just a sec.

Waking up.

Okay, yeah?