Happiness for Investors. Why your happiness shouldn’t be tied to the DOW

Sunday, October 12th, 2008

Many folks lost their behinds in the last week due to a major drop in the financial markets and corresponding free fall in the Dow Jones Industrial Index down to 20 year lows that occurred recently.

History has stories of people jumping out of windows during times like these. Heck, even recently a story from the UK outlined how a father and husband financial executive intentionally stepped in front of a train and finished himself off just because of the downward turn in the financial markets.

How stupid.

Get a grip people! It’s just money!

Money is not human. In fact, it is simply a physical representation of a mental concept. It’s just paper. Paper. Almost ordinary paper.

I’m trying to smash through a simple mental game that governments play. That’s all money is.

It’s certainly nothing to get upset about.

God invented sunrises and babies and fresh green grass and love.

Much better than money.

DO NOT TIE YOUR HAPPINESS TO THE DOW!

Challenges are not all bad. They’re just challenges.

We’re living through a financial challenge, that’s all.

You’ll get through it I promise.

You may have more or less money, you may take some time to get back where you were.

Who cares?

Most people’s concept of the value of money is how much “stuff” money can buy.

I can assure you that you can live a happier life if you simply untie your happiness from money altogether.

Strive. Work. Focus. Dream. Face down challenges. Compete. But don’t be unhappy while you’re doing it.

Look up from your work and realize that that beautiful sunrise you’ve been ignoring while you’re face down in a $6 cup of coffee was put there for you to enjoy. Enjoy it.

Observe life around you. Get your head out of the financial news.

Your real friends will still like you even if your portfolio is smaller than it was.

If you’ve trained your family correctly, they’ll be able to see that happiness doesn’t come from “stuff” so they won’t miss not having more new “stuff” for a while. You did teach that to your family, didn’t you?

Take them on a picnic instead of buying some multi-hundred dollar electronic whiz bang thing for their next birthday or holiday. Bring a Frisbee. Leave your Blackberry at home.

Your family will have a better time because they’re with you and they have 100% of your attention.

Action step: Re-read this article. Make a promise to yourself to separate your happiness from the financial news.

You will be amazed that with some simple (notice I didn’t say easy) changes to your thought processes you can actually live a consistently happy existence, no matter what the DOW.

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Foot massager creates happiness

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

I’m strongly considering this foot massager for my wife’s upcoming birthday. We tested it in Brookstone today but she wouldn’t let me buy it for her right then and there.

It’s $499 so it ain’t cheap but WOW did it feel good. I don’t usually have any interest in massages, genuine or through various machinery.

Here’s the link. I read 12 reviews on their site and 11 of 12 were 4’s and 5’s out of a possible 5.

Evidently, happiness can be found in mechanical devices.

I can’t wait to get this for my wife. If not her birthday, then probably Christmas. It’s very expensive but since she’s been asking for it or something like it for several years now, I think it’s time.

When I finally pull the trigger and give this to her, I expect to get more pleasure out watching her enjoy it than she will when she uses it.

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Retail therapy is alive and well in Atlanta, GA

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

I have news for you. There isn’t a bad economy.

At least that’s my assessment after my day at the mall.

If you read my earlier post, I had to go to the Apple store to get two iPhones fixed. There was a 2 hour wait to get to talk to a tech. The store was full of people shopping for expensive, exotic hardware from iPhones to super-thin laptops to iPods and more. There was hardly anything in the store less than $300 and the most people were around the $2,000 laptops.

They made me turn my McCain t-shirt inside out to avoid a scene. I just made that last sentence up.

The rest of the story though is real.

The place was mobbed.

The parking lot was full, there was a fairly long line for Annie’s Pretzels of all things in the food court.

People were spending money left and right.

Now I’m not sure that retail therapy is healthy for anyone’s bank account. I’m not exactly Dave Ramsey. All I wanted to do with this post is make the observation that retail therapy is alive and well in Atlanta, Georgia.

At least for this day, I watched thousands of people having a good time.

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Babies in the mall

Saturday, October 4th, 2008

I am sitting in a mall waiting for my wife after visiting an Apple store for service. I’m with my three sons, my youngest is 11 months and asleep in his stroller. Across from me is a new Dad holding and feeding his first child who after talking with him I found out is 1 month old. Just now a lady rolled up with a twin stroller with 2-9 week old twins. At 43 I’m much older than these parents. It’s beyond cute seeing other people interact with their kids.

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