Priorities Matter

There is a fine line between using your time to grow assets you will leave behind but that won’t miss you and growing relationships that matter for more time than we can imagine. During the past Thanksgiving week most of my time was devoted to family and some preparations for teaching a lesson on “Making Decisions.” Therefore, I did not take the time to write anything about investing and even skipped the Five-Minute Friday word this past week. Here is why…

Thankful For Family

Our grandchildren are now (except one) in their teens and twenties. Each of them is special and we love them. It is fun to watch them mature and to make wise decisions. Their parents deserve a great deal of credit when it comes to the way they have matured. However, Cindie and I have also tried to play an important part in their lives with fun, practical, financial, spiritual, and educational opportunities. We can see how they can have a positive impact for God’s Kingdom in the years after we are gone. The reality is that they are already having a positive impact on their friends and their families.

This is a biblical way of living. Proverbs 22:6 (ESV) says, “Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.” (This is a general principle, not a promise.)

Looking Back

In the early days of my blog, I wrote an article I called “Thanksgiving for Investors.” It was published November 22, 2018. Six years later I want to revisit the topic, but I would encourage you to read that post first. Here is a LINK.

One of the ways we have tried to have a positive impact in the lives of our grandchildren is to open UTMA accounts for them. Also, as they reach their teens we provide them with funds to open Fidelity Youth Accounts so that they can begin to make their own investing decisions. In addition to the gifts, I spend time with each of them explaining more about investing and what wise investors do. I think it is wise to look at the “big picture” when investing.

Four Big-Picture Thankful Investor Qualities

There are many positives that flow from a thankful heart and a thankful disposition. Many of these result from a changed perspective about things others find burdensome or frightening. Here are four for you to consider.

  1. Be thankful that you have funds you can invest. I have friends in other countries, especially in India, who live what most of us would consider at the poverty level. They are poor in the world’s perspective, but rich from heaven’s perspective. I know this because I spent time with them in 2018 and 2019. I am also spending time with them via Zoom as I teach them the “Making Decisions” series of lessons.
  2. Be thankful that investing makes it possible to share more with others. This includes, of course, the UTMA accounts and Fidelity Youth Accounts. But it also includes helping our friends in India, contributing to our local church, and caring for the homeless with donations to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and the CareNet Pregnancy Center.
  3. Be thankful for markets that go up, but especially for those that go down (bear markets). Wise investors know that the market goes up and down. When it is going up it can be profitable to buy more dividend growth investments. However, when it goes down it is a grand opportunity to buy more shares at a lower cost per share.
  4. Finally, be thankful for your mistakes (and learn from them) and “losses.” Losses can be temporary. Prudent investors know that it is wise to  average your cost basis. If you can add shares at a lower cost, your average cost for all of your shares decreases. This is best done when a long-term holding is on a downward trend. Of course, if you have doubts about the position, adding more shares may only increase your eventual losses. However, much of what happens in the market, including the price of shares of great companies, is the result of short-term thinking, unfounded fears about the “future”, and a news story that may or may not have any long-term implications for the company in question.

Other writers have given us other things we can be thankful for as investors. One is Sean Williams. Here is a link to Sean Williams’ 11 things investors can be thankful for: Thankful Investors