Markets and Mindfulness |
Monday Mar 23 2009
Sandra, my financial advisor and friend, and I were talking about the ‘meltdown’ the other day. I was asking how my retirement investments were doing and she shared that I probably don’t want to know. She is a believer that markets go up and down and, over the long-haul, reasonably conservative investing will pay off. Historically this may be true, but somehow knowing that doesn’t help when you are afraid of ‘losing’ your life’s savings or having to live off your friends and children when you are old. Sandra’s advice was to relax and don’t read the newspapers. I think she is right.
When I think about it, I have been a long-term investor for the past twenty years or so. For most of that time, I didn’t think about my investments or ‘follow’ the market. My relationship with the financial world was about like my relationship with the weather—I was vaguely aware when it was raining, but mostly it didn’t affect my life one way or the other. So what happened? Now I read the financial section in the newspaper first and watch with fascination and horror as news of bank failures, national defaults, and growing jobless rates bombard me from all directions.
But nothing has really changed. The same amount of cash is in circulation. Most of what’s been lost is on paper. It is true that it is scary and often painful when people lose their jobs, but it has also always given impetus to more innovation and new enterprises and opportunities. Even during the Great Depression, people united and supported each other and together got through the hard times. People I know that lived through those years even speak fondly of the quality of their lives and reflect that, in some ways, those were the good ol’ days.
I am not nostalgic, nor am I interesting in rationalizing or glorifying the profound and often-tragic implications of what is happening to our market systems and our economic assumptions and ‘reality’. But I do believe that when we fill our public media with dire predictions and ‘the sky is falling’ messages, we are fueling self-fulfilling behaviors that make our worst fears become reality. I don’t think Sandra was saying to stick my head in the sand and ignore the stark realities of what is happening. But she was suggesting that I stay centered in my work, my family, my relationships and what I am doing in my life. If I become too distracted or afraid or over-react to what is happening in Wall Street, I risk not only losing money, but most of what I value in life and what I have been saving money to preserve.
We can’t control circumstances and there are no guarantees or entitlements for the future. What we can do is appreciate what we do have, stay involved and engaged wherever we can make a difference and relax. Even if this were the end of the world (which it is not), we need to stay present so we will know how it turns out.
© 2009 Jim Selman. All rights reserved.
Written by eldering at The Great Turning
Tagged with: economic_meltdown fear investments reality relationship
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