Greetings to you on the first day of Spring 2021! What a different view, to me anyway, the beginning of this Spring holds versus past Springs, especially if we travel back a mere 12 months to last March. This time last year, parts of our country and economy were shutting down, pausing, closing, whatever term you want to use. Now? The opposite. There is a systemic loosening of restrictions as children are (mostly) back to schools, restaurants are accommodating more patrons, and, as I personally witnessed last weekend, airline travel seems to be picking up.
Rachel and I had the opportunity to head out to Utah for a weekend ski get away, and we took it. I’ll post some pictures on the Facebook page. On our flights, with the exception of the middle seat needing to be vacant, the plane looked near capacity with travelers. While we were at one of the ski mountains (we skied two different mountains), we ran into a family from Lansing, Michigan. Because the parents were able to work from home (WFH) and their kids hadn’t returned to in-person school yet, they rented a house for a month in Utah. Their kids finished their school work close to 12:00 (mountain time) every day which allowed for the family to spend the afternoons skiing. The father, who works dealing with cyber-crime for his company, told me he can work anywhere as long as he has an internet connection. The time he and his family have spent together over the past month has greatly increased their “return on life”.
Some of you may have heard me discuss “return on life” or ROL. What does it mean? It’s a philosophy. It turns the notion that we simply ‘work for a paycheck (or money)’ into ‘how is that paycheck (or money) working for me?’ Are you doing the things in life that matter the most to you? To take this rationale one step further, are your values, behavior, and goals aligned with one another? This is the reason I worked to complete the Behavioral Financial Advisor (BFA) coursework: To help people in my life, not just clients, bring clarity to what’s important to them.
When I met that family at the base of the ski mountain, they had already realized the important thing wasn’t that their family was skiing. It was that their family was spending time together doing outdoor activities (which I learned was a priority of theirs).
My question for you today: Is there anything you aren’t doing that you want to be doing? If you’re not, why not?
When we discuss things that are important to us (our values) we may have some vague thought of what they are. If you want a better understanding of what your values are, click on this link and complete the Values Exercise:
https://www.think2perform.com/
(Summary of instructions: click on “start”; you’ll then go through three or four rounds of whittling down the values until you ultimately end up with five.)
You’ll be able to print/save your answers when you’re done for future reference. If you do take the time to complete the exercise, please share your results with me.
Please remember that we are “here” and available for you as well. If you have any questions or concerns, financial or otherwise, please do not hesitate to call or email. If you have friends, family, or neighbors you feel would benefit from a conversation with me, I’m more than happy to have a call or jump on a Zoom meeting with them.
As always, I hope that you are doing well, and staying safe & healthy!