March 29, 2022
To be overly clear, this is Will Brennan writing this post, not Sam Jones. It was brought to our attention that we did not make that abundantly clear during my first blog post. For anyone still wondering, Sam and his wife do not have a four-month-old son. 😉
Sam and I got together in the early stages of 2022 for a firm planning session. As we discussed goals for All Season for 2022 and beyond, I shared with Sam a few personal goals of my own. At the top of the list, I wanted to prioritize my own physical health in a way that I hadn’t since the start of the pandemic. And for the first 33 days of the new year, I did just that.
I had a lot to be excited about for 2022: My wife heading back to work after a long and well-deserved maternity leave. Our little guy starting daycare. A new golf season. And, like many of you, looking forward to a couple of vacations and generally hoping to get back to some semblance of normal as we learn to live with COVID. I wanted to make sure that I was fit enough and had the energy to experience and enjoy all these things with my family this year and for many years to come.
My wife and I made it almost two full years of the pandemic without encountering the virus. Our son made it nine days in daycare before he caught it and brought it home to share with us. Not to worry, the little guy was fine in less than 36 hours with no more than a mild cold. My wife had a similar experience–mild cold symptoms for around 3-4 days. Eight weeks in at this point, I am learning to live with ongoing issues in my throat and lungs. I still don’t have the energy to exercise or participate in social outings, especially not after a long day on Zoom. Less than three months into the new year and I am further behind today than I was at the start of the year, but I am still here. I am still in the fight.
I am going to get to where I want to be physically, but I will have to change my timeframe. A 12-month goal might have to morph into an 18–24-month goal. Between now and then I am going to try to make little changes and take things one day at a time to help get there.
I share my recent personal health struggles not to ask for your sympathy—I trust that you are going through your own personal struggles right now as well. I share my story as it is analogous to the work that we do in financial planning. Ultimately, we try to understand your personal situation as best we can and make predictions of its viability into the future using projections derived from past experiences. We work together to set goals and build portfolios to help you achieve them.
We do this knowing full well that there will be headwinds along the way. There will be accidents, family emergencies, water heaters and roofs that need replacing, health issues, market corrections, geopolitical events, and a myriad of other things that we can’t foresee happening this year or over the course of a 30+ year retirement. I can tell you with virtual certainty that these things will happen, I just don’t know when and to what extent. Setbacks are bound to happen—even for the best laid plans. It is how we respond to setbacks, however, that ultimately determines our long-term success or otherwise.
When life happens, know that our firm is here to help—if nothing else, just to listen. We can’t plan for everything, but we can help you build a margin of safety for when the rainy days do eventually appear. Furthermore, if you (or anyone you know) are feeling anxious or nervous about your financial future or if you are going through something personally or professionally, please do not ever hesitate to reach out. That is what we are here for.
Moving forward, I will be sharing my thoughts on a regular basis via a new blog, “Anecdotes for All Seasons.” This blog will focus on personal stories (like this one!) with more of a planning bent. I will leave the technical market commentary to Sam.
Thank you for reading!
Will
