A rich life is measured by more than money

Tuesday, 20 June 2023 — Gold Coast

[7 min read]

Dear Reader,

It’s 3:42am and today’s Daily Reckoning Australia finds me in a reflective mood.

My elderly father’s health is failing.

One fall too many has forced him to surrender his highly prized independence.

We knew this day of reckoning was coming…but it’s still sad to watch.

A tour of the assisted care facilities provided me with a stark reminder of what constitutes a rich life.

When a financial publication usually mentions the term ‘rich’, it tends to be associated with money or a vein of ore.

Not this time.

Don’t get me wrong, money is important — especially when it comes to paying the not-so-insignificant Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD). However, when the final tally on your life is done, true net worth is measured by other factors.

Money can’t buy love

In 1964, the year when the last of my parents’ five children was born, The Beatles’ hit single ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ was released.

In Paul McCartney’s own words, his motivation for the song was…

‘“Can’t Buy Me Love” is my attempt to write a bluesy mode. The idea behind it was that all these material possessions are all very well but they won’t buy me what I really want.’

Growing up in a working-class family, material possessions were few and far between. Money was needed for the basics…shelter, transportation, food, clothing, and education. Precious little was left for material indulgences.

Society has changed quite a bit since then.

Credit-funded consumerism has literally consumed the developed and a good chunk of the developing world.

The quip, ‘we buy things we don't need, with money we don't have, to impress people we don't like’ originally referred to Hollywood. These days, it extends well beyond the zip code of Beverly Hills.

And this increasing obsession with ‘look at me’ on social media suggests the penny has not yet dropped on true love extending beyond self.

Of the limited number of possessions Dad can take with him, the most prized are his photos of family and friends. These are his permanent reminders of a rich life…one that money alone cannot buy.

When it all gets distilled down, material goods become immaterial and it’s not how much you love yourself, but how much you are loved by others.

In the final tally, love and respect are what matters most.

Money can’t buy happiness

Long before The Beatles were singing ‘Tell me that you want the kind of things that money just can't buy’, Roman philosopher Seneca (4 BC to 65 AD) wrote a letter to his mother.

The title…Of Consolation: To Helvia

Here’s an extract…

‘Consider in the first place how many more poor people there are than rich, and yet you will not find that they are sadder or more anxious than the rich: nay, I am not sure that they are not happier, because they have fewer things to distract their minds. From these poor men, who often are not unhappy at their poverty, let us pass to the rich. How many occasions there are on which they are just like poor men!’

Prior to reading Seneca’s wisdom, I’d never looked at life from this angle.

In number, the poor far exceed those of the rich…yet the poor are not sadder or more anxious than the rich.

Money does not buy happiness…just ask any psychologist practising in the more well-heeled postcodes.

A few years ago, the Australian Financial Review published an article about the struggles James Packer was having with his mental health. Here’s an extract (emphasis added):

‘…the very rich have financial worries of their own, says (psychologist Joel) Curtis: while poorer people worry about paying the bills, and middle-class people are trying to get ahead of the bills to pay off the mortgage, the seriously affluent are preoccupied not with what they have done, but how to keep it that way. Their entire self-esteem is tied up with money, so any downturn or the "business going south" can cause stress and depression. Nothing is ever enough, there's always another goal. Everyone is striving for self-actualisation and unfortunately for highflyers, it is based on results, so they have to keep chasing the high, the feel-good factor.’

When you measure your self-worth in material possessions only, contentment is both fleeting and elusive.

Genuine happiness must come from within.

The other circle of life

How do we create a happy life?

By deciding on what’s really important…and then putting it into practice on a daily basis.

In the day-to-day hustle and bustle, it’s easy to lose focus on all aspects of life.

This alternative ‘circle of life’ has been invaluable to me in my quest for a balanced and happy life.

Every now and then, it’s good to take stock of your life.

What would your score be on each of the segments of life?

If you’re brutally honest, it can a confronting but also liberating exercise…putting you on the pathway to living a truly rich and rewarding life.

We’ve all heard versions of these tales…

‘On their death bed no-one wishes they’d spent more time at the office.’

And:

‘All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy.’

Avoiding these sad anecdotes being your lived experience requires a conscious effort to live a full and rich life...and to do it before it’s too late.

Upon reflection, I’d say Dad scores reasonably high marks on each segment in the ‘Circle of Life’.

Seneca’s view on wealth was, ‘[it’s] useful and brings great comfort to life’.
Very true.

However, an even greater source of comfort to my father is in knowing he has the love, respect and support of his five children, 14 grandchildren, and 15 great-grandchildren.

Final thought on this morning’s moment of reflection…Dad has lived a rich life.

Until next week.

Regards,

Vern Gowdie,
Editor, The Daily Reckoning Australia

Dear Reader,

‘Don't let it be forgot, that once there was a spot, for one brief shining moment, that was known as Camelot.’

Jackie Kennedy to Look Magazine, with a line from the musical

Whoa…that was a close call. It took us nearly 60 years of disappointment, observation, and regret to get it. We didn’t want to lose it.

You don’t develop cynicism overnight. It takes business deals gone bad…political promises that we never meant to be kept…innovations and inventions that didn’t work out…public policies that were idiotic when they began, and disastrous when they ended.

In today’s world, where would you be without cynicism? Doing five years in the can for visiting the Capitol building without a permit? Joining the Ukrainian army to ‘protect our democracy’? Buying Nvidia and trusting that the Fed really does know what it is doing?

We can’t even write those words without chuckling to ourselves. It was only two years ago that the Fed forecast inflation for 2023 at 0.1% — now they say it will be 5.6%. They were only off by 5,500%!

Stronger, richer, freer?

Last week, US Government debt passed US$32 trillion. And it is growing fast — up by US$10 trillion over the last four years…and now increasing at US$2.1 trillion per year.

And what do you think? Did a single penny of that debt make the US stronger, richer, and freer? How young do you have to be to believe it?

As the debt rises, so do interest rates. Year over year, the Feds’ interest payments are up nearly 50%. Next year, more tax money will be needed to support the debt than to support the Pentagon.

The private sector is also paying higher interest rates. Companies that took on billions of debt at 3% interest now have to refinance at 7%. And they can’t print money.

From Wolf Richter:

‘…companies that only made it this far thanks to Easy Money are now getting hung out to dry.

‘Bankruptcy filings will whittle down the corporate debt overhang. Many companies will emerge from bankruptcy with less debt, and they’ll be nimbler and more able to thrive. Others will be sold off in bits and pieces, making room for appropriately managed companies not encumbered by these issues.

‘There is a cleansing aspect to this part of the credit cycle that needs to be allowed to do its job to get rid of the excesses and the deadwood at the expense of investors. This cleansing process that has now just started is long overdue.’

Mass VC extinction event

And here’s Garrett Baldwin at ‘Postcards from the Florida Republic’:

‘Venture Capital has imploded over the last 18 months. Last week, the Wall Street Journal released a distressing analysis. They've found many startups are now unable to secure the funding they need. To say VC has been "suffering" is an understatement. Tom Loverro, a general partner at VC shop IVP, has said “The Mass Extinction Event for startups is underway.” Venture capital losses over the last two quarters are key to understanding why those top seven Nasdaq stocks are thriving. Pitchbook Data shows that the annual “internal rate of return” for the third quarter of 2022 hit “negative 7%.” That’s the worst annualised return since 2009. More startups are closing shop. Others aren’t even getting off the ground as deal activity dries up.’

This ‘cleansing process’ is an essential part of the win-win, free enterprise system. The deadwood, dead ends, and deadheads must be eliminated so new growth can occur.

But guess what? The US military/industrial/spook and elite complex is full of deadheads. And they’re not going anywhere.

Most people get ahead by peacefully exchanging goods and services. ‘Give and ye shall get.’ It might say that somewhere in the Bible. If not, it should. That’s the way ‘gentle commerce’, works.

But that’s not the way the military/industrial/spook/elite complex rolls. It doesn’t give — it just gets.

Yes, there are patterns to markets and to history. Trends have lives of their own. Inflation, for example. Once it gets underway, it is hard to stop. Because rising prices cause other prices to rise…as costs go up, more money is needed. Consumers need money to pay the bills. Corporations need more money to pay their employees. The Feds need more money to keep the wheels turning and the cash flowing. Caught in the ‘inflate or die’ trap…the easiest way forward is to add more money!

Drug or alcohol addiction follows a pattern, too. It starts as fun…it becomes hard to resist…and then it ruins your life. If you’re lucky, you hit some kind of ‘bottom’ and bounce off it. If not…you just keep going down.

The Kennedys thought they could change the pattern of history. They wanted to steer the government towards peace. But an empire’s ‘stock-in-trade is violence’ peace would put it out of business. It was like expecting a wolf to give up lamb chops for Lent.

It’s alright to be a believer when you are young. But when you are our age, if you still believe that ‘the people’ run the US…or that every stock market dip is a buying opportunity…or that communism or nationalism or any other kind of ‘ism’ will make us better off…

…well, you are simply a fool.

American values, RIP

That’s why sensible societies have ‘councils of elders’, guys and gals who’ve been around the block once or twice, not councils of adolescents.

But we were young once, too. And last week, we were almost young again. We remembered the ‘60s…and almost forgot the cynicism it took us more than 50 years to accumulate. Revisiting those years after half a century, by reading Robert F Kennedy Jr’s memoir, American Values: Lessons I Learned from My Family, we imagined we heard the Rolling Stones…we recalled hitchhiking across the US, coast to coast, on Route 66…we wanted to wear our old bell bottoms…and let our hair (missing in action in the ‘90s) grow out again.

We found ourselves with a renewed interest in politics, too…rooting for the Kennedys and longing for a new era...

…and then, as they were killed — Jack and then Bobby…we were saddened, all over again…as if we had known them personally…

…and our cynicism came flooding back.

It wasn’t a new era at all. It was a very old era, after all…

Regards,

Bill Bonner,
For The Daily Reckoning Australia