Bull & Baird: The Meaning of Life

Traveling to a recent client event I tuned into an episode of “The Diary of a CEO” podcast. It’s a really good podcast; I highly recommend it.  Anyway, the guest was an Irish comedian by the name of Jimmy Carr.

The host (Steven Bartlett) asked Jimmy a pointed question: “What is the meaning of life?”

Jimmy responded, “I’ll do it in five words.”

What were the five words?

“Enjoying the passage of time”

That’s it…enjoying the passage of time.

As I sit and think about what he said, it’s easily the most profound description of a meaningful life I’ve ever heard. Time is the one thing we can’t make more of – it’s also the quiet force that does most of the heavy lifting in long-term investing.

Let’s start with the following: the odds you even exist are infinitesimal. For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed 4,094 ancestors over the last 400 years. If one person failed to meet the other in those four centuries, you aren’t reading this. 

It is a cosmic long shot that you are walking the Earth.

You’ve journeyed down a unique path to get to this moment in time, a path no other person has walked. Your experiences and knowledge were crafted by both nature and nurture and the life you currently live is the only one you’ll get.

So let me ask you this, and I want you to be brutally honest with yourself, are you enjoying the passage of time? 

If you wake up every day and turn on the news (which has an incentive to keep you scared and endlessly watching), are you enjoying the passage of time?

If you are never satisfied with material wealth, no matter how much you have, are you enjoying the passage of time?

If your life is consumed by the political world, are you enjoying the passage of time?

Life asks for the same thing long-term investing does: perspective.

These are hard questions to answer because it takes difficult self-reflection to realize that you might be missing out on the happiness of your own life.

Remember that trip you took with your friends to that warm weather destination? You enjoyed each other’s company and the days were filled with friendship, camaraderie, and wonderful moments of joy and happiness? You were absolutely enjoying the passage of time, and it had nothing to do with money or the state of the stock market and the World. You were living your best life.

And none of that had anything to do with the stock market.

All of this is to say, if you constantly worry about the national debt, the dollar, politics, how much money you have, or what someone on the news is saying, you are trapped in a prison of your own design.

Now I know this isn’t a black or white thing; there are times when you won’t be enjoying the passage of time. You might be sick, or a family member may be struggling, or something is really impacting you.

For the last few months, I haven’t been enjoying my life. Why? Because I’m about to become an empty nester and it’s hitting me hard. I’m grieving the version of my life that I’ve known for 20+ years that I’ll have to say goodbye to – the daily rhythm of raising kids, showing up, doing the work that mattered, and building a home and a future. Will I feel better one day? Sure, of course, but I’ll miss this all so much.

If there’s one thing I want for you, beyond portfolio performance or financial planning, it’s that you look forward to each morning that you wake up. That you fill your days with things that make you happy instead of miserable. That you focus on family, friends, hobbies, travel, exercise, joy, and a sense of wonder about the world.

Compounding is a simple idea: when you give enough time to something good, it can grow into something meaningful. That’s true for portfolios, but it’s just as true for the other things in your life. And if you enjoy the passage of time for long enough, the outcome often takes care of itself. 

So yes, build for the long-term. Be thoughtful and patient. Have a plan.

But please enjoy the passage of time, and promise me you’ll focus less on the things that can make you miserable. 

This life is all you’ll ever get.

The information reflected in this post is an opinion and subject to change. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results. Diversification does not ensure profit or protect against loss. All investments have some level of risk, and investors have different time horizons, goals and risk tolerances. Speak to your Baird Financial Advisor before making investment decisions.