Years ago, I was a big self-help reader and one of my favourite authors was Nathaniel Branden, a psychotherapist and author of Taking Responsibility, the Six Pillars of Self Esteem, and The Art of Living Consciously.
He told a story in one of those books around the concept of TAKING RESPONSIBILITY.
In the story, he told his weekly group once that “Nobody was coming.”
Nobody to save you, nobody to fix your problems, nobody to change your life.
One of the group said:
“But Nathaniel, you have come.”
“Yes” he said, “but I came to tell you that nobody’s coming.”
Looking back, it’s odd to me that I ever thought that anybody ever was coming to somehow fix whatever problems I’d made since I was and always have been single, didn’t have parents that looked out for me and all that. But I think that I did. Perhaps I thought that some future version of me would take care of my messes.
Fortunately, she showed up and took control.
Better late than never.
I think that some people just need time to grow up.
Taking responsibility for what you say and do is one
of the signs of maturity.
For most of us,that maturity doesn’t magically show up on our 18th birthday.
You mean an alarm clock doesn’t go off at 18? LOL – ain’t that the truth!
Hi I just found your blog and I like what you write, especially your trading diary page. I had few questions I hope you can comment on. I wrote on this post because I couldn’t find your email address. Firstly how are you getting 36k in dividends on 360k portfolio? That yield doesn’t seem possible in today’s environment and even with yield hunting you would be taking large amounts of risk. Secondly I’m an accountant in Canada that just turned 30 doing ok living on 60 to 80k salary. Any advice you would impart on yourself if you were 30 now (such as starting a business or investing full time or how one should learn to invest)as my retirement, investing and career goals seem to align with yours almost 100 percent. I’m happily married with no children yet and my tiny 250k starter home paid off.
Thank you very much and keep doing this amazing work
Hi Al – one thing you have to remember is that I’m looking at yield over cost. The other is that in total dividends, I’m at about $28k/annum, not $36k. I receive about $350/month child support and $450 in rental income and that makes up the differential between the two. So my yield is just over 7% now but I have a fair amount in stocks yet that pay nothing or 1-2% in dividends. They’re my birds in the hand (I hope).
Back in 2008-9, I invested heavily in a couple of sectors: Canadian banks and O&G. The drop in both the sectors were illogical given what I knew at the time. Oil was selling at $35/bbl – crazy low since it was up at $140-ish earlier that year. Canadian banks were hit with the same tar brush that the American ones were – but it wasn’t the same situation, so the reduced valuation wasn’t logical. So I picked up RBC, BMO and TD at less than 1/2 their true value. That turns a 5% dividend yield into a 10%+ yield. I haven’t sold them since I would be hit with mucho capital gains tax on them since they’re primarily in the taxable account (I ran out of contribution room in my RRSP and was working 2 jobs in 2009 so had a ton of money coming in every month and no time – or inclination – to spend it). When I’m not making any employment income, I’ll sell them off as it makes sense tax-wise to do. In the interim, I’ve moved in and out of O&G since it’s a cyclical industry and you sort of have to sell to convert those paper gains to cash but haven’t touched the banks since they’re more stable.
I work in the O&G industry so am pretty comfortable investing in it – and the yields are on the high side right now (eg. PGH at 9%+) given the drop in WTI pricing due to pipeline issues. I look pretty carefully at the sustainability of dividends – eg. I just bought Atlantic Power with my January dividends and the yield is 9.26% right now. I don’t think there’s a risk there but am ok if they dropped it as well. Historically they haven’t so I think it’s safe. I also have have some stocks that I am fairly sure / hopeful are good take-over candidates. Those don’t pay dividends for the most part, but there’s nothing more exciting than seeing something you bought go up 50% overnight due to a M&A.
Re. being a 30 y.o. accountant again, knowing what I know now at 47… OK, this depends on you to a certain extent. I’m super driven to figure out processes that minimize time and resources taken to do stuff. I’ve given this away to companies and been paid $50k/year and have done it for $300k/year. Nowadays, I say fuck it and go for the cash and not the idealism that I used to have. But man, I hate paying $100k + in income taxes/year.
I would have started paying more attention to investing earlier for sure. There’s so much you learn about yourself from hitting “buy” or “sell” when you shouldn’t have that I don’t think they are bad lessons, just learning experiences. Much better to do it with a smaller amount of money. You have to learn how fallible you are and how prone to pure emotion you are. I was kind of hit and miss for a long time and made a couple of smart moves in extenuating circumstances. What I would do – and what I’m going to do – is literally not do anything until the opportunities are so ripe that I would be a fool not to do something. ie. Invest seldom, but go hard. I’m still a fan of value averaging vs. dollar cost averaging. I would have done better in 2012 had I stuck to that m.o. It’s hard to see yourself not make money right away but be hopeful that it will come in time given that you bought so low. That’s what being a contrarian is all about. At a certain point, it’s sort of blind faith.
Anyway, I hope this helps and it looks like you’re off to a great start!
Having been on the other side of this (being the person who’d often come to someone’s aid), the other side of the coin here is that you can’t fix other people’s problems. They have to fix the problems themselves.
At best you can become an enabler for bad behavior and at worst, you can be the one blamed for the issues because you’re meddling.
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Man, have I been blamed / ripped off for helping – now that’s annoying!
If people took responsibility for their actions, the world would be a vastly better place. Or, at least, the blogosphere would have a lot fewer annoying blogs lol
Easy peasy – don’t read that shit then it won’t annoy you.
I just read your entire blog. It was a great read!
For weight / nutrition I suggest Joel Fuhrman’s “Eat to Live”. Exercise is important but you need healthy fuel.
I LOVE YMOYL. We read it in 1993 and it really sent us on a great path.
I would love to hear more about your motorhome travels. This is a wonderful way to travel.
Thanks for all the hard work you have put into this blog.
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Thanks Erin!
I suspect that my weight “problem” is mostly due to being tired too much of the time. The other is that I still eat like I did when I was lifting weights on a regular basis… plus alcohol, which I did not do when I was more rigorous about working out and maintaining a certain bodyfat percentage. When I work, I get about 5-6 hours of sleep on average (I tend to wake up early around 3-4 a.m. when I worry about work issues) and when I don’t, it runs around 8 and I feel great and full of P&V (oops, almost wrote P&B). When we’re RV-ing, I run around 9 hours of sleep on average. I lost 8 pounds without effort or even thinking about it on our last 2 month RV trip.
I tend to try to eat like my 92 y.o. father who has eaten loosely paleo (as in carbs aren’t EVIL, you just don’t have much of them or make them high quality) his whole life. I think it’s best to try to eat like the healthiest, longest living member of your immediate family to have your greatest chance of living a long, healthy life.
I love RV’ing with my little guy, but only when we can go for a long time. Too much set up and take down to do it on weekends and this last year, we didn’t go at all. This work thing really cuts into my fun!
I love this blog Jacq. I’ve spent some time reading through it and get a euphoric “shits and giggles” type of reaction to you and yours. You are a fine specimen with true grit, and brass balls (internal, of course) to boot—like none I’ve ever witnessed, but certainly experience! Now, I’m moving on to safer things–like index funds and pipelines—please don’t condemn me, I begrudge enough– and I’m learning to sing “Oh Canada” in the event I need to seek safe haven under the maple leaf! You go girl! Go! And by the way…I visit enough to know that you are going to make a “&^#$ load” of money this year. I can’t wait! Ah, yeah, you erased that, didn’t ya! I love it!
Oh thank you KSR! I don’t know if I have brass balls, but perhaps am abnormally aggressive for a female.
Sort of had to be though.
Ah, there was a line I read once that went something like “once you start thinking that you’re good, the market has a unique way of humbling you.” I’m trying not to anger the market gods and goddesses.
I also think I’m coming to realize that just as there are people who shouldn’t do many things, there are people who should (maybe with a wee bit of market timing), use index investing as an m.o. I have been very lucky in my career I guess to have worked in so many financial areas and industries. Pipelines are a good place to be right now and most pay nice dividends too. Now if they’d only go on sale…
Accountability, that’s a hard concept for many people to grasp. When there’s no one on either side to point the finger to, there’s just you.
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But how freeing it is! If I’m accountable and actually have the power to change my world, that means that I can change what I’m doing if I don’t like my results thus far.
Of course, then you get into the whole “you can’t solve a problem with the same mind that created it” so you do have to change something in how you look at things or what you’ve decided you believe.