From the Bottom of the Bucket

          “It's Derby Time!-Watch Your Wallet'

As most of you of you know I have lived in Louisville, KY most of my life.  Every April our town stops everything  to celebrate "the greatest two minutes in sports". The Kentucky Derby Festival is a three week event, with every business and bar taking up the challenge of incorporating food and fun into the offerings.  There are multiple (I think 47) sponsored events, starting with Thunder Over Louisville, the world's largest fireworks show, a steamboat race, a parade and of course the race track.  The ladies get on their spring finery and the men don outrageous outfits.  Hats are the order of the day.

 

It's a fun time, but I can't help think of the underlying motivation that it is built on: MONEY.

Gambling is a fool's game, and most everyone knows that.  The occasional $2 dollar better, is not seeking to gain on his or her bet, but the bragging rights to say "I won!"  That is not to say there are big and little players who actually come to the track seeking to win $$$.  This does not include the piles of cash that it takes to bring these magnificent  animals to the race.  It's not called the sport of kings by accident  .  

What is the draw of gambling?  At its core it is the concept that you will gain financially from your activity.  I have always looked at it as a form of entertainment that has a chance of letting leave with more than you came in with.   But to me, betting is just a side show  to the experience of going to the racetrack.  In fact, many times I don't even place a bet. To me, REAL gambling, is over allocating your investment risk, not saving for the future, and overextending your debt.   The racetrack is a playground were you can play out these scenarios in small bites and that's good because large portions  can spell disaster. Don't get me wrong, I get my money's worth all through the festival, touting my favorite, sipping julips , and people watching.   Stilll, I realize that’s what I am paying for. Not the lure of easy money…to my knowledge there is no such thing.

 Have fun on May4th....and for the record, my picks are Omaha Beach, Tacitus, and Code of Honor.  See you at the winner's window...

Until next month, I wish you fulfillment.

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

From the Bottom of the Bucket

Money Madness

“Give me money, that's what I want  ” – The Beatles

The bane of capitalism is materialism and greedy consumerism.   Every where we go we are bombarded by information about mult- mullti million dollar stories of CEO's huge pay bonuses, lottery winners, sports figures, and now even the education institutions. A $500 million lottery winner? Really?  A severance package of $100 million?  A signing bonus for $200 million.  Coaching for millions of dollars, while students bear tuition and student loan burdens.  How did we get to the point where anybody could think they need that much money?

In financial planning, we led our clients though the process of setting goals that they felt would provide meaning to their lives, then we did calculation as to what resources would be necessary to fill those goals..not once in my forty plus years of advising, did anyone say , I want to be worth $100 million dollars.

Don't get me wrong, it does take a certain amount of financial resources to fulfill your independence.  Most of us spend our entire working lives trying to accumulate enough assets to do so. But at what cost?  I have been an advocate of a  balanced approach since the very beginning of this blog  and  I still am. It nauseates me to see these people trying to rack up more and more, often losing their ethics and integrity along the way.  There are exceptions (like Bill Gates and his wife), who use this wealth to help others, but there are all too many stories about Wolfs of Wall Street (take the current tuition bribe scandal), who can't satisfy their need for identity unless their balance sheet is over flowing with dollars they don't need.

It s  so easy to fall into the trap of thinking that money will bring you happiness.  That things will bring meaning to your life.  As I enter the Autumn of my life, I see this is simply not so.  You must invest in the other dimensions of wealth (relationships, growth, etc) if you want to have a chance of leaving this earth a better place than you entered it.

Live within your means, control your urges, and focus on your goals.  Stay true to your mission statement  and keep your reputation solid.  If you do these things, you will exponentially increase the odds that you will look back on your life with satisfaction and pride,. 

Until next month, I wish you fulfillment.

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob

 

 

 

From the Bottom of the Bucket

Reclamation

“Each time I find myself lying flat on my face, I pick myself up and get back in then race  ” – That's Life - Frank Sinatra 

First I would like to thank  many of you that shared the sense of loss over the fish incident.  It seems they were victims of a forty five degree temperature swing (63 degrees in February!) An unfortunate, but natural calamity. Those of you who have visited our home and Japanese garden, know those fish were the soul of the spirituality of what we liked to call "The Sanctuary".  They will never be replaced, but can be restored. I wanted to share some of my "framing" of this concept.

I have mentioned many times that it seems one of the secrets to fulfillment is how you react to an event, rather than experiencing the event itself.  The Human response to loss is to grieve, but that process should not be allowed to take hold.  Instead it should be replaced with a desire to recover to a commitment to revise the situation to a different level.  Nothing lives forever, perhaps the sudden departure of our finny friends was to remind us that we must reclaim the original spirit of the pond in some new form, thus reinfusing the Energy to a new level.

That's when I saw the experience in a whole different light, renewal.   By Reframing in this context, we were accepting the challenge of renovating the whole garden, paying homage to it's history, while adding some new dimensions to renew the sprit of the original concept.  In fact, the Spirit of the Garden demanded it

Is this process easy?  I can say definitively -NO.  It is much easier to feel grief and disappointment than to forge an attitude of opportunity.  BUT, it is this ability that keeps us moving forward with our lives and not accept anything as a defeat, but merely a setback on our Journey to living a meaningful life,  which, to me, is The Ultimate End Game.


Until next month, I wish you fulfillment.

Bob

 

From the Bottom of the Bucket

Living with Loss (Part  2)

“Chang is the Biological Imperative of the Universe  ” – Steven Covey

This month's post is linked to one I wrote a year ago.  The first sentence read:

“First of all, I don’t have cancer”

Well, I got that one wrong!  My battle with melanoma continues, but the signs are I am improving.  This morning I got a not to subtle reminder of how fragile Life is and why it is so important to enjoy things while you can .

I have written in this column about the Japanese garden my wife and I have built over the last twenty five years.  It is the soul of our house and has been a place of contemplation,  The central item of the garden is the koi pond, which provides a sense of living serenity.  

 

This morning, when were leaving the house for the gym, we found all the fish floating dead in the pond.  What happened?  We do not know. We only know that our spirit animals decided to leave this dimension and go to the great koi pond in the sky.   Some of the fish were over twenty years old. Some were over two feet long.  In a moment, all that life gone....we will never see the pond with such fish again.  Such a tragedy. 

 

 

 

Yet, the garden is still there, we still have our place and it is up to us to replace the lost energy.  Death is part of life and we must accept it and move on.  There is no remedy for the sense of loss, only time will tell what will replace this treasure.  I am sad for our loss, but grateful for their final gift-the reminder that all things are fragile and we should treat all our interactions with that attitude, for you never know.................  

   

Until next month, I wish you fulfillment.

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Bob

 

 

 

From the Bottom of the Bucket

“Don’t it always seem to go, that you don’t know what you’ve got till it’s gone?” -Joni Mitchell

Are You acCOUNTable?

The beginning of the new year is ripe with possibilities.  Anything is possible!  Build on last year's successes and forget about last year's failures.  Explore "brave new worlds" (more on that later). But wait, do you even know the date?  How about what you are doing tomorrow?  Who is driving this train anyhow?

In my career as a Financial Life Planner, it was incredible to see, over and over, that regardless of how wealthy, intelligent and successful people were, how out of touch they were with basic information concerning their circumstances.  Many times the biggest service we provided was collecting, aggregating and reporting basic data, so that people could bring their conception of reality in line with the actual reality.

If you intend to  take charge of your life, it is very helpful to see where you have come from. In financial planning that involves listing and valuing your assets and liabilities, as  well as detailing your income and expenses.  In life planning, it involves an inspection of you calendar to see how you allocated your time and energy. Complicated? Not really.  Easy?  Definitely not!   Think of it as stepping on your Fulfillment scale.  What is your weight? Is it more or less than last year?  Are you above or below your "ideal" number? It is my belief that the Purposeful Person keeps score on his or her efforts.  Since this information is an important part of deciding what paths to take in the future, it is almost impossible to plan ahead without it.

If it is so important, why don't more people do it?  I think there are several answers.  First, it's a lot of work. Organizing and recording the data takes time and most people are unwilling to devote the energy.  Another, probably prevalent, reason is that people don't want to validate their mistakes.  They already know the answers in their heart, so why reinforce it with data? 

Let me use a personal example.  Most of you know that I am wrangling with two medical conditions, Parkinson's and Melanoma. All of my medical advisors have encouraged me to continue my exercise program, to assist my body in it's efforts.  How do I know that I am doing that?  I keep a tally sheet.  Here it is for 2018 :

 

Now, I can evaluate what my plans for this year will be, do I need to cut back on my aerobics (over goal) and allocate that Vigor to Pilates (under goal)? Am I satisfied with my strength training (two years at 133) or do I need to revise my goal downward?

Before I appear to be promoting myself, I would like to quote William Shatner (told you I would get back to it). In his new book "Live Long and....." he says:

"I wanted to say to them, “Listen to me. I’ve got something important to tell you,” but instead I learned how to parcel it out. You have to do it slowly, meal by meal, whether it is a banquet or fast food. You have to take advantage of every opportunity and not force it on anyone. While to me my experience may seem like the most important piece of advice anyone has ever given, to a young person it probably is less important than the last text from a friend about who’s hanging at the mall. I had to learn not to take myself, or my profound wisdom, too seriously:

Having made a case for asking you to set aside time to start the new year of purposefully, I temper it with Mr. Shatner's remarks.  If you agree with the  advice, divide your sessions into two categories The first, devoted to tallying 2108 metrics (you pick what is important) and the second to setting measurable goals for 2019.  Then put things into action and for  heaven sakes, keep score! 



 

Here's to your prosperous and fulfilling 2019!

 

Bob

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Until next month, I wish you fulfillment.

 

Bob

From the Bottom of the Bucket

Return from the Forest (Part 2)

This month's post is a companion post to last month's chronicle of The 2018 Fall Fire Circle.  The post describes the event in detail.   This month I would like to add some thoughts about Living in the Bucket and finish the year with some comments.

This blog was started with the purpose of providing a simple, defined structure for organizing your life for optimal satisfaction.  I spent a whole career gathering the steps outlined in what I call "The System", which is detailed in this blog's archives, or emailed to those who request it.

I am not claiming to be  a guru.   In fact, I am trying to "pay forward" all of the help I have been given in my seventy years on this earth.  But there is a personal reason as well.  Trying to stay intellectually involved after retirement takes effort.  It is all to easy to slip into a lifestyle that asks nothing from you and is characterized as leisure but, in fact, looks more like decay.

At the center of this approach is the  concept of Activities.   We can observe what is important to a person (What do I stand for?) by watching how they expend their resources (money, time, vigor, etc).  To be purposeful about such Activities, is to improve the probability of being  satisfied with the outcome.  Defining them provides a real time reading to determine if you are "walking the talk" (accountability).

We all seem to use the excuse "I haven't the time to.....", when, really, it appears that it just isn't a priority.  That's ok, you should just be clear what and why your real priorities are.

This  process is easier when you remove distractions from the event. One of the best ways I know of to do this is to get out into nature.   The ever moving motion of Nature, provides the perfect opportunity to affirm your direction in a dynamic world.  This is what Iearned when I adapted to my injury and the rainstorm on the hike.

As we draw the year to a close, I can say that I (mostly) stayed my course through the distractions that were handed to me.  During the three weeks where I thought my death was near, I found peace in the knowledge that I had indeed "walked the talk".  Now that I have been given the gift of more time, I have doubled my determination to keep learning, defining my Roles, and taking the right paths.

To that  end, my wife and I are shaking up family tradition by spending Christmas in Barbados and New Years in Antigua. Totally foreign environments that will force us to define how we see these holidays.  When we return, we will have a fresh perspective and ready for our 2019 Planning Retreat, the cornerstone to identifying what you stand for and how you intend to organize your resources for the satisfaction of who you are. 

Until next time, I wish you fulfillment.

Bob