“I Want to Be a Farmer, a Garbageman, or Tom Brady”

September 15, 2023 By E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

By JACEK SKROK @ Shutterstock.com

Life is full of pressures, and they don’t lessen over time. Life doesn’t get easier. Getting older isn’t for the faint of heart.

In high school or college, we’re asked what we want to do. Not an easy question to answer. The only time it’s easy to answer that question is when you’re a kid. “A Farmer, a garbageman, Mrs. Smith, my first-grade teacher, a fireman, Tom Brady…” They just roll off the tongue with conviction when you’re a child. In my conversation with you, we were laughing, “I’m still trying to figure it out,” you said.

Which got me thinking, “What kind of investor do you want to be?” It’s funny (not that funny), but when we look back at our “best” investments some of the good ones are from what we didn’t do. Take your house, for example. After taking out a mortgage at a double-digit interest rate, somehow you got it paid off, and it’s worth something. You didn’t trade options. You didn’t write a “call” on your living room, hoping it’d be in the money next month. What if you were wrong and lost that room to the market? At least you wouldn’t be asked, “What are we going to watch tonight?” anymore.

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Action Line: Don’t be disillusioned, dear reader, by the “doing,” especially when it comes to investing. I don’t even like the word because it means taking on some level of risk with your hard-earned money. Don’t try to be the “other” guy. You be you. It got you this far. I want to hear how you did it. Let’s talk.

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.

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