What can we learn about lifelong wealth from the passing of Queen Elizabeth II? For one, as I wrote to you yesterday, “to do nothing is the hardest job of all.” If you think about your lifelong endeavor of compounding, like I most certainly do in my life, then you rise above the day-to-day noise like a heavenly spirit.
You see life for what it is, a gift. A gift to be cherished. Because your gift can live on forever in the name of your children, your children’s children, and theirs. When you separate your emotions from your money, you’ll find it will be difficult to separate it from you.
Now if you’re a royal—I mean loyal—reader, you have had plenty of help along the way in the form of guidance from those who’ve seen it all. You, for example, have someone teaching you those life lessons like the Queen had her paternal grandmother, Queen Mary.
Your Survival Guy’s had plenty of guidance along the way. Dick Young began his dividend journey back in 1963, and I’ve been a beneficiary of those decades of experience. He wrote:
With my first reading of Security Analysis by Ben Graham in 1963, I climbed on the dividend bandwagon. Today, it’s still my most powerful investment influence. Ben was Mr. Dividends. I became attached to the concept before I landed at Clayton Securities at 147 Milk St. in Boston’s financial district. As early as 1964, I knew I would concentrate on dividends throughout my investment career.
Well, writing to you now, five decades later, from our outside kitchen/living space in the heart of Old Town, Key West, I can’t help but think how much water has gone under the bridge through the many decades. But if you have been with me over the years, you are keenly aware that it is indeed the combination of dividends, compound interest, perspective and patience that frames the message I deliver to you month after month. I do not change course. You can count on it.
Since the beginning of time, investors have looked to the market to do something for them. They look for prices to rise every day like the morning sun. But kneeling at the altar of prices is praying to a false god. Lifting yourself up by your own bootstraps, using your vast resources, is my most cherished investment. Y-O-U is a most powerful three letter word.
Action Line: Turning nothing into something is one of life’s miracles, yet it happens all the time. I know this because I listen to your stories every day. You’ve created your own kingdom. Your everlasting life. Click here to tell me your story. In the meantime, keep up with my story by clicking here to subscribe to my free monthly Survive & Thrive email.
