Sunday, March 15, 2015

The Farmer Story - When is enough?

Recently, i have been reading a lot of investment books or more precisely books either written by or about great investors of this generation. The current book i am reading is by Peter Lynch - Beating the Odds. Lynch was the fund manager for Magellan Fund, an equity fund. He was one of the greats when at the age of 43 he quit and chose to spend more time with his family and pursuing work that appealed to him. He continued to invest and served on many charity boards and helped set up investment panels and plans for many of these charities.

When he was considering retirement he had many come to him and propose a closed end fund that would be exchange traded. Those that came to him told him they could raise billions against his name and the management fee alone would pay him close to 15m a year. He could then set up analysts, fund managers who would do most of the investment/work using his investment philosophies and strategies. The kicker they said, was immaterial of how the fund performed, he would make his 15m a year.

In the end, Lynch said NO for 2 reasons, that his desire to beat the market was just as strong and he would not be able to take that money knowing that he was not doing his best for his investors. He left the industry at his prime at age 43. The following was what he wrote in the early introduction chapters of this book - Beating the Odds.

I have always been sceptical of millionaires who congratulate themselves for walking away from a chance to enrich themselves further. Turning one's back on fat future paycheck is a luxury that few can afford. 

But if you're lucky enough to have been rewarded in life to the degree that i have, there comes a point at which you have to decide whether to become a slave to your net worth, devoting the rest of your life to increase it or to let what you accumulated begin to serve you. 

There's a Tolstoy story that involves an ambitious farmer. He is given an offer for all the land that he can encircle in a day. After running at full speed for several hours, he acquires several square miles of valuable property, more than enough to make him and his family rich for generations. The poor fellow is drenched in sweat and gasping for breath. He thinks about stopping but he can't help himself. He races ahead to maximise his opportunity, until finally he drops dead of exhaustion. 

This was the ending i hoped to avoid. 

This was the ending i hoped to avoid.

This line stayed with me as i read the rest of the book and finally i came back to this chapter and wrote it down and was felt compelled to write about it. It is nice to feel this strongly again to be able to want to write.

As i turned 40, i wonder as i work and struggle with my wife to achieve our financial goals for our children and for ourselves, could i reach a point in my career to do what Lynch did and MOVE on at age 43.

I doubt it but i think the choice of when to stop is not the right question or focus - it is more the choice of letting what you accumulated begin to serve you. To do this, we must accumulate and then use it to pursue our bigger and more personal goals.

I believe i am lucky as i feel that even though i may have a busy or stressful life, i have parts of Time to be with my family. But, what i want is the choice of all-Time to spend it them and at the same time to feel i am achieving my own goals of being relevant, being influential and being liked. I want time of Choice to build my own Financial Advisory business and pursue my own charity goals.

At age 43, Lynch did this by knowing that he had accumulated enough for his choice of lifestyle of giving back and spending the time he wanted rather than the time he could. I am not sure when i will be able to say the same but i know i am PLANNING for it.

This is the beginning i hope to create.

VedsBlog @ April2015

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