Friends,
Michael Antonelli is Managing Director at Baird Private Wealth Management. Last week, he penned an X article that garnered over 1 million views. But it wasn't about macroeconomics or trading strategies.
Titled 24 Hours: The short life of parenthood, it imagined truncating one's entire experience of being a parent down to 24 hours. With both kids already young adults, he zeroed in on what he misses the most:
There was a night I carried my son to bed for the last time, but I donβt remember it. Iβm sure he was tired since he fell asleep on the couch. I lifted him up, placed him in his bed, and kissed him goodnight. I would pay any amount of money to relive it - literally any amount.
Most parents can relate to this. But you don't have to be a parent to benefit from the post. Imagine, instead, that your entire life is a single 24-hour period. Assuming you're lucky enough to reach the ripe old age of 96, every 15 minutes is treated as if it were a year.
Here are two questions for you:
- What time is it now?
- Looking back, what sticks out the most?
For me, it's 11 a.m. We're creeping up on lunch, and the second half of my life. I feel lucky to (hopefully) have lots left to live.
Looking back, a few key themes stick out:
- Safety: I was blessed with a great tribe surrounding me from midnight to about 4:30 AM (when I left for college).
- Searching: I struggled to find my place in the world until meeting my wife at 7:15 AM.
- Grinding: Parenthood was draining and hectic from about 8:00 AM until very recently, about 10:30 AM.
- Growing into myself: The last half hour has been wonderful.
Nobody's day will be the same. But many of them will rhyme: meaning and purpose, relationships, and health will no doubt dominate most people's retrospective viewing.
One thing that sticks out is that money (or investments) only really played a role in the "Grinding" segment for me. While being a new parent is hard for everyone, it was doubly hard while not having much left over at the end of every month. With my wife staying home with two young kids, that was the reality of our financial situation.
But now they're older, our income has gone up, and money really doesn't stick out anymore. And in the end, that's what the whole point of money should be.
It isn't the driver of making things great -- that's what health, purpose, and relationships are for. Instead, money is the tool that helps eliminate all the things that get in the way of these three.
Money allows you to order out when you're too tired to cook dinner, pay for the summer camp without having to make sacrifices elsewhere, and buy a home with a big enough kitchen that you're happy to invite others over to break bread.
Not having money show up in your 24-hour window is a blessing, and one we shouldn't take for granted. If you're reading this newsletter, you're hopefully well on your way to making money obsolete in your 24-hour day.
Now use all the energy you have to pour into the Big Three Investments that offer the best long-term returns: health, relationships, and purpose!
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Brian Feroldi, Brian Stoffel, & Brian Withers
Long-Term Mindset
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