What is freedom? At what price is freedom worth it?
I recently had an aha moment about freedom. Freedom is a concept that exists only because each of us is a human being and lives in a society made up of humans. It is humans and ONLY humans, whether individually or collectively, that constrain others’ sense of freedom.
Let me back up for a moment. As parents, we do not let children have complete freedom to do whatever they want because we have an obligation to keep them safe and sound until they reach adulthood. To the best of our abilities, most of us teach our children responsibilities associated with being free. By the time they are about the age of 20 and we have done the best we could as parents, it is time to set them free, let them enjoy their freedom and find their own happiness.
Not all humans think of others the way most loving parents do about their own children, however. Some of them think that they know what is best for all others. Others think only of themselves at the expense of yet others.
When those who (we perceive to) have no moral compass cause havoc in our daily lives, we begin to detest them and the organizations which they represent. What some human beings on Wall Street decided to do with my life savings, along with those of millions of others, was unconscionable. Pulling money out, what was left of it, was my one vote of no-confidence against Wall Street. As a result of what had happened, Congress decided that additional regulations were necessary. I wrote about the impact these regulations had on our business in my July 2013 blog post. In the process of these regulations coming to life, did those who “took” our large retirement savings go to jail and, most importantly, pay us back? No. What was lost was gone forever. The only way to re-build our wealth was to do our own investing.
The deeper I delved into the world of managing our own investments outside of Wall Street, the clearer it became that investing is all about understanding human nature, predicting their behaviors, and dealing with them effectively. There is no escaping it. It makes sense when you think about the concept of investing itself. Only human beings invest for the future. All other animals live in the moment, being one with nature; and they all seem to do just fine. In Michigan, where we live, we enjoy seeing deer, squirrels, rabbits, wild turkeys, and all other animals that roam around our neighborhood. We rarely, if ever, see any of them dying of starvation.
In our line of business, we see a whole spectrum of people and how they live their lives. There are those who live like animals, or worse, and think nothing of destroying properties that belong to others. They have no respect for themselves or for others. At the other end of the spectrum are those who keep making payments on the houses that no longer exist because they had been destroyed by natural disasters.
Having lived in two polar-opposite societies in many respects (Japan and the United States), I can say with absolute confidence that, by nature, no human being is perfect. Consequently, the larger societies, also made up of human beings, are just as imperfect. This means, when severely impacted by decisions of others, we have no choice but to react. We can (1) do nothing, (2) complain, or (3) do something about it. Because retaining freedom and independence has always been so important to me, I felt that I had no choice but to do something about it.
To answer the questions posed at the beginning of this post, freedom is priceless. Freedom lets me do what I want when I want it. Based on this definition, have I been free for the last decade? The answer is both yes and no. Yes, because no one stopped me from pursuing continued financial independence, which I felt was an absolute necessity given what had happened on Wall Street. And, no, because it felt like all I had the time for was to put on my own (financial) oxygen mask mid-air during sudden loss of air (in the economy). There has been little time left for vacation or social life.
So a true sense of freedom is yet to be regained. Despite all the hardships of the last decade, however, I cherish the memories of the journey of getting there.
Happy Investing!
