Thursday observations

A high school friend posted about not being able to go hike up a mountain as part of a group thing because they're "too old" to do it anymore. This is in Massachusetts so really, more like a hill. The idea of being too old is so contrary to everything I believe in. Being too old in your 50's or 60's is preventable most of the time. It's very simple, even if not easy, to do. Lift weights, cut carbs. Those two things will build muscle mass and restore metabolic health which both fix a lot of things. It really is that simple for most of us.

This morning I drove a fire department water truck, they're called water tenders, across town for it's annual servicing. It's about a 22 mile drive. It's a big, old, clunky truck with a manual transmission. It doesn't quite drive the same a car with a stick shift. It's been quite a few years since I made this drive to the fleet shop where it gets serviced and I had some anxiety about a couple of spots where I'd probably need to wait at a light going uphill. Obviously you don't want to roll back or stall out. Fortunately it was easy, there was no reason to have any anxiety. When you find yourself in a similar situation, do the difficult thing. This picture is the water tender in question from a fire back in 2013.

Preview

The financial news media and to an extent, Twitter are really pounding the table on how terrible the current market event is using words/phrases like crash, record loss of wealth, markets breaking and so on. More things broke during the Financial Crisis 15 years ago. More things broke in the Great Depression. Quite a few things broke in the 1970's. When the media and the like use sensational language it whips people up by playing on their fear and might even push them to panic sell. Don't. Whatever strategy you laid out for yourself as being best, when there was no emotion involved, is still the best strategy for you. The middle of a negative market event is the worst time to pick a new strategy.

No one knows when this will end, I certainly don't, but it will end at some point, they all do. Then when it does end, the market will start going back up and eventually make a new high. The only variable is how long it takes. I'm not saying it's done going down, it could get much worse from here, or not, I have no idea but it will end at some point. Then it will go up again, at some point. If you have the right mix of stocks, bonds, cash and whatever else then there should be no reason to succumb to negative emotions.

The financial media is not your friend.