Dear Younger Fred… you mastered finance… but failed...
The ART of fulfilment.
Looking back at your life, and after years of conversations with clients, you'll notice a pattern...
We're pretty good at mastering the science of finance.
Cost versus benefit.
Return on investment.
Opportunity cost.
Mathematically, we can convince ourselves of almost anything. 😂
Take flowers for example...
If you don't buy them, they can't die...
If they don't die, you don't have to replace them.
Therefore…
don't buy flowers! Right!?
Congratulations, Younger Fred. You've mastered finance. 😂👏
But somewhere along the way, you'll realize you've missed something else... an under current in life...
The art of fulfilment.
Unlike finance, fulfilment isn't a science. It's deeply personal and subjective.
You'll see this with your clients.
One person can't imagine spending $20,000 on a vacation.
Another can't imagine retirement WITHOUT travelling multiple times a year.
Neither is wrong.
You can't put everything through a ONE SIZE fits all cost-benefit analysis.
You'll eventually realize fulfilled people understand something you didn't:
They know what matters to the people they love.
Take Madelaine, your wife.
Fred… the clues were there. 😂
The woman LOVES plants.
You literally have around 100 live plants in your house right now. 🪴
Yet younger you decided flowers weren't worth buying because…
"They're just going to die."
🤦♂️ *FACE PALM*
What a missed opportunity!
Today, every couple of weeks, completely unprompted, you'll refresh the flowers on the kitchen table. 💐
About $29.95 every two weeks, roughly.
Financially?
Terrible investment.
Zero residual value.
Guaranteed depreciation to $0. 😂
But the amount of JOY, appreciation and grace that $29.95 creates in your relationship shouldn't be mathematically possible...honestly...
And THAT'S the lesson.
Life is full of these weird, disproportionate returns.
Tiny things that cost almost nothing…
but mean everything to someone else.
A favourite meal.
An afternoon with your kids.
A plane ticket to see family.
A phone call you didn't have to make.
Younger Fred…
please continue to learn the science of finance.
But don't forget the art of fulfilment.
Figure out what makes you happy.
Figure out what makes the people you love happy.
Then spend your time, energy and yes… sometimes your money accordingly.
Because a good life isn't about maximizing every dollar.
It's about knowing which dollars were worth spending in the first place.
And sometimes…
the best return you'll ever get in life costs $29.95/bi-weekly. 💐❤️
Baaaaam — that's it for today!
See you next Thursday.
Stay curious,
Fred
