At Sage, our job is to focus on investment strategies and helping you preserve and grow your portfolio, but we understand that money in and of itself does not guarantee happiness or provide a sense of purpose. True wealth is not as easy to calculate as net worth.
As our father, David, liked to remind us: “We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give.”
Last week we read a post “Some Lessons for Living from Older Generations” by Ben Carlson that we want to share with you.
The post refers to 30 Lessons for Living: Tried and True Advice from the Wisest Americans, a book by Karl Pillemer based on interviews with people over the age of 65.
We were particularly struck by four of the lessons that Pillemer learned about regret reduction, which echo guidance our parents shared with us and around which we have tried to base our personal and professional values and behavior.
Always be honest. Avoid acts of dishonesty, both big and small. Most people suffer from serious regret later in life if they have been less than ‘fair and square.’
Say yes to opportunities. When offered a new opportunity or challenge, you are much less likely to regret saying yes and more likely to regret turning it down.
Travel more. Travel while you can, sacrificing other things if necessary to do so. Most people look back on their travel adventures (big and small) as highlights of their lives and regret not having traveled more.
Say it now. People wind up saying the sad words “it might have been” by failing to express themselves
We also very much like the following points in the closing:
“Some of the other timeless advice I’ve received over the years includes the following: time is more important than money, being nice to people is highly underrated, almost everything in life is a tradeoff, you have to have balance and splurge every once and a while, quit worrying so much about the past and the future all the time and try to enjoy the present.”
As always, if there is anything you would like to discuss about this or any other topic, please reach out to us at any time.
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