Weekend Out the Window

Like many wish, my wife was saying how nice it would be to have longer weekends - even an extra day would make a difference. I agree, but we would need to make that a possibility, would be an extra 20% at least extra incoming every month that is usable for our daily needs IRL, which isn't likely going to happen anytime soon. And, by the time we would have that extra, it wouldn't be extra at all, as either our lifestyle would have eaten it away or, inflation would have taken at least that.

I have very little faith in the inflation reports. At the moment, they are saying it is 7.8% in Finland, but everyone knows that actual costs of living are much higher in reality. I am not sure what they are using to calculate their data, but it is not the right set, whatever it is. My wife and I have a pretty set routine for shopping most of the time and the difference on a grocery store trip is stark. And not only that, there is also the "food tax" where companies are including less food in the packets to save costs, which is ridiculous, because we still eat the same amount!

We have also noticed it on the odd occasion when we eat out somewhere too, as we have a pretty narrow selection of places to choose from due to Smallsteps' diet restrictions. Paying more for the same meal, not getting enough food to fill the stomach. I get why they do it, but what they are actually going to end up doing is, losing business, because it is not great having customers leave hungry.

But, back to the long weekends...

It would be nice, especially at the moment where we haven't had any weekends at all for a couple months now it seems and, no days completely to ourselves where we are able to choose what we do and when we do it. Every weekday is work, the evenings renovating and the weekends, trying to do more renovation work and visit all the million places we need to, often so we can save a bit more money, which stretches our ability in other areas.

In order to have a long weekend every weekend though, that extra money would need to come in consistently and reliably, so it would essentially need to be coming through steady investments, so relatively stable. But, in order to get that kind of return, it would require a large amount of capital upfront, and if we had that kind of money laying about, we probably would have already done it, right?

Getting "that kind of money" is no mean feat, it is going to take effort and likely, a fair amount of risk-taking in order to oversize returns. But, this also means that it is far more likely to be swept away due the very conditions required - it is like driving a car on the limits all of the time and hoping not to hit a patch of oil. Eventually, luck runs out.

Feeling lucky?

I am.

Not because luck has necessarily swung my way so often, but at least for now, I do see the potential for light at the end of the tunnel, even though the tunnel is currently still quite dim. No one really knows how long the bear markets are going to last, nor do they know how deep they will go, but there is consensus on one thing - they always end, eventually. However, that doesn't mean everyone is going to benefit at the end, because in order to do so - investments have to be made now.

Essentially, in order to get that long weekend for my wife, we are going to have to make some pretty big moves in the coming year or two to secure a "low buy" position in the market to compound when pulling out from the bear and into the bull. However, this goes against our natural intuition of "save in tough times", even though investing isn't the same as spending. As they say,

You have to spend money, to make money.

But what it is spent on is going to be the factor to consider, not the spending of it. In tough times, people are obviously looking to spend their money on survival, to make ends meet. Yet, this hasn't stopped Apple expecting to sell close to 100M new iPhone 14s - which apparently is now considered a necessary part of life for many. Is it an investment?

No one cares anymore it seems.

The economy is in such a shambles and people are so tired of all of the lockdowns and then inflation and war, that people are just saying, "fuck it!" and spending all they get on consumables. However, at some point these same people are likely going to want to take advantage of the rising economy, but they would have already missed the lows and, have very little to get in with, especially at a higher price. Just look at all those people willing to buy Bitcoin at 50K, but unwilling to buy it at 20K - talk about an opportunity to cost average....

But, what does it matter...

At the end of the day, life is as it is and we are all going to experience it as we do. Dreaming about a long weekend as my wife does might ease some of the burden, but she also knows that she is not interested in actually working out how to make it a reality, let alone going through the steps to accomplish it.

I'm going to give it a go.

It's a lifestyle decision.

Some people spend their time watching football, others fishing, more streaming shows - how come when people take interest in finance as a hobby, it is frowned upon?

Luckily on Hive, I am not the only one :)

Taraz [ Gen1: Hive ]