Let’s Go Fly a Kite
Friday, October 10th, 2008
Relax. Take a deep breath. This too shall pass.
This morning I dropped my daughter off at school just before the stock market opened. I got back into my car at 8:30 central and turned on NPR. The host said “The DOW is down 170 points at the open”. After the next short story, the host said “The DOW is down 270 points.” About a minute later: “The DOW is down 440 points.”
I turned off the radio.
Although some markets remain stronger than stocks — e.g. the domain market — this downturn will affect us all. It’s times like these when you need to think about what’s really important to you.
Sure, I’ve lost almost half of my retirement savings over the past year; much of it in the last few weeks. But this morning I got to drop my beautiful two-year-old daughter off at school, something many dads don’t get to do. I’ll get to pick her up from school, too, which many dads don’t get to do. She’s oblivious to what’s going on in the economy. She doesn’t even know what money is.
And she’s happy.
As hard as it is, that’s part of what we need to do now. Turn off MarketWatch. Don’t visit financial web sites. Watch a movie instead of reading the newspaper.
At the end of the Mary Poppins movie, Mr. Banks gets fired from his banking job. A job that consumed his life. He invites his kids to go fly a kite with him. Mrs. Banks, who is more consumed with fighting for womens’ suffrage than being there for her children, takes her suffrage ribbon and ties it to the kite. The entire family leaves their house and worries behind to go fly a kite.
That’s what I’m going to do this weekend. Go to the park with my family and fly a kite.
Thanks Andrew, for putting things in perspective. I needed that this morning.
Love it Bro. That’s right perspective.
My family too is happy, healthy and this time too shall pass. Can’t wait to watch 5th grade boys play flag football on Saturday.
Hey I am with you on that one mate.
My family and I are travelling around the world for 7 months http://www.laptopnomads.com(4 months into it now)and we decided to go for all of the same reasons.
Life is to dam short and spending most of it chasing the money is not where its at for us.
Don’t get me wrong, I am in the domain business to make money as well but not at the expense of time with my family.
Cheers
Ed Keay-Smith
http://www.ozdomainer.com
Ed, looks like you guys are having a great time. Maybe I’ll do that when my daughter is older.
Andrew,
It’s a beautiful day in Austin. Take your family to the Hula Hut. Lunch was awesome!
RC
2, and at school?
My grandfather use to always say the most important thing in life is:
1. God
2. Family
3. Country
4. Self
5. Everything else will fall into place
Yet this is the same person who said and practices his belief that his money should “always” work harder than him. If your investments are sound and based on solid research you shouldn’t have anything to worry about because sooner our later the market will balance itself back.
I wish the rest of the country would take the weekend off and just relax. Have a great weekend with your daughter Andrew.
I buried my head in the sand instead.
Nic - montessori school/day care
Hi Folks:
Yep. Things are dismal. Markets down. Domains down.
So go out, take a hike (which is what I did today), call the folks, embrace your loved ones, have a good meal, watch an old sitcom, you can even read a piece of poetry, and it will all balance out.
Have a good weekend and remember, we’re all just visiting anyway.
Claude