Weekend Reflections: Emotions and Money

Weekend Reflections: Emotions and Money

Last weekend, I went to a medical school alumni event. We were celebrating our ten year med school class of 2008 reunion. It was a beautiful event filled with many fond and happy emotions. I was reunited with four of my closest classmates. We are now practicing in different cities so it was great to catch up with all of them. After ten years, everybody looks the same and nobody has changed. But boy, do we feel old…

I was glad that one of my classmates offered to give me a ride to the event. The drive gave us the opportunity to talk about a physician wellness project that we are both working on together. As a department champion of physician wellness, I am part of a committee that seeks to help fellow physicians in all areas of wellness such as health, diet, exercise, finance, burnout, dealing with emotions, managing stress, community outreach, and work-life balance. That’s why I often write about all this stuff!

Speaking of money and emotions, plenty of interesting articles were written recently in the finance blogosphere. I’ll highlight a few of them.

Emotions and Investing

The stock market has experienced a rollercoaster ride of volatility lately and it’s easy for people to get emotional over it.

Doc Linus of Dad’s Making Cents reminds us to invest rationally by not attempting to time the market cycles in his article Taming Your Market Cycle Emotions.

Dave at Accidental Fire also has a thing or two to say about emotions and investing in his aptly titled post Emotions Have No Place In Your Investment Strategy. He says that the best strategy during a market downturn is to stay invested, stand back, have some market apathy, and watch from afar. The country won’t collapse and the markets will bounce back. I believe in ‘Murcia too! 😉

Mitigate Risks by Having a Plan

During times of volatility, Sam the Financial Samurai gives his valuable two cents his post What To Do When Stock Market Volatility Returns. He provides actionable tips such as reviewing your financial objectives and having a concrete plan of action.

One way to do this is to make an Investor Policy Statement.

Having an Investor Policy Statement helps to take the emotions out of investing and to follow a specific investing plan no matter how the market behaves.

If the market is volatile, perhaps there will be an opportunity for tax loss harvesting. And if there is a market downturn, it’ll be a great time to buy more stocks at a low price. Who doesn’t like sales?

Dark Emotions

However, market volatility and downturns can result in serious consequences.

For instance, people can lose their job in a recession. This can then lead to some very sad and dark emotions.

Mrs. Frugal Asian Finance chronicles some of her husband’s dark emotions in her post Update on Hubby’s Job Situation: Depression, Guilt, Self-Doubt, & Hope. Even if a job shift is overall favorable, it’s understandable to have feelings of self-doubt and inadequacy when a superior at work asks you to leave the team.

Human emotion is real and sometimes you just can’t control it. Often times we don’t even know why we are feeling the way that we do. And that’s okay. David Cain of Raptitude.com eloquently describes this phenomenon in his latest post It’s Okay to Feel Bad For No Reason.

Then there are times when human emotions can be so dark that they are troubling. To be honest, I was very concerned when I read the title and opening paragraphs of Tawcan’s latest article “The END“. As I read on, however, I became more optimistic and less concerned. He has an action plan to deal with his dark emotions by devoting more time to self care and enjoying some “guilt-free me time”. I hope it gets him back to being his usual happy-go-lucky self. 🙂

Self Care and Searching For Purpose

I think everybody should take the time for adequate self care. I see this problem often among my colleagues. Physicians are often so busy taking care of other people that they lack the time (and sometimes even the skills) to take care of themselves. This is one of the reasons why I joined the physician wellness committee. I want to help physicians take care of themselves so that they can more effectively help others.

Be Three is another fellow physician blogger (seriously, there’s like 70+ of us now!) from Southern California who is also a proponent of taking time for yourself and remembering self care. In fact, those are two important tips that she gives in her recent post Adapting to Change After A Life Changing Event.

The Happy Philosopher is back after a very short hiatus. He is taking better care of himself too by getting back to basic principles, creating better habits, and Searching for Purpose. I hope he finds it because as a long time reader, I can’t wait to see what emerges from this new chapter in life.

Other Emotions: Fear

Another blogging philosopher, The Physician Philosopher, has recently experienced a different kind of emotion– fear. He details this emotion in a recent post titled The Fear of Spending Money. I actually think that this is a healthy kind of fear. Some emotions, such as fear, are healthy defense mechanisms that serve to protect us from doing something stupid or dangerous (or both!).

The fear of spending money is helpful because it prevents us from recklessly spending money and wasting it away. It only becomes harmful if this fear prevents us from living and enjoying our life right now. Really, it’s all about balance. And I know TPP is adept at striking the right balance.

Money, Hopes, and Dreams

In a recent post, Doc G of DiverseFi posed the question: “Is the American Dream Still Alive?”

The article is a direct counter response to a commenter who felt that financial independence is not easily attainable for a large portion of the United States. The original critical comment can be found in this article that contains the show notes from his recent podcast with the White Coat Investor. Doc G states that he still thinks financial independence is attainable for most people because the math proves it.

Sure, the math and formulas of FI are simple. But then why aren’t most Americans financially independent then? Mr. Money Mustache ponders this in his old article Current Events in Stupidland. (Yes, I know that this classic article is seven years old, but it is relevant to the topic and it is actually new to me because I first heard it on the Optimal Finance Daily podcast this week.)

Knowing is Easy, Doing is Hard

Nick True of Mapped out Money (also the social media manager of FinCon) has an answer to this dilemma in his article titled Stop Pretending That Money Is Easy, It’s Just Not. (Again, I know this is not a recent article, but it was new to me through the Optimal Finance Daily podcast this week.) In the article, Nick is quick to point out that the financial gurus, bloggers, and the people who teach about money make it sound so easy when really it’s not. He states that if it’s so easy, then why is it that half the country can’t afford a $400 emergency? Why is the average household credit card debt $5,883?

To summarize Nick’s article, he says that when it comes to money, “knowing is easy, but doing is hard”. And he brings up an interesting point: “pretending money is easy only makes it harder.” Nick provides several examples to illustrate his point and I suggest you read the entire article for yourself. We in the FI blogosphere tend to think that money is very easy, but clearly it’s not for most people.

Your Turn

• Were your emotions in check during last week’s market volatility?
• Have you created an investor policy statement yet?
• What do you do when you experience moments of dark emotions and feeling down?
• What kind of things do you do for self care?
• Do you think financial independence is achievable for everybody?

Please share your thoughts!

Photo credit goes to my wife who semi-candidly snapped this photo of me in Dubrovnik as I was enjoying the view of the sun setting over the Adriatic Sea. Though the tone of the photo seems melancholy, I was really happy in this picture. I was looking down at the ground because I was trying not to slip and fall. For some reason, I was wearing sandals and walking somewhat close to the edge of a cliff. True story.