W.I.T. #52 - Reflections on the Past Four Years

Four years ago the World Health Organization declared COVID-19 a pandemic, an event that changed us individually and globally.

Three Things Worth Sharing

Iditarod Rule #34 – I’m willing to bet that most of us have never (thankfully!) been in an endurance race that would require one to gut a moose with a degree of expertise or risk being penalized two hours for improper gutting.

 More Moose News – In an effort to be able to write the word ‘moose’ as often as possible in this edition, here are some moose safety tips that were actually published in a major U.S. newspaper!

 40th Anniversary – On Saturday, March 24, 1984, five students reported for detention at Shermer High School; little did they know how that day would change their lives while we got to watch.  Let’s pause a moment to remember.

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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT

John Scherer:

Four years is a relatively short time frame as we think about financial planning. But what has changed in your life over the past four years? That's what I'm thinking. 

I was reading an article recently, and it, it talked about how it was four years ago this month, March of 2020, that the World Health Organization officially declared COVID-19 a pandemic. It was March 11 and it went on. It talked about some of the things that have changed directly related to the pandemic over the past four years. Right. We've all seen some of those things in our life, but what it made me think about was what has changed personally, not COVID related, but just how has life changed in the past four years? As I think about it, back in March of 2020, we had just buried my mom and my dad was living at home as a widower and doing fine as far as that goes. Today he's in memory care at his retirement community. 

My two boys were just in the beginning stages of elementary school back then. Now they're almost halfway through middle school today. I think back business wise, back in 2020, Nick Moore wasn't working here with us. Now he's such an integral part. We're kind of like the dynamic duo in running the operations here at Trinity. Right? Just things. What big changes have gone on? And I really like that touch point of having COVID-19 sort of that line in the sand, right? As we think about other things, deaths and births and marriages and job changes, each one of us has a different frame of reference when it comes to that. But the start of COVID is one of the things that we all sort of have in common. 

Kind of like going back to what 9/11 was, a universal experience in the United States, like when John F. Kennedy was shot, right? Those sorts of things, that sort of shared experience. So I think it's interesting as we think about that, a neat line in the sand to be able to have that conversation about. And when we talk about financial planning one of our sort of philosophies is that flexibility is really important and things tend to change more than they stay the same. And of course, take all the COVID things and the things that went with that world, set it aside. But just personally, I look at my life and, man, a lot has changed in the last four years, and I'm curious as to what's changed in your life. Maybe you've had similar experiences, a lot changed. 

If you have a different experience, I'd love to hear about that, too. Hey, if you say things haven't changed very much in the past four years, outside of the COVID things, I'd be really interested to hear a different side of the equation or a different experience with that. But I do think that most of us will find that there are a lot of things that have changed, or at least a few really significant things that change over again. A four-year period of time is relatively short as we think about financial planning, retirement planning especially. We're trying to project out five and ten and 20 years down the road, what is life going to look like and how can I be prepared for it? And you go, that long time frame, it helps me anyway to look back and we've got a relatively short time frame. And you go, holy man. Some of the things, the things that I thought were going to turn out didn't. T

The way it actually played out is different than what I expected on things. And looking backward is helpful for me sometimes to look forward in a more intelligent fashion. So that's what I'm thinking about. And like I said, I'd really love to hear if you've got a similar, or if you've got a different experience especially. We'd love to hear about that. Let's start a conversation in the comment box or feel free to shoot me an email directly. As always, thanks for watching.

John Scherer CFP® is a fee-only certified financial planner based in Middleton, Wisconsin. John has over 20 years of experience advising clients on personal tax, investment, and financial planning. You can reach him by email at john@trinfin.com.