I know what lies ahead for our species are a series of question marks, punctuated by occasional exclamation points. So I acknowledge that what I am discussing here is small, even downright miniscule when considering the world stage.
When Sheltering In Place started, I offered a little inhouse workshop to my daughter and my son's girlfriend on retirement investment vehicles, and on what I considered a good order for investing in them. This is stuff that I've been researching and learning about for a few years now (late to the party, I know), and both young women had had a couple of questions that I felt could best be addressed in a workshop format, together.
So I dusted off the whiteboard and pulled out the dry erase markers, and offered my recommendations. I discovered something about myself while doing this itty bitty workshop.
Here it is: When I started learning about these things, I never realized how much I would enjoy all this stuff. I love the numbers and the precision and the variability and the different options. I love understanding some things about money so that financial situations don't just happen to me, but I become an actor with agency that influences my fiscal circumstances. I'm intrigued by how money behaves in different contexts. I wonder if money can become an ally and not an adversary. I love that this is a big field with a lot to explore and take in. I'm curious about it, and motivated to keep learning more.
I think, in a parallel lifetime, I might have enjoyed being a financial planner that helped people to design for and achieve financial independence. Or maybe a billionaire philanthropist that funded projects for the betterment and greening of our world.