Articles Written by Linda Goin
It seems every holiday season demands yet another rerun of “The Wizard of Oz.” Every year for weeks after the movie I hear the incantation, “Lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” from my daughter when faced with situations that invoke fake fear (like cleaning her room). It doesn’t stop there — I’ve recently heard the chant in many office environments, too…
A few weeks ago, I promised to tell you what happened to my previous investments. It’s been a month since I’ve done my taxes, and I think I’ve recuperated well enough to talk about this now…
Do you remember the movie, “It’s a Wonderful Life?” In one scene, an angel shows George Bailey (played by Jimmy Stewart) how his life will end if he doesn’t change his ways. If an angel gave me a preview of my life last summer, I wouldn’t have been as humble as George. Nothing could have convinced me I was about to make the wrong investment decisions.
Most children achieve certain milestones the first year of their lives. At about two months, they begin to smile socially. Two months later, they’re laughing and squealing, and pushing themselves up on their wrists. Two months later, they’re speaking in syllables. At nine months, they’re pulling themselves up to stand. At one year, they begin to imitate you. Multiply this by eighteen, and you’ve got a mini-you entering the world…
Cora and I play a game that we enjoy to this day. I’ve played it with other adults and they find the idea mesmerizing. Take a small mail-order catalog and go through the pages one at a time. Pick out something you would buy if you had “all the money in the world.” Everyone gets one choice per page, and it’s ok if everyone wants the same thing.
…It’s impossible to know everything, especially in investments and financial planning. Cora and I play the “Catch and Release” information game these days. First we pull in information about investment planning. If we have too much, we throw some back for later. This way we have a digestible amount of good habits to develop. Once we have these down, we go trolling for more information. Cora likes this kind of fishing, since it isn’t messy and she doesn’t have to touch worms…
Last week, I warned you about my lack of common sense when it comes to money. The excuse of my artistic lifestyle is one rationale for my obsessive-compulsive nature. Sometimes I just tell people that I committed a horrible deed in a former life and I’m paying for it in this go-round…
The world is a safe place. Everything is going smoothly today; the sun is shining, and my daughter is healthy. I still have a good bit of my mental capacity, and I have a new place in the world with BUYandHOLD’s “Mom Chronicles.”
These entries link to online articles I've written with or without my byline.
