Schadenfreude

"Schadenfreude is the experience of pleasure, joy, or self-satisfaction that comes from learning of or witnessing the troubles, failures, or humiliation of another." (wiki)

Schadenfreude is an all too human failing, one that I believe contributes to failure in our own lives and in the lives of our friends and family members.

Who isn't going to laugh when Moe hits Curly in the back of the head with a dead fish? Slapstick is one of the two universal sources of comedy that appear in all cultures on earth from the jungles of Borneo to the caverns of Wall Street. The second widespread source of comedy would be the dirty joke. We are all human.

The more insidious form of schadenfreude has its roots in envy, one of the seven deadly sins. Because we covet every good thing our neighbor possesses, when our neighbor fails, it becomes a source of self-satisfaction.

I have found that achieving anything of lasting value is extremely difficult. On and off, over the course of a lifetime, I have pursued a variety of worthy goals like financial freedom, physical fitness, weight control, healthy personal relationships, and my spiritual path with varying degrees of effort and success. In chasing my dreams of becoming a better person, it seems that at best I take one step back for every two steps I take forward. In 2008, it was difficult watching years of savings disappear into a black hole of falling stock prices. My efforts at physical fitness? Well, sometimes, I just quit, for years. After I hit some kind of wall, morose self-pity can seem to be the most natural response. My efforts at controlling my diet are so pitifully small and sporadic that-I am not currently losing any weight. Am I God's man of faith and power? Don't ask my wife, she knows my shortcomings all too well.

When I can say, "Rise up and walk," on even a semi-regular basis, I will let you know.

What kind of people do you want surrounding you when you are working toward a better life, people who find pleasure in the failures and shortcomings of others, or people who comfort and encourage one another whether in times of success or in moments of difficulty and failure?

When I see someone, who has succeeded in building something wonderful, achieving a goal that is at least something I understand as difficult and praiseworthy, I try to remember, that in most cases, people are rewarded in public for thousands of hours of hard work performed in private. How on earth would it benefit me to gloat when such a person, who just like me wants a good life for himself and those he loves, stumbles or falls?

Even if that person is your real or imagined enemy there is a better way.

"You have heard that it was said, 'Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.' But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, that you may be children of your Father in heaven."

"Muditā: means joy; especially sympathetic or vicarious joy…the pleasure that comes from delighting in other people's well-being…Mudita is a pure joy unadulterated by self-interest." (wiki)

Buddhism teaches that there are Four Sublime States, compassion, loving kindness, sympathetic joy, and equanimity. Of the four, many teachers believe that highest and most difficult to achieve would be living in the condition of finding pleasure in the success and well-being of others. Look into your own heart whenever you gloat over the sufferings of others-even if they deserve to suffer. What you will find there is dark and burns like fire. When you escape your own lusts and desires for even a moment, like when watching your child learn how to walk, what is there, deep in your heart? How does that feeling compare to rejoicing in the suffering and mistakes of others?

Which state of mind is more likely to be a blessing to yourself and others, as we all deal with the difficulties and setbacks of life in this material world?

One more warning, when you are tempted to indulge in schadenfreude, remember.

"Rejoice not when thine enemy falleth, and let not thine heart be glad when he stumbleth: Lest the LORD see it, and it displease him, and he turn away his wrath from him." (Proverbs 24:17-18)

Boom and Bust Explained

The economy is nothing more than the commercial interactions of everyone with everyone. The sum total of all these exchanges of value, forced or voluntary, creates consequences, both at the individual and global levels. Over time, you and I create the business cycle.

Conventional wisdom, tells us that during our working years, we should save somewhere between 10% and 15% of our pretax income for emergencies, a down payment on that first home, college educations for the kids, and retirement. There are reasons why this doesn't happen. Most of those reasons, that are a matter of individual choice, involve debt fueled consumption. Debt allows us to purchase more in the present moment without having the money in hand. Multiplied by millions, your Christmas credit card purchases are helping to fuel a boom already juiced by about $1 trillion of new Federal funny money that enters the economy every year.

The stock market is running wild. Unemployment is down. Happy days are here again.

For about thirty years, the national savings rate was somewhere near sanity, even during the wretched decade of the 1970s. During that unhappy time of high unemployment, stagflation, oil shocks, and disco music there were some years I was unable to save at anything near an acceptable rate, but at least I managed to stay out of debt when either my wife or I were unemployed. But, changes were happening in the national psyche. In my childhood, debt other than a mortgage, was a scarlet badge of shame. Try to remember, the first general purpose credit card that allowed the consumer to carry a monthly balance appeared in 1958. Today, debt is viewed as a rite of passage into becoming an adult. Over the course of 60 years we have bought into a lie taught to us by banks and corporations who sell us consumables and depreciating assets, like cars.

However, the time will come to pay the piper. At the individual level, first the consumer saves less than the recommended 10% to 15%. We have many excuses for what we know is unwise behavior. The money I borrow to get a degree in Italian Film Art is an investment that will guarantee my future in the movie industry. Everyone I know has an iPhone10, how can I be expected to live without a $1,000 cell phone that will be obsolete in a year. The cost of our house is more than 3 times our annual income, but it is an investment that will fund my retirement, not an expense. My neighbors all drive new BMWs and Subarus, how can I be seen in public driving a ten year old minivan? Hey, I'm only thirty years old, my salary will increase without pause forever.

I can save tomorrow, but we all know, tomorrow never comes.

Then the consumer will add their debt at a slower level, as their monthly payment burden increases. Finally, consumers are tapped out. They can't add any more debt fuel to the economy, so everything begins to slow down. Business close, layoffs happen, then the repo man comes in the early morning hours to seize your Subaru. Since I left home for work before 5:00 AM I saw the Jerr-Dan tow trucks prowling the neighborhood on more than one occasion. Finally, the foreclosure sign appears on your neighbor's abandoned home.

There are only three things that can be done with debt, public debt, commercial debt, or individual debt. The debt can be repaid. This is painful. The debtor is slave to the lender. I have seen too many young people strapped with student loans that will keep them in servitude to others for decades, before they can begin their lives as free adults. Owing more on a car than the car is worth, happens the moment you drive the thing off the lot. During the train wreck of 2006-2008 couples couldn't sell their underwater home in one city to find a job in a new city, because they didn't have the cash to cover the shortfall.

When the debt can't be repaid, the debtor defaults. It is good to remember that debt that can't be repaid won't be repaid. In a country that allows individual bankruptcy, the lenders go out of business. There is nothing like a widespread bank panic to really wreck an economy. This has happened many times throughout history. Although, I don't know when, it will happen again, count on it. At this point during a business cycle in places like Southeast Asia and India, the borrower can really become the slave of the lender. Do a Google search. Prepare to be horrified.

Finally, if you are fortunate enough to control the printing presses, you can inflate debt denominated in your currency out of existence. I am the proud possessor of a $100 trillion bill from Zimbabwe. When it was legal tender, that would have been enough to buy a stick of chewing gum. Now it is worthless, except as a teaching tool to people like me.

The problem with the last two options is that they generally lead to blood in the streets. Revolutions, civil wars, dirty wars in places like Argentina, and even a World War all had their roots in unpaid debt. Think about that the next time you don't pay off your credit card balance.

You Got to Walk that Lonesome Valley

You've got to walk that lonesome valley
Well you gotta go by yourself
Well there ain't nobody else gonna go there for you
You gotta go there by yourself

This morning, as is my custom, I was listening to a psychologist delivering a lecture on the elements of success, as I sipped my daily cup of coffee. For some reason, perhaps it was my frame of mind, it wasn't working, at least not for me. Losing interest, I began to surf the Internet in another window while the speaker droned on in the background. While looking at some other personal finance blogs, I was reminded that there are no silver bullets, no magic cures. Others can help your progress or hold you back, but ultimately no one, not your friends, neither personal finance gurus, nor politicians have the answers that will release you from accepting personal responsibility for how you choose to live your life.

There is a reason they call it personal finance. It's personal. You can't escape the money equation:

Money In = Money Stored + Money Spent

But how you chose to fill in those numbers over the course of a lifetime is up to you.

You get make the decisions and take the actions that will become your career. You can choose to follow the impossible dream, whatever the cost, you can make the "Great Compromise" that is finding the least objectionable way to earn what you and your wife consider an acceptable amount of money, or become an entrepreneur, striking out on your own quest to earn more money by becoming a greater blessing to your neighbor.

Once your basics are covered, how you spend your money is up to you. After all it is your money. If you want to live in a trailer park, so that you can dine at the finest restaurants in town, that is your business. If making a fashion statement with a pair of $600 shoes rings your chimes, go for it. If you want to give your surplus money away to charity or use it to benefit individuals in need, if you have it to spend, who or what organizations get your money is totally up to you. At this point, let me add that from my personal experience, you can give away more to help others than you are likely to think is prudent or possible.

Some people, like me, choose to place shares in conservative dividend paying companies and low cost index funds in their money stored column. Others prefer income generating rental properties. Some are not comfortable beyond insured savings accounts and Government bond funds. Some bury gold and silver coins in their basements, right under their stores of emergency freeze dried rations and boxes of shotgun shells. How you envision the future, will determine how you prepare for the future.

How you define financial freedom is your decision. It is likely that your definition will evolve over time. I would say, my first experience of financial freedom occurred the month I paid off my mortgage. Suddenly, I had an extra $1,000 to spend or invest-every month! It was exhilarating to be able to dramatically increase the amount of money going into investments and take my wife to places like Hawaii, Santa Fe, and Las Vegas.

I remember the day I understood, really understood, that I had reached my goal, financial freedom. During my annual performance evaluation held sometime back in September/October 2011, I told my boss it was clear that barring a major stock market meltdown, I would be gone by January 2013 when I would turn 62. I suggested that he start training some folks to replace me. Of course, I volunteered to help in this process. Then after the death of my mother in law in the spring of 2012, we inherited enough extra to kick us over the top. At the time, my employer was offering "buy-outs" to encourage old folks like me to take early retirement. In a meeting with my supervisor, I told him that for the first time in my life, I no longer had to work for a living. If he wanted to offer me the buy-out, I would take it. He was horrified at the possibility of that option, so I worked until the day after my 62nd birthday, as planned, since that would be the first day I could retire without penalty to my pension.

P.S. I had enough vacation time on the books to take off the last two months of my career with the Government. Roughly 47 years after taking my first job as a caddy at an exclusive nearby golf course, I reached one of my goals, financial freedom. My prayer is that you will achieve this goal in less than half that time.

The Eighteen Year Old Car

Last summer, I reported on a decision to put over $600 into the front end of our 2000 Nissan Altima GXE. At that time, I promised a future update, letting, you the reader, know how things worked out. Over the course of the last 13 months, I have also replaced the battery (less than $100) and the tires ($300). Today, the odometer reads 129,148.

To put things in perspective, I did a little research. The last time this car required maintenance beyond changing oil and filters occurred in September 2010. At that time the odometer read 92,852 miles. Back then, I replaced the brake pads, exhaust pipes, muffler, timing belt, transmission fluid, antifreeze, and probably some other items I don't remember, the typical 90,000 mile maintenance required by a modern Japanese car. In my mind, if I decide to keep it that long, our Nissan probably has 50,000 miles left in it.

Back in late September, we experienced a bit of a scare. At 5:45 on the morning before we were planning to leave for Florida, the car alarm went off while the unlocked car was sitting inside our garage. I could turn the alarm off with the key fob, but as soon as I turned it off, it would start up again. Finally, I solved the problem by disconnecting the car battery. I called my mechanic. He said the alarm was a part of the computer system and that he wouldn't touch it. He recommended a locksmith who specializes in car alarms. That gentleman sent me off on a series of phone calls that produced only two offers to look at my car at $70 per hour with no guarantee of anything, if and only I had it towed to their location. The Nissan dealer who helpfully told me that the events of the morning, as I reported them, were impossible, mentioned that sometimes the key fobs go bad. He suggested removing the battery from the key fob. This same advice was given by a locksmith who wouldn't go near my car. When I returned from Florida, I reconnected the car battery. Everything has worked perfectly ever since then. I don't know if doing away with the key fob solved the problem, or if disconnecting the car battery long enough for the capacitors to discharge, allowing the computer to reboot solved the problem, but the problem has been solved.

Of course, there is an emotional dimension to any money decision. Now that we are retired, I don't believe we need two cars. My wife is unwilling to become a one car family. That is fine by me. She is also attached to this particular car, feeling safe and comfortable behind the wheel. If the computer needed replacing, that would have been the end of our Nissan. I located a 2010 Acura TSX, the same car I drive, with half the miles for a reasonable price. I would have purchased that car to replace the Nissan, unless my wife wanted a new car. If she had wanted a new car, that would have not been a difficulty.

Today, everything on the Nissan works. It has a new battery and new tires. The body is in above average condition with only a few parking lot dings and a spot or two of rust down by the rocker panels. The interior has a few permanent stains, but all of the fabric is intact. I would expect to get $500 on trade in or maybe $1,000 to $1,500 in a private sale. The person who bought my car at that price would have a bargain that I expect would go at least two or three years without any major problems, but even though the mileage is low for an eighteen year old car, it is an eighteen year old car.

I bought our Altima new in November 1999. While not quite as good as my beloved 1996 Honda, it has proven a practical, reliable automobile for over eighteen years. I buy cars that are endorsed by publications like Consumer Report, believing that reliability is the most important factor when buying a car, assuming that its affordability allows you to pay cash.

Don't fall for the great middle class delusion. You don't have to carry a car note.

Here is how doing things differently, can help to change your life. Let's assume you keep one new car for twenty years or buy a couple of low mileage used cars over that same time period. Compare this to purchasing a new car every four or five years on credit. Given interest rates and the cost of depreciation, it would be easy to save $80,000 over twenty years. $80,000 divided by 20 years equals $4,000. That number, divided by 12 months in a year would allow you to put $333.33 a month into savings. For a reality check, note that the average monthly car payment is $479. Siegel's constant (6.5%-7.0% return on long term equity investments) tells us that if you placed $333.33 a month into a low cost index fund that returned 6.5%, compounded quarterly, that at the end of twenty years, you could expect to have an additional $163,999.83.

Now multiply that number by a second car.

Don't get me wrong, I love cars. Someday, when it is time to replace my Acura, I will be looking at cars like a Lexus GS 350 or a BMW 540i. It's your money. If you are taking care of your family and preparing for retirement, spend what remains on what gives you pleasure. As long as you are using cash, it is unlikely that the occasional splurge on luxury will cause you any problems. The danger is in using other people's money to indulge your appetite for consumables and depreciating assets.

Joseph in Egypt

The market has been on a hell of a run. The investment newsletters and the commercial media, focusing on the market's momentum, the promises of a better business climate from reduced regulation, a return to something approaching theoretical full employment, and the icing on the cake, the recent tax cut, can say nothing but, "Let the good times roll."

Perhaps, we should revisit the story of Joseph in Egypt.

Joseph, to be fair, something of a bratty little brother, his father's favorite, was sold into slavery by his siblings. They told dad a wild beast ate him. Down in Egypt Joseph was purchased by Potiphar, the captain of Pharaoh's guards. God blessed the captain and everything Joseph did until Potiphar's wife falsely accused him of rape. Joseph was thrown into prison. There he interpreted dreams for two of Pharaoh's servants who were not currently in their master's good graces. One of them lived to tell the tale to Pharaoh when the ruler had a bad dream about seven fat healthy cows and seven sick cows. Dragged out of prison to interpret the king's dream, Joseph prophesized seven prosperous years to be followed by seven years of drought and famine. He counseled Pharaoh to set aside as much surplus grain as possible to prepare for the bad years. As a result, Pharaoh was just about the only source of food to be had in the Middle East. By this time Joseph was the Chief Operating Officer of Egypt, Inc. He sold grain to other countries at exorbitant prices. Joseph also came up with the bright idea of supplying seed corn to Egyptian citizens in exchange for a 20% tax to be paid on everything they grew-forever. The tax was still in effect hundreds of years after the end of the famine. Listening to Joseph, made Pharaoh rich and Egypt rich. To be fair, it doesn't seem that Main Street benefitted quite as much as the palace in this story, but it does give one pause.

When the roller coaster is on the way up, put aside some of those profits for a rainy day or a dry year, depending on where you live. Maintain that age appropriate balance between stocks, bonds, and cash. Do not use an increase in your home equity as an opportunity to take out a second mortgage for a new SUV or a trip to the Bahamas. Every bull market will inevitably be followed by a bear. Unlike Joseph, I don't know when the crash is coming, but I know that it will come. Nobody has figured out how to keep the business cycle from turning. If you have liquidity, meaning cash available at the bottom of the bust, then you will be able to buy shares in profitable corporations and rental properties for pennies on the dollar. Those assets will then pay you income for the rest of your life, and hopefully, leave your family a legacy that could last for several generations.

There is another lesson to be learned from the story of Joseph in Egypt. Just as he dreamed when he was still a spoiled child, his starving brothers bowed down before him to beg for food when he was the master of Egypt. Joseph knew who they were, but they didn't recognize their supposedly deceased brother. After Joseph revealed who he was and forgave his brothers, he told them, "You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people."

Twice in my life, after unfortunate and unfair setbacks, someone "spoke Joseph" into my life, "They meant evil against you, but God meant it for good." It wasn't obvious at the time, but in one case, it spurred me to earn an engineering degree, giving me an entirely new career. In the other instance, I was driven by circumstances to learn enough about investment basics that I was able to find both financial freedom and early retirement.

Never give up. Good luck? Bad luck? Sometimes, we just don't know.

Who is the Other?

A Zen master once asked his students the question, “Who is the other?”

As I have studied investment questions, I am beginning to come to the somewhat Buddhistic understanding that on at least on some level, criticism directed at our perceived enemy is often self criticism. To understand a problem or the actions of “the other,” I only need to look into a mirror.

This morning I read a politically charged column denouncing Pfizer for planning to use some of the additional profits excepted from the recent changes in the tax law for share buy-backs and an increase in the dividend, rather than using all of it to hire additional employees. The author also seemed annoyed the Pfizer was shifting its research budget away from Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s to other areas. It was clear that the author was convinced that nothing but bad behavior could come from cutting the corporate tax rate, as leaving more money in corporate coffers simply gave bad people an additional opportunity to engage in wicked antisocial behavior.

Institutions own about 70% of Pfizer shares. That means if you are the beneficiary of a pension fund, or expect to become the beneficiary of a pension fund there is close to a 100% chance you own shares in Pfizer. If you own shares in a well-diversified, managed mutual fund there is close to a 100% chance you own Pfizer. If you own shares in an index fund that invests in large-cap American companies, there is a 100% chance you own shares in Pfizer.

As an individual share holder, the prudent manager of a pension fund, or a computer program that buys and sells shares of stock in order to maintain a desired model portfolio you are interested in having corporate managers who act with your interest in their hearts and minds. Currently Pfizer holds a AA credit rating while paying a 3.75% dividend. Compare this to a ten-year treasury note paying 2.5% with no possibility of capital gains, remembering that U.S. debt was downgraded to AA+ back in 2011. If you voted for Obama, or for that matter Bush in 2004, you share in responsibility for the creation of over $10 trillion in new money, out of thin air, by an increase in our national debt.

That money had to go somewhere.

In the current regulatory environment, financial engineering is often more profitable than actually producing real wealth in the material world, with products such as new drugs to combat Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s. I suspect that Pfizer had no experimental Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s drugs in its R&D pipeline that merited the further investment of either time or money, given that they are guaranteed a 3.75% return by simply buying shares in their own company. It also wouldn’t surprise me to hear one of Pfizer’s competitors proudly announce a major breakthrough in one of these areas sometime in the near future. Companies, as well as nation states, have been known to engage in espionage.

When it comes to the economy, we are all in this together. Every decision, every action, or reaction by everyone in the world contributes to the constantly changing ebb and flow of money. As we all try to pursue what we understand to be our rational self interest, buying, selling, working, contributing, or even engaging in criminal enterprises, the actions of everyone effect—everyone. Unless you are a hermit living in a treehouse somewhere completely off the grid, you are a part of that nonduality we call choose to call the economy.

As I believe that money is a spiritual commodity, I also believe that our individual actions, our use of our money and our time will have, if you will allow me to use the term, karmic consequences not only in this world, but in the world to come. I would like to suggest that the author of the article, look deeply into his own heart, before criticizing the actions of a company with a much better than average record of socially desirable behavior.

Voodoo Child

"I tell you the truth, if you had faith even as small as a mustard seed, you could say to this mountain, 'Move from here to there,' and it would move. Nothing would be impossible."

Baker Mayfield, this year’s Heisman Trophy winner, is too small to play quarterback. He wasn’t offered a scholarship at any top tier school, so, as a freshman, he walked on to the campus of the University of Oklahoma, his first choice, and took the starting job away from students who had been given full athletic scholarships.

Lord knows, he’s a voodoo child.

In an interview, a sports announcer stated that he had heard Mayfield started keeping a list of things people told him he couldn’t when he was in grade school. Mayfield acknowledged that he has such a list. He uses it for motivation. Nobody has the right to tell you what you can’t do. Nobody has the right to tell you about your limitations and weaknesses. Often people are inclined to make statements of this sort, especially in financial matters, because of the limitations they have chosen for their lives.

“A man's heart plans his way, But the LORD directs his steps.”

If you hang around conservative Christians, you will hear this proverb presented in a way that focuses on the Sovereignty of God and the limitations of man. Recently, I heard Wayne Cordeiro, the founding pastor of New Hope Christian Fellowship in Honolulu, Hawaii put a different spin on this aphorism. He believes, that plans and stepping belong to man and directing the steps of a man in motion belongs to God. He emphasizes individual responsibility, telling a leadership training class not to wait for instructions or a job description from the senior pastor, but to make a plan, and then, just do it. He assures his audience that once in motion, God will be faithful to direct your steps and correct your plans.

“Then he answered and spake unto me, saying, This is the word of the Lord unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the Lord of hosts. Who art thou, O great mountain? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a plain: and he shall bring forth the headstone thereof with shoutings, crying, Grace, grace unto it.”

Zerubbabel was the leader of the first Jews to return to Jerusalem from the Babylonian captivity. For two years, he started rebuilding the temple of God. After completing the foundation, local tribes, Samaritan immigrants returning from Babylon, and a lack of financial support for the Persian empire stopped construction for seventeen years, a great mountain indeed. Then the Lord sent the prophet, Zechariah, to encourage Zerubbabel and his construction crew. The Second Temple was completed, dedicated, and once again Israel celebrated the Passover in the presence of God in his temple.

If my Christian readers will offer me a little literary freedom and grace, let me say, “Lord knows, he was a voodoo child.”

What can you accomplish, not only in this new year, but in the rest of your life? I don’t know. That is between you, God, and the people who love, support, and encourage you. Today, right now, pick out something that you want to do, something you believe you can do, then put on your shoes, open the door, and start walking.

Who knows how far you can travel before it is time to move on to the world to come. Maybe, at your funeral, one of your friends will shake her head and say, “Lord knows, he was a voodoo child.”

Well, I stand up next to a mountain
And I chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I stand up next to a mountain
Chop it down with the edge of my hand
Well, I pick up all the pieces and make an island
Might even raise just a little sand
'Cause I'm a voodoo child
Lord knows I'm a voodoo child
Jimi Hendrix