I suppose it's part and parcel of human nature that we have a tendency to take things personally even when they actually have nothing at all to do with us. In particular, we tend to take bad things that happen to us personally.
"Am I just DOOMED?"
"Is the universe out the GET me?"
"Is the world DETERMINED to make me destitute?"
In truth, the universe is a pretty neutral place. It may not feel that way, but it is.
One of the things I was reflecting on earlier today — while it increasingly looks like we're headed towards a major conflict between Russia and Ukraine — is that I seem to have a remarkable talent for ”bad timing,” at least financially speaking.
It's something I first started noticing back in the 1980s, and it's something that has taken me many many years to shake... or, rather, many many years to no longer "personalize."
I think back to one of my first businesses, where I managed to take out a loan for $300,000 and 90 days later we had a grand opening filled with fanfare and hope because everything around us was booming, and a golden future was forecast. Three weeks later, the bottom fell out of the regional economy (oil related) and boom turned to prolonged bust.
I clearly remember something a local realtor friend said: "The office couldn't close on Friday till 9:00pm because there were so many calls of people looking for houses. We went home for 4th of July weekend... and when we cam back in in Monday morning the phones were QUIET. No calls AT ALL."
My condo where I lived I'd bought for $85,000... and it rose in value to $135,000; three years later units were being given away for $30,000-$32,000.
I remember when I had my retail store, we made the difficult decision to move from our existing so-so location to a thriving shopping center nearby. We did so, with much hope and at great expense... and a couple of months later the shopping center operator went bankrupt and the shopping center fell into decay, and we were worse off.
I remember having a really substantial position in a couple of tech stocks in the mid-1990s, and they looked really really promising. I had done my homework and was in it for the long haul.
Unfortunately, I suddenly found myself on the receiving end of an IRS lawsuit because an employee of my business had been embezzling the tax withholding money so I had to liquidate that $40,000 worth of stock... at the exact bottom of the market... to pay that bill. About a month later those same stocks started on an upwards run that ended up increasing their value by 800%.
These days, all I can do is throw up my hands and laugh at it all. I have often joked that if I suddenly need a larger sum of money to cover some unexpected expense the rest of the world could use it as a sure-fire indicator that the financial markets are about to head to rock bottom!
At the moment I'm laughing again because in about five weeks I'll need to pay a $6,500 tax bill and I figured I'd just sell a little bit of crypto to cover it. Guess what? There's a war about to happen in Eastern Europe and the markets are nosediving! As a result the idea of selling "a little bit of crypto" has now become "selling a substantial holding of crypto" and looks worse every day.
Oh well, it's only money, right?
But hey, maybe I'll get lucky and sell a bunch of stuff on eBay! But I'm not holding my breath. More likely I won't sell a damn thing for the next six weeks and then all of a sudden people will start buying like crazy after the tax bill is paid!
Cynical? Who, me?
Whereas these are all pure coincidences I once again try not to take it personally. I'm just gonna keep plugging forward and I'll keep blogging and keep doing my eBay thing and that'll just have to be good enough!
Humorously yours,
Me
Thanks for stopping by, and have a great remainder of your week!
How about YOU? Do you tend to have good timing? Or bad timing? Do you ever feel like something/the world is out to get you? Or do you manage to not personalize misfortunes? Comments, feedback and other interaction is invited and welcomed! Because — after all — SOCIAL content is about interacting, right? Leave a comment — share your experiences — be part of the conversation!
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Created at 20220221 23:40 PST
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