It was in the 1980's and MTV was all music videos and the Discovery Channel was all "Real" documentaries. Everything seemed much simpler then. Or was it?
Being young has many great attributes: never ending energy, supreme optimism, and the ability to "know it all." Many years have past, and the complexity of life has risen to all time highs; or has it. I remember my father telling me to absorb all the information you can about a subject before you make any judgments or actions. Probably, I received this advice in the 1980's, when I thought I knew it all. Talk about falling on deaf ears! I knew it all already, and was going the set the world on fire. I was going to be somebody. There was no stopping me!
Now, many years have past in a quickening manner. The fact is: the older I get, the smarter my dad gets. I started noticing this strange occurrence in my twenties (the 1990's). Getting a place of my own, paying bills, and trying my damnedest to get ahead all brought back glimpses of receiving words of wisdom without understanding the true depths of the information freely given to me. Looking back, I am sure that most of the wisdom he bestowed upon me was acquired the hard way; first hand and maybe costing a loss of some sort.
Dot Com crash brought it all back to me in a major way. I remember him talking to me about diversification right after 1987. I worked in tech, and sow it growing leaps and bounds. So with ALL of the money I was making, I was placing the largest majority of it into tech stocks -- and I was making a bundle. Until...well, you all know the story. At least I paid cash for all of my toys.
Now out of work, bouncing from tech job to tech job, to service job, to pizza job, to bar tending job; I really remember my dad telling me to diversify. Man, did I ever remember; and was tortured to no end every morning going to work. So now I am diversified in all aspects of life: stocks, bonds, properties, animals, fruit trees, gardens, guns, and even God(s). I need to work on a citizenship diversity next.
I have made many of my own mistakes since those days of free wisdom that was offered , but not heeded. But these days, I try hard tho remember those little pearls of wisdom whenever possible to save me money, heartache, and most precious of all TIME. Why should I waste my time making a mistake that someone else has already suffered the consequences?
Not all of the advice was valid, but much of it was and is. And, believe me, it is far easier to wade through the validity of the advice, than it is to suffer some consequence of running full all into a fix. So here is a little advice form me to you:
Be aware of your surroundings. Know your limitations. Search out the truth for yourself, don't rely on the media. Diversify your life as well as your portfolio. And last but not least, live your life like it is the last day. With this little pearl, you should be able to get by in life and not suffer too much regret.