Every other Friday, I provide an update on my exercise goals. In between, I’m writing about mental fitness.
I didn’t post anything on Monday. I had something ready to go, but then I read it over a couple times and realized that what I had written wasn’t so great. I was disappointed because the words I had come up with took some effort. I thought it would be a great post and then it wasn’t. I tried to revise, but it just wasn’t working. My words were boring and bland. Whatever creativity that I normally have was on empty.
It took me a while to figure out what was wrong, but eventually it came:
I was out of mental space.
What the hell does that mean? Stay with me.
Mental Space
I was talking to Mr. Penny Planter (Mr. PP from here on out [insert juvenile snickering here]) at the Berkshire Hathaway meeting when the conversation turned to investing. I told Mr. PP (more snickering) that I had done really well as a stock picker*. I said something like this:
I don’t think beating the markets in the short term** is that difficult. Just read the news and pay attention to trends. Figure out which companies are at the forefront and buy them. The introduction of the iPhone is a perfect example of this. Any geek knew that Apple was going to sell a gazillion of the devices and it would take the competition a while to catch up.
Mr. PP responded with something like this:
It’s still a lot of work though, isn’t it? You have to keep up with the news. I don’t want this type of stuff consuming my mental space. I’m sticking with index funds.
I’ve been thinking a lot about mental space ever since.
No Mental Space == Unhappiness
I wanted to finish two projects before the girls got out of school on 5/24:
- planter boxes for the front yard
- a Lori Wall Bed
The planter boxes are almost done, but I still have to install a piece of wood around the top and a watering system. I have about 6 hours of work left:
I’m almost done painting the bed, but still need to put it together. It will probably take me about 2 hours to assemble:
These two projects have been consuming me. When I’m not spending summer break with the girls, I have a tool in my hand. Because it’s been so hot, I’ve started work around 6am when the temperature is reasonable. I throw in the tools at about 1pm and head to the public pool with the girls. By the time dinner is done, I’m exhausted. On Monday, I put in almost 30,000 steps just from working on the planter boxes. Many of those steps were behind a wheelbarrow loaded with dirt:
To write well, I need time to be bored. I need to go for long walks, run or just sit there. I haven’t had time for any of this. No mental space.
Lack of mental space means lack of creativity. I have also found that my happiness suffers because I don’t have time to:
- plan
- reflect
- absorb my surroundings
- think
Instead, my mind becomes cluttered and I become agitated. Not good.
Is Mental Space Dead?
Is anyone bored anymore? When I’m at a stop light, I notice fellow drivers looking at their phone. When I’m at the playground with the kids, other parents are looking at their phones. When I’m in line somewhere, others are looking down. At their phone. Not all boredom is good, but much of it is.
After these projects are done, I’m going to work on being bored for a bit.
*I can’t tell you I’m a good short-term stock picker without showing you results. The proof is in the $$$. Here is a portfolio I created two years ago:
Here is another portfolio I started on January first of this year to have a little fun with Mr. Dividend Growth Investor:
**You may be asking me this now:
Wait, I thought you were an index investor? Why are you buying stocks and if you’re so good at it, why don’t you focus on them instead of index funds?
I buy individual stocks in very small quantities, mainly as a source of personal amusement. My competition with Mr. DGI is an example. Almost all money that goes into the markets goes to index funds.
If you’re willing to put the time in, beating markets in the short term (< 10 years) isn’t difficult. However, I find it very difficult knowing when to get out. My area of expertise is tech which gets disrupted faster than anything else. It’s not easy to predict when empires fall. With index funds, you don’t have to worry about any of this. As Mr. PP said, index funds mean more mental space.
Mr. PP, ha! That still cracks me up…
I hope you’re done with the projects and taking it easy now. Life is way too busy these days. Everyone is running around like a chicken with the head cut off. Anyway, it’s the last week of school here for us. I’m going to take it very slow this summer and just enjoy it. We’ll travel quite a bit. I’ll cut down posting frequency to once per week. Let’s enjoy summer again.
I’ve always wanted to be a “stock picker.” I’ve read the research and believe that my time is best spent elsewhere. Even if I could beat the market, in the long run, picking individual stocks, how much extra would it yield me vs. the time spent? Indexing is truly passive income. Spending hours a week pouring over financials is not passive. You can’t really compare them.
If you add the money you could have earned with the time you spent doing the stock research into the index fund portfolio, would you still be ahead? Time is not free.
Jason@WinningPersonalFinance recently posted…Roth vs. Traditional 401(k) – The Comprehensive Guide to Making the Right Choice
“Time is not free.” Yep. The older you get, the more expensive it gets too…
i’m a happy stock picker. i bought a service for 3 years (360 clams) for help in saving me time and leading me to ideas. they led me to nvda at 25 bucks and mtch around 15. those 2 alone have made the fee worthwhile so far. plus, it’s fun for me with all the mental space i have at the end of a day. you know how i feel about smartphones? it’s great to be bored sometimes, but you gotta design that into your life. if it gets tiresome you can always just start doing something.
freddy smidlap recently posted…Guest Post on FI Me Outa Here
Man, $NVDA has been a monster. Congrats on that one!
I’m better off for having picked stocks. I picked Google at IPO (20 bagger) and Tesla in the 20s (10 bagger plus). Still, I wonder when these empires will fall? NVIDIA is killing it now because of autonomous cars and crypto (I think), but what happens if Waymo and Tesla come up with their own silicon? It probably won’t happen, but not a day goes by where I don’t think about how my own holdings will be disrupted.
Nice looking planter boxes! Hope you get it all done! 🙂
Mr. Tako recently posted…May 2018 Dividend Income And Expenses
Thanks!
I’m convinced “doing nothing” is the hardest task on anyone’s “to do” list these days.
Go, go, go, go, do, do, do, go…collapse into an unhappy heap and wonder what is wrong…
“I’m convinced “doing nothing” is the hardest task on anyone’s “to do” list these days.”
Yep, sad.
All hail Mr. PP!
Mental Space: its really the key ingredient to a happy FIRE. All my still working consumerist sucka friends ask me pretty regularly, “but don’t you get bored?!?” Like its a bad thing…
Financial Velociraptor recently posted…Monday Trades
Bored! Ha!
Ha! Finally, I say something worth repeating on the internet! For real though-you gotta be careful what you fill you head up with. There are only so many hours in the day, and picking stocks involves getting hundreds of decisions “right.” Or you can make one decision (VSTAX) and allow your mind to work/think about/appreciate other things…like how awesome those planters are turning out =)
Mr PoP @ Planting Our Pennies recently posted…Clothes Shopping When You’re Frugal But Hate Thrift Stores
“For real though-you gotta be careful what you fill your head up with.”
Yep. Working on it…
Excellent article and great term: “mental space”! I agree that mental space is vital. I hate that feeling when I have 1,001 things going on, my mind is whirling but I can’t seem to focus on getting any of it done. For me, getting outside and taking a walk is a great way to recapture my space. Just walking and looking at stuff that I pass by – it’s incredible how refreshing this is, just to do not much (and surprisingly creative!!).
Too much computer work can suck sometimes. Building planter boxes looks like a lot of fun, and everyone needs to put a tool in their hand at some point and do some manual work. I’ve run out of mental space all the time, I think my brain is like a hard drive and it’s constantly full, if I put something new in there I have to delete some files!
What a great reminder! I’ve been feeling burnt out lately but I will admit that I spend much of my “downtime” scrolling through Reddit or social media. My excuse is that I feel too tired to do anything else.
I really should unplug during my downtime and maybe try meditating or at least spend some quite time reflecting on the day.
Owen @ PlanEasy.ca recently posted…The Biggest Financial Mistake I Ever Made
I agree that picking individual stocks can boost your overall returns and help with FIREarlier. Investing has been my hobby since childhood. I was the geek who read the business section and tracked my favorite stocks. It’s allowed me to have an extra large portfolio relative to my average earnings. At this point, I’m on track to be FIRE when the S&P 500 reaches 3,000. Hopefully in 2019.
Thanks for introducing me to Mr. PP. Is he related to Mr. Pooh?
YES! This 100%. I think this might be one of the biggest challenges for working folks (although clearly as you show it can still happen post-FI). You’re going 110% at work all day and come home mentally and physically exhausted. It makes it a big challenge to do meaningful things outside of work. It’s almost a snowball kind of system, work makes you too tired to do things you enjoy outside of work, but the less you do outside of work the easier it is to burn out at work.
I am often amazed at how good you’re ar picking individual stocks, There comes a point of diminishing returns even there as your net worth gets into “too big to fail” category. You are already there. At that point, you simply want to put them all in index fund or high quality dividend etf and then kick back and live off the growing dividends or a “too small to fail” SWR! You are there financially so I can understand the.clamoring for more.”mental space”. That’s a privilege of those who have no need to trade time for money or even efficiency. You must feel great for being at this level! If not for my fear of losing my mental acuity, I also wouldn’t be working full time in a demanding corporate job. My mental space definition will of course change after RE, even though I am FI since long.
Ten Factorial Rocks recently posted…What is the SAFEST Withdrawal Rate?
Biggest pet peeve of mine, phones while driving. It is sad to see that we can’t even drive without heavy distractions. Isn’t driving a distraction enough?! I almost consider it my zen place. A disconnect from screens and phones. “Mental Space”… I like that. I think we can all benefit from adding more of that BACK into our lives.