Thisweekend, I was at the silver jubilee celebration of our engineering undergraduate passing out year. In the quarter century of time, each have led digressed lives, successfully overcoming their own travails. While some were in touch through the years, many have met after this long time. As I chose a different trajectory, I remained the only ‘odd man’ there. My career option both presented curiosity and awe in almost equal quantum.
In between the fun, laughter and embraces so much wisdom and so many learnings were shared. Listening to each of their life stories itself felt like living different lives in this one life. As usual, the regular question that I’m bumped at any social gathering played out here too – What is the percentage of returns generated at various intervals? While it could be a natural question, the answer isn’t simple and to make others understand is beyond difficulty.
Despite my explanation that generalizations and averaging wouldn’t do the justice, most just were only expecting a number. While my journey of financial freedom amazed most, not all were convinced with my ‘enough’ concept. Some of them even read my earlier article,written over a year, on importance of knowing ones ‘enough’. My belief in wealth providing optionality versus showcasing it to the world didn’t strike an equal chord with many of my former classmates. This brings to my most loved quote by Jonathan Clement from his final book, ‘money and me’ – It’s called personal finance for a reason.
After spending more than three decades as one of the world’s most respected financial journalists, Clement has written extensively about investing, retirement, taxes and financial planning. Yet confronted with terminal illness, his perspective shifted. The questions that mattered were no longer about beating the markets or maximizing returns but turned more human: What makes a good life? What is wealth really for? When is enough truly enough?
Personally too, I believe wealth creation shouldn’t be approached with targets or numbers in mind, but what it could serve in ways more than the physical experiences or pleasures that money buys. That doesn’t mean one should avoid planning for various goals but how should one project and approach the wealth accumulation that address the conventional. This is exactly what the book addresses about. Written after he was diagnosed with a terminal cancer, it’s not another ‘how to get rich’ book but focuses on reflection of how money should serve a meaningful life. It combines decades of investment with personal lessons about mortality, family, happiness and financial independence. To state simply in a sentence about the book – Money is not the goal. Financial freedom is simply about your life according to your values.
Perhaps the most moving insights from Clement’s reflections, after the illness diagnosis, weren’t about the most extravagant vacations or luxuries purchased but the ordinary experiences of life like that of morning coffee, conversations with the loved ones, writing, walking, family dinners, reading, and time spent in leisure. Ironically, these experiences require relatively little money yet generate enormous happiness. Of course, money can create these conditions, but it can’t substitute for them.
Another interesting insight from the book is the application of compound interest beyond money. While investors understand the power of compounding, he extends this concept beyond finance and applies to relationships. Acts of generosity deepens friendship and time invested in family strengthens bonds. Small daily interactions accumulate into lasting trust. Unlike financial assets, these investments often appreciate throughout our life. Yes, at the end of the life, relationships not portfolios, become our greater source of wealth.
Perhaps the deepest lesson of the book, is realization of ‘time’ as the ultimate scarcity. This resounds with my thinking of time as luxury. While often many people equate successful life is toaccumulating wealth or earning more money, it is about living a contended and eloquent life. Also, one must always remember that the ultimate purpose of wealth isn’t accumulation but in living well.
While the book’s core investing philosophy of saving aggressively, invest simply, ignore forecasts, stay invested, spend intentionally, protect family, and enjoy life today overlap many other earlier greats like John Bogle, William Bernstein and Morgan Housel already preached, it scores difference in reminding us to align money with a meaningful life. Clement, writing it while confronting his own mortality, provides the book with an unusual perspective: financial advice is constantly weighed against questions of the purpose, relationships, and how to actually spend our limited time.
The author is a partner with “Wealocity Analytics”, a SEBI registered Research Analyst and could be reached at [email protected]
