Hygiene

I've talked about this aspect with quite many people and I think I originally heard about this concept from some more intelligent person, but... Wealth is actually a sanitary thing. An analogy would be taking showers. Taking a shower once a day is good. Taking a shower once a week is bad. Taking a shower once a month is even worse. But taking a shower three times a day doesn't really bring any benefits over once a day -- unless you're an athlete or just get sweaty more easily than normal people. But you get the point. Apparently wealth is similar. If you have enough money to live a decent life, that's fine. If you have too little, then it's a shitty position. But if you have an enormous amount of wealth, it doesn't really matter anymore. In Finland I heard that 10-15 million euros is the amount at which you don't really perceive significant improvements in your life if you, say, double your wealth. You're already living in Westend and driving a nice car.

So, why write about wealth? Well, it seems that the bull market is finally coming to an end. So, for the first time in four or five years (to be a bit provocative), people have actually been able to lose money in the markets. The shock, the horror. So in a situation like this, I guess many people are starting to ponder the question as to how much money do you need to live a decent life. Should you close and liquidate your positions? Or can you bear the sudden increase in volatility and thus the increase in risk that has appeared recently? Maybe tighten your belt a bit?

In fact, living a student life in Finland (i.e. no real obligations in the form of loans, family/children, etc.) is quite cheap and easy. Tuition fees are zero and you have to pay less than 100 euros a year to be able to study. Maybe something for the books. Cut back on bar hopping and shopping and traveling and in fact you can get by with a couple of hundred euros a month (on top of the rent). Of course it's not necessarily very fun, but then again, at a point like this you're laying the foundations for your future. Still need to tackle the question as to what to do with the portfolio, though.