My Key Learnings from a Massive Week
Today, the aim is to not write about any one topic, but to reflect on the week that started with helping mum decide to take the step that she needs to take for a more certain and stress free life, and ended with going to see Dr. Jordan B. Peterson live at Rod Laver Arena.
First let’s go through what the week looked like…
Monday
Work from home
Gym
Help Mum with selling her home
Tuesday
Travel to Office in city and Work
Travel to Sydney- hotel
Wednesday
Financial Planning Association Congress 2022 (All day/night)
Thursday
Travel to Melbourne - Home
Wedding
Friday
Exams
Christmas shopping (night)
Saturday
All morning spent on budget for Mum
Dr. Jordan B. Peterson at Rod Laver Arena
Sunday
Walk Dog and Market
Clearing out Mum’s house to get ready for putting house on the market
Overall, the week was hectic, full of moving from one point to the next and full of huge learnings. However, even though it was super busy and was made up of less sleep than usual due to early mornings and later nights, I am very grateful to have been able to meet so many new people.
All who are travelling along a similar journey to my own as I study Financial Planning and take the first step into the profession. The presenters at the congress and also listening to Dr. Peterson was truly a pivotal moment of the year, taking a lot of key lessons that I wish to share with you today.
Key Learnings from Congress and Dr. Peterson
Longevity- Our generation are more likely to reach 100 years old than any other generation before us. Longevity and an ageing population is going to create a whole range of different problems, which will need a range of new solutions. Creating massive opportunities to helping more people with their life, health and wealth, especially as they age.
Markets move in cycles, but don’t try to time- The share market, which is the greatest builder of wealth across all the different asset classes, simply moves in a cyclical manner. Main learning is that you cannot predict the cycles of the share market or the economy, and history shows us that this will continue for as long as there is a share market and economy.
Understanding that all Managed Funds/ETF’s will aim to beat/follow the market, but you need to watch out for the trend followers- Majority of Asset and fund managers will not beat the market, most of which will try to get you to invest with them. Therefore, you need to be able to discern between the fund managers that could truly see your wealth grow and those who may see your wealth fall behind the market. One of the presenters detailed how you can see what managers and funds may in fact be charlatans who just want your money. The best way to tell the difference is to research previous performance and whether they have beaten the market consistently over many years (10-20 years). However, the other way to do this is to also be careful around funds that may in fact be trend followers, such as Managed Funds or Exchange Traded Funds (ETF’s) that may try to create a product that simply is created due to a trend, such as Cryptocurrencies or “green metals.”
Truly learnt that Financial Planning is the profession for me- Through talking to so many emerging professionals like myself, we are all very similar and like-minded, even though we live all across Australia and come from all walks of life.
You can only truly be Grateful if you KNOW SUFFERING!- Dr. Jordan Peterson presented to Rod Laver Arena on Saturday night and lectured on the last rule of his new book, which specifically talks to being grateful in the face of suffering and to resentment. One thing that really hit home was that being grateful is much more than the airy fairy gratitude that we think about, such as just thinking we are grateful for the birds tweeting or the sun shining. But, for you to feel true gratitude, to truly feel happy and be content, you need to know suffering, because the world can be truly cruel. If there is one thing that you get from this blog, is that you need to know that the world and the history of humanity is truly cruel and full of suffering. You can use this knowledge and understanding of other people’s lives to create true gratitude, where you can be truly grateful for the life you have, the family around you.
Reflection is key, key to being able to be more self-aware and for personal growth- Sometimes having extra time to talk philosophy and about society as a whole, such as the time my brother and I had travelling via train to Dr. Peterson’s lecture, presents with some learnings as well. Just the back and forth with my brother led to a realisation that reflection through journaling or talking it out is imperative to deeper understanding. Which leads to more personal growth and being more aware of your own behaviours.
The future is scary, and yet super exciting at the same time- When you think about the prospect of what the future entails, you can think as extreme as a scenario where we are stuck in virtual reality, living out the life we truly desire and there is no more suffering in the world, but also no more purpose… Or you can think as simply as improving people’s lives through combining advanced technology with human connection, such as A.I creating better medicines to eradicate diseases or creating more efficiencies in industries that can improve services significantly, decreasing cost of living.
Overall, there has been a heap of learnings and take-aways, more than I could pack into this blog, however the above are the main golden nuggets that I wanted to share with you. Truly, I am excited to see what the future holds, all you need to do is have hope and forge your path your own path by Taking Back Control,
Until next Time.
