My dog's name is Maggie. She is a 4-year-old miniature(ish) weiner dog or dachshund. She’s at my side as I write this.
I've been walking her a lot more lately. My wife's laid up with a broken foot. So it's me and Maggie.
Maggie is a small dog, 14 lb on latest measure. That number seemed so absurdly small when it first flashed up on the weight scale. So disproportionate to Maggie's big personality. And by "personality" I mean "stubbornness."
Maggie came by her stubborn nature honestly. Dachshunds are stubborn dogs. Untrainable I've heard.
Anyway, Maggie takes me for a walk. Constantly tugging at the leash, dragging me on to neighbour's yards for a pee, and, when it's really cold out, making it clear that she'd rather be at home in front of the fire.
I can be stubborn myself. Particularly when Maggie is dragging me around. She tugs on the leash, and I tug back. She goes that way, and I go this way.
Walks with Maggie are a frustrating experience for me. Maggie wants to control the experience, but I'm used to being in control (or at least thinking I am). And I certainly don't want to relinquish control to a 1-stone, treat-obsessed "badger dog."
Lately, I've been trying to chill out a bit on our walks. To let Maggie take the wheel. To build up my equanimity muscles.
It's been great practice for dealing with bigger struggles in my life.
I use the mental image of Maggie pulling on the leash (and me pulling back) to remind myself of how much I push back on the reality of my life—and the suffering that this resistance causes me.
Instead of tugging back on the leash, I let her tug. I let myself get dragged around the park like this:
The NASDAQ, the stock exchange that most of the biggies (e.g., Apple, Microsoft, Nvidia) trade on, has had the same meandering journey over the past month:
Down almost 4% to start the month and 50% of days since with >1% changes from previous.
These fluctuations didn’t make me flinch. I barely paid attention. I certainly didn’t do anything drastic.
I remained equanimous despite the fact that NASDAQ-traded stocks make up around 20% of my total portfolio1.
I let my portfolio get dragged around just like it was out for a walk with Maggie. It was pulled this way and that, but I resisted the urge to tug on the leash (buy/sell/pull my hair out).
And it was so easy. Why?
Why is it so easy to sit back and let my portfolio rise and fall while it’s such a struggle to tolerate a little dog’s constant pulling on the leash?
I think it comes down to control. Or the illusion/delusion of control.
I’ve given up all notions that I’ll ever beat the stock market. The market is unfathomably complex, but I’m okay with that. I don’t try to out-smart it with fancy trading maneuvers (e.g., options, triple-leveraged ETFs, etc.). I just buy the entire market (e.g., VUN, VEQT) and ride its coattails to the “up and right.”
But Maggie.
Some part of me still clings to the idea that I’ll one day be able to control her. Out-weiner the weiner dog. Realistically, though, this will never happen. She’s unfathomably stubborn. And the sooner I truly accept this and let go of my desire to control her, the better.
The same goes for so many other sources of frustration in my life (and maybe yours): my son’s tantrums, getting stuck in traffic on the 401, investing fees, household appliances dying premature deaths…I could go on and on.
The Buddha taught that suffering comes from denying the truth of reality. Denying the reality that Maggie will always be the master. Denying that the ‘house always wins’ when it comes to investing (so just buy the house).
Accepting these realities doesn’t mean giving up or throwing in the towel. It means opening ourselves up to the possibility of a life with less suffering and frustration and so much more richness.
Anyway, I’m off. Maggie’s taking me for a walk. Good boy.
- The Buddh-i$h Investor
Take home points:
We suffer when we deny the reality of things and try to control things that are beyond our control.
Equanimity, being okay with whatever life throws at you, is the path of inner peace.
Practice equanimity with little frustrations in your life (e.g., Maggie) in order to bring it to the bigger frustrations (e.g., roof leaks).
If you’re looking for more:
This post was partly inspired by the brilliant “walking the dog” analogy from fund manager Ralph Wanger, as related by Ben Carlson
More Buddhist lessons from canine gurus: Taylor Plimpton’s delightful ‘Lessons from a (mostly) good dog’
And, because I can’t resist and I know you want to see it anyway, a photograph of the one and only Maggie:
US equities make up about 40% of the equity allocation of my portfolio. The total market cap of stocks traded on the NASDAQ (~$22-25 trillion) is about half of the total US stock market cap ($45-50 trillion). [Thanks, ChatGPT!]