Death is on my mind today. Actually, it is often something that I think about--something that I aspire to think about more.
You might be thinking: "Wow, that is so morbid."
Or you might not be. Maybe you see how life-affirming it can be to think about death.
Life is short and finite. There's no getting around this. We will all get old, sick and die--even those multi-gazillionaires who are trying to cheat death.
This is something we all know. With death and sickness happening all around us it is impossible not to know. But knowing and believing aren't necessarily the same thing. We can know something to be an objective truth, but still believe that we are still somehow immune to it. I think this is partly a cultural thing. Western culture has a tendency to sweep death under the rug.
The Buddha was having none of this though. He wanted to make sure that we would never forget about the inevitability of death and disease. Not exactly rub it in our face, but at least gently powder the tip of our nose with it.
He summarized the morbidly obvious truths of life into what we now refer to as the 'Five Remembrances'1:
- I am of the nature to grow old. I cannot escape old age.
- I am of the nature to grow ill. I cannot escape sickness.
- I am of the nature to die. I cannot escape death.
- I will be separated from everything and everyone I hold dear.
- My only true possession is my actions.
Reading through this list never fails to send a shiver down my spine. That's the whole point of it: to wake up us from the daze of everyday life to the reality of death.
It's terribly morbid, but also life-affirming. What better way to not take all you hold dear (your family, friends, pets, possessions, time, love, etc.) for granted?
Every time I think about the remembrances, I hug my son a little tighter, savor that morning coffee a little more, enjoy talking to my mother more, etc.
Try it. Make a point to think about death and see how it impacts your view on life. If you need some help with this, I direct you to the two death-reminder apps linked below.
Anyway, that's a lot of talk about death, so where is the investing tie-in?
There are so many. I will return to the topics of death and infirmity many, many times over the lifetime of this Substack--so be forewarned!--and still not even scratch the surface.
I think the truths of the 5 Remembrances should form the basis of every investment plan. It should be mandatory learning for all financial advisors.
So I'm going to put this out there:
The 5 Remembrances of Investing/Personal Finance:
- I am subject to aging (so I better reassess my risk tolerance and asset allocation as time goes by)
- I am subject to ill health (so I should make sure that I have an emergency fund and contingency plan in case I can't manage my investments anymore)
- I am going to die (so I should do some estate planning and make preparations for what happens to my portfolio once I do die)
- Everyone and everything that I love will change, and I will be separated from them (so best not to get too attached and to enjoy my wealth and loved ones while I can--don't hoard)
- My only true possessions are my actions, and I cannot escape their consequences (so when I make that trade it should be with the knowledge that there will be inevitable consequences--maybe good, maybe bad--down the road. Nothing occurs in a vacuum. This kind of gets at the idea of "karma")
Think about death a lot to live and invest better.
Take care.
- The Buddh-i$h Investor
As promised, two life-affirming death-reminder apps:
*Buddhism has a delightful tendency to come up with numbered lists for everything: 3 Marks of Existence, 3 Refuges, 4 Noble Truths, 5 Aggregates, 5 Hindrances, 8-Fold Path, and so on.