Forefront’s Monday Market Update
Disney World and Engineered Serendipity
Well, the time has come ladies and gentlemen. The time that all parents inevitably face, a time of great sorrow for your wallet. It is time for me to take my children to Disney World.
I have been dreading this trip, because the cost is pretty exorbitant, and because of that, the need to cram as much value into our trip is overwhelming.
Luckily, I help an awful lot of families who are in the exact same position as I am, with young children, and going to Disney being a matter of when, not if. For those people, and myself, the key to getting as much value for the cost comes down to planning.
The Disney Spreadsheet
I am a believer in practicing what I preach. My own personal financial plans, and portfolios are the same plans and portfolios that I use for my clients. When my wife (Christina) and I decided that this was the year we would go to Disney, I hopped into the Financial Planning Library I offer to clients and started filling out my Disney Vacation Spreadsheet.
We made the decision that Disney would be a 2022 event in the summer of 2021, and I immediately used the spreadsheet to start to budget. I know from working with other families, just how stressful the cost of a vacation like Disney World can be, and I am running the same race as everyone else. Trying to build wealth, give my children the best life possible, enjoy the fruits of our labor, all while acting responsibly and balancing short tern needs and desires against long term needs and desires.
Engineered Serendipity
I remember growing up and people chalking things up to luck. Whether it was about the athletes in school who were the stars or about the smartest kids in class, everyone always felt like luck played some role in their success.
There is a man I follow on Twitter, his name is Sahil Bloom. He has a theory about what he calls engineered serendipity.
The premise of his theory is that what we call luck, is really the macro results of thousands of micro actions. Your daily habits and your routine and attention to detail of planning can put you in a position where luck is simply more likely to strike. You can engineer your own luck, but what does that have to do with Disney World?
It isn’t lost on me just how lucky my children are to be able to experience Disney World at all. It’s easy to think that Disney World, much like Prom, is a right of passage for children and that EVERYONE gets to experience it. That isn’t true at all, but I also know that a lot of it, isn’t luck.
Everyday, Christina and I, much like all of you, make good decisions, sacrifice, balance long term and short term, all while providing our families, children, and grandchildren the best life possible. We all make million of micro actions that lead to the ability to reap the rewards of Macro results.
Planning for Everything
As minor as a vacation to Disney World might seem, it’s something that causes an incredible amount of stress for families. The cost has become much more prohibitive over the years, and it’s something I recognized very early. Disney World This is why as a financial planner; I urge clients to contact me for absolutely anything that pertains to finances and money. Some feel like it is a blow to the ego having to get guidance on things like a vacation, but sewing up stitches is probably something any doctor in the world can do, the people who can’t do it are you and I because regardless of how easy it might be. It’s that easy for people who do it all the time, not the average person, and that is okay to admit.
Planning for everything is just another way of taking those micro actions that all lead to engineered serendipity and creating your own “luck.”
So What?
So how does this impact all of you?
- Planning helps you create your own “luck”
- Disney World is expensive!
Stock market calendar this week:
| TUESDAY, JAN. 18 | |
| 8:30 AM | Empire state manufacturing index |
| 10:00 AM | NAHB home builders index |
| WEDNESDAY, JAN. 19 | |
| 8:30 AM | Building permits (SAAR) |
| 8:30 AM | Housing starts (SAAR) |
| THURSDAY, JAN. 20 | |
| 8:30 AM | Initial jobless claims (regular state program) |
| 8:30 AM | Continuing jobless claims (regular state program) |
| 8:30 AM | Philadelphia Fed manufacturing survey |
| 10:00 AM | Existing home sales (SAAR) |
| FRIDAY, JAN. 21 | |
| 10:00 AM | Leading economic indicators |
Most anticipated earnings for this week:
