Healthy Investing
Read Time / 2 Minutes
Theme / Wisdom
The older I get, the more my body seems to complain when I don’t give it a variety of physical activity. Throughout my life, I’ve tended to stress one physical activity at a time, going through stages of interest.
In grade school, it was basketball, shooting baskets endlessly in our driveway. In middle school and high school, it was tennis, hitting the courts whenever I could. In college it was skiing, heading to the slopes often. In graduate school, it was long-distance running, training for 10Ks, half-marathons and marathons. After graduate school it was triathlons, spending hours in pools and lakes swimming. Then it was hiking, taking in God’s creation in boots and a backpack. Later in life it was road-bike riding, training enough to enjoy long one-week bike rides. Lately it has become pickleball, trying to adapt my tennis skills to a new sport.
But my body has been screaming lately. It doesn’t like playing only pickleball. There is too much stress and repetitive movements on parts of my body but not others. Now I’m learning the importance of cross-training – including hiking, biking, weights, and stretching – in addition to pickleball. In the investment world, we call that diversification.
In Ecclesiastes 11:2, we read “Divide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what misfortune may occur on the earth.” Just as incorporating a variety of activities is good for your physical health, incorporating a variety of investments is good for your financial health. Diversification means investing in a variety of funds with different focuses: large companies, mid-size companies, small companies, international companies, government bonds, corporate bonds, and even some specialized funds (technology, healthcare, etc.). The mix may change over time as our goals, timeframes, and risk tolerances change, but diversification is always a good cross-trainer.
What are your favorite physical activities? I hope you have several activities incorporated into your exercise routine. And I hope you have a diversified investment portfolio to go along with it. Stay healthy physically and financially!
Doug Hanson, MBA
Wealth Advisor
208.697.3699
doug@christianwm.com