My Mother Tried

Read Time / 2 Minutes

Theme / Wise Investing

“What’s that sound?” I thought to myself as I scampered home from grade school.  It was not unknown music, rather, it was music calling me home.  As I opened the front door of our house, I saw my mother sitting at her organ practicing for Sunday worship.  Perhaps it was her upright posture, perhaps it was the dramatic flair of her hands, but she always reminded me of nobility as she played.  She was a skilled organist, and bless her soul, she tried to impart her love of playing music to me and signed me up for music lessons. 

In first grade, I took piano lessons for a year and learned to play Mary had a Little Lamb.   In fifth grade, I took trombone lessons for a year and learned to play Mary had a Little Lamb.  In seventh grade, I took cello lessons for a year – and you guessed it – I learned to play Mary had a Little Lamb.  It became obvious to my mother that she did not have a musical prodigy for a son!

My mother, however, did not give up on me.  She realized that I had more athletic talent than musical talent, so one summer she signed us up to take tennis lessons together and it clicked!  I grabbed tennis by the horns and improved my skills and eventually played competitively in high school, college, and beyond. 

A revolving door of music lessons is a great strategy for a mother trying to help her child find success in the world, but we should not take the same approach with our investments.   We should not jump in and out of our investments based on the ebb and flow of our emotions as the market rises and falls.  Ecclesiastes 11:4 provides us guidance: “Whoever watches the wind will not plant; whoever looks at the clouds will not reap.”  A better strategy is buy-and-hold, focusing on constructing our portfolios to reach our long-term goals despite the emotions that come with market fluctuations.  

Once I figured out that tennis was an important piece of my talent “portfolio,” I did a “buy-and-hold” and practiced and played tennis for many years, bringing immense enjoyment and satisfaction.  In the end, my mother was pleased.

Doug Hanson, MBA

Wealth Advisor