Doing the Work

Personally, I don’t like the idea of investment as an abstract thing. Simplifying “Asset Classes” and treating them with characteristics that are assumed to be essential. Instead of asking what a Company needs money for, or what a Government is going to do with the money, Corporate and Government Bonds simply become a habit. Blind lending. People try guess “Risk On” and “Risk Off” to swap between being Business Owners and Holding Cash as a risk management tool. I have never met someone who has a long-term record of return outperformance through that sort of timing. I know lots of people who have suffered by panic selling, then buying after prices rise, then selling again when they fall. If you think of investments as real jobs, you see the silliness. Imagine quitting your job and then waiting till things settle till you return. Or imagine turning up each day and doing the work. It’s the work that gets done that determines the long-term return. Real assets doing real things.

Women Digging Potatoes

Van Gogh, 1885