We need to talk about investment.

Conor said something a while back that struck home. He said that as individuals we can achieve more than we can possibly imagine, but we can’t achieve what we set out to do unless we clearly define at the outset what exactly that something is.

Some may think my worldview is depressing, but I don’t. I believe there is so much beauty in the world, and so much joy, if you care to find it. But I also believe that the world is indifferent to each of our fates as individuals. We are, tragically (but equally amazingly), carbon-based receptacles for our genes. As far as our knowledge goes, there is nothing particularly significant about genes. They are a random bunch of proteins, themselves a random bunch of atoms that gained self-replicating traction in the primordial Irish stew.

Without beating about the bush, what I wish to achieve in my life is this: I wish to value friends and family. I wish to find fun in everything I do. I wish to eat well. I wish to enjoy music. I wish to quest for truth, and reject falsity (knowing always that Truth is not a destination, but a direction). I wish to always enjoy respectful disagreements with friends (that’s the spice of life).

Them’s the ideals. But the flipside of the coin is realism. We are ants playing snakes and ladders on a board on a table on a joltery train. To achieve my ideals I need to keep one eye on reality. In the modern world we exchange money for goods and services. Therefore to achieve most of my goals, honestly, requires some amount of money. Maybe less than most of us would imagine, maybe not. But some. To live, in this dog-eat-dog world, you need some sort of sustenance. Money can buy this.

Without beating further about the bush, I can achieve my ideals (enunciated above), only with the support of some amount of money and real-world agitation. My real-world goals, buttressing the nebulous ideals, are to retire at fifty, with a portfolio of assets that yield an income that enables me to enjoy life as I understand this enjoyment. For the rest of my natural life.

To do so, we need to talk about investment.

How can I achieve this set of investments, and of what should it comprise?

I need to think about this!