Macro Minute: Week of August 10, 2026

When I think of being an investor, I think about being wise with my time, talent, and money. I would argue that we are all investors, whether we are aware of it or not. Today I want to break down these different elements of investing and give personal experiences that have helped shape me into the investor/person that I am today.  

Time. This is the most precious resource anyone will ever have. It is the one thing that I can think of that when we are born, we have the largest amount we will ever have, and it just decreases from there. This is not a good/bad or happy/sad thought; it is just the reality of the situation. Most people do not think about time until a life event causes them too. I began pondering the weightiness of time as a teenager, when at 17, both my parents died. I started considering how short our time can be, and the importance of how we spend our time. How we spend our time matters. I encourage us all to wisely spend our time on things that matter to us and be cognizant of the myriads of distractions that vie our attention. As a student of markets, I must point out that the longer a person invests, the longer compounding has the ability to work in our favor. I believe that the longer compounding is allowed to work uninterrupted, the better the results will be. Sometimes when we think about investing, we do not consider time. It is important to respect this aspect of investing, because it may have the largest impact of all possible investing inputs. 

Talents. I think of two sets of talents, innate and acquired. We are all equipped to be naturally gifted at certain things. These innate talents can be used as investments in an organization, family, or team. On top of these innate talents, through hard work and development, talent is acquired. This can be from education, disciplined training, or in-depth study. Personally, I went to school, studied market history, and follow markets daily to acquire more talent as an investor in markets. I will end my thoughts on talents like this, how we develop and use our talents matter. We can add to and strengthen our talents over time. Just the same, our talents will atrophy without practice and use. Many times, we don’t realize that we can use our talents as an investment. In many ways, this is what we do in our jobs – we trade our talents for financial renumerations.  

Money. This is the realm most people think of when they think of investing. In thinking about money, I can’t help but think of the concept that Jared Dillion wrote about in his book No Worries. In it he introduces a concept that we choose how much money to make. He argues that if you are not making as much money as you would like, you can retool and change jobs to move up the pay scale. This is one of my favorite personal finance books for the average person. It gets the concept of money right. There are only a handful of important decisions to get right that help determine how much money a person will have. To name a few: who we marry, how much debt we incur and what we take it out on, savings, and portfolio construction. These are some of the most important decisions that will make a huge impact on our overall wealth.  

From a financial maximization standpoint, starting as soon as possible cannot be overstated. Allowing compounding to start early and last for as long as possible will make one of the biggest impacts. As an example, about 95% of Warren Buffet’s wealth happened after age 65. That’s just how compounding works. After a certain amount of wealth is accumulated, it snowballs. Avoid unnecessary debt. Debt is a wealth killer. You are paying the compound interest to someone else that you could be harvesting for yourself. Yes, some debt is almost unavoidable, just make sure it is necessary. Try to avoid taking unnecessary risks in your investment portfolio. The greatest way to do this is to have a diversified portfolio. It is not necessary to take it to extremes and overdiversify which can water down returns, but exposing too much to a risky investment can set you back unnecessarily. 

In summary, I try to be like the servant in Matthew 25. The one that the master was pleased with by generating a solid return on what he was given. I also try and live as Solomon instructs in Ecclesiastes. After he had tried to chase all the fancies of this world, he realized it was all vanity. He settled on the realization that there is nothing better than enjoying food and drink and enjoying one’s work. With those biblical wisdoms, let’s all find satisfaction and success in all our investments. 

DISCLOSURES:

Please remember that past performance may not be indicative of future results.  Different types of investments involve varying degrees of risk, and there can be no assurance that the future performance of any specific investment, investment strategy, or product (including the investments and/or investment strategies recommended or undertaken by Longview Financial Advisors, Inc. [“Longview Financial Advisors”]), or any non-investment related content, made reference to directly or indirectly in this blog will be profitable, equal any corresponding indicated historical performance level(s), be suitable for your portfolio or individual situation, or prove successful.  Due to various factors, including changing market conditions and/or applicable laws, the content may no longer be reflective of current opinions or positions.  Moreover, you should not assume that any discussion or information contained in this blog serves as the receipt of, or as a substitute for, personalized investment advice from Longview Financial Advisors. To the extent that a reader has any questions regarding the applicability of any specific issue discussed above to his/her individual situation, he/she is encouraged to consult with the professional advisor of his/her choosing. Longview Financial Advisors is neither a law firm nor a certified public accounting firm and no portion of the blog content should be construed as legal or accounting advice.