Like childhood, this fall will pass
NO wrestling in the kitchen!” I yelled. e If I’d told them once, I’d to told them a thousand times.
My eldest son grabbed his yo younger brother around the wa waist, lifted him up, and at attempted to do a signature ‘St ‘Stone Cold SteveAustin’ po power move.
The problem was his little br bro had obviously been bu bulking up on his Weeties, and un under the weight they swayed on one way, and then the other, and then …
It was all too much, so he let go and his little bro’s face smashed straight into the corner of the dishwasher.
In the fake world of wrestling, it was a total knockout. Yet there was nothing fake about the scene I was confronted with. There was blood absolutely everywhere, literally soaking his white shirt red.
“Kiss it better!” “Kiss it better!” he wailed, as his little lip flapped in the air.
I stood there for a few seconds in shock, staring at the gruesome scene. And, just as I was about to save the day, Liz rushed in, simultaneously screaming, scooping him into her arms, and scolding me for letting it happen (mums sure can multitask).
We rushed him to the hospital, and when he came out to the waiting room he looked like one of those girls who’s had a bad lip-filler job. Kinda pouty.
Well, this week the stock market got a smack in the gob … and there was apparently a lot of blood spilt too: “$1.5 trillion wipeout: Global markets plunge as virus panic grips investors”, screamed one headline. Crikey.
Of course another way you could write that headline is: “Share prices fall back to levels not seen in … 57 days.”
Look, I don’t want to make light of the current health crisis, and first and foremost that is exactly what this is.
Yet will investors still be talking about this in 10 years time?
Highly unlikely.
Here’s the truth: short-term uncertainty is the price you pay for higher long-term returns. When you look back at the past 30 years of the stock market on a chart, it’s a beautiful picture: A $10,000 investment into Aussie shares in 1990 would be worth $136,000 today – an annual return of 9.1 per cent.
And that’s why this week I was taking advantage of the pouty prices, and buying up stocks. Because the truth is, investing is a little like parenting - one day you’ll look at a photo of you and your kids from 30 years ago and you’ll smile and you’ll have forgotten about all the fighting, the sleepless nights and the wrestle-mania moves gone wrong. These are the good old days. Tread Your Own Path!