Why Would You Retire From Doing Something You Love?

Blogger Nomadic Samuel interviewed Eric Crittenden from Standpoint Asset Management and manager of the Standpoint Multi Asset Fund (BLNDX/REMIX) which is a personal and client holding. Two snippets really stood out. "To this day I’m still surprised to find that successful firms generally do 1 to 3 relatively simple things well, while unsuccessful firms often fail because of some unexpected fragility in their complex processes. I’m convinced that simple (not necessarily easy) is a better foundation than complex." And because he moved a lot as a kid in a military family "I was taught three different versions of the causes of the American Civil War, that couldn’t all be objectively true."

We've been talking about simplicity here for ages. Simplicity in my life, where possible, is a huge priority for me. The second point fascinates me.

Speaking of simplicity, there's this from CalPERS;

 

It seems like these guys are moving their goal posts in terms of asset allocation every couple of years, they're going heavier into private equity and VC then they're dialing it back, now increasing again. Meb Faber has said more than a couple of times he'd manage it for free and just buy them a few ETFs. 

Endowments like Yale and Harvard seem to have great success in these parts of the market but CalPERS doesn't. Large pools of capital like this have what amounts to infinite time horizons so long duration assets like private equity and venture capital can be appropriate but the on again, off again is a behavioral flaw in the process. Maybe they're too smart for their own good or maybe it's something else but they are repeatedly punching themselves in the face.

Dr. Leif Dahleen wrote about the risks of not retiring early which is an interesting pivot. He included a bit about health and exercise. He's 45 and talked about his running and the extent to which that has gotten harder on his body. He's 45 and sounds like he's pretty beaten up. Obviously any exercise is better than none but running pounds the body and does nothing for building/maintaining muscle mass. Years of running will certainly maintain cardio vascular health but again, won't really help maintain muscle mass which ultimately creates a tailwind to becoming frail. Weightlifting with the right intensity will build muscle and also provide cardio benefits. 

I just passed my pack test for the 2023 wildfire season. This is the annual requirement of hiking three miles with a 45 pound pack in 45 minutes or less. While I think someone who is in their 50's should be able to do this, I don't think too many could do it without staying in at least decent shape. I work out very frequently, mostly lifting weights and jumping rope, haven't done traditional cardio in years and am still a no-doubter for the pack test, a very cardio-centric test. Point is, you can get what you need cardio-wise from weightlifting with the right intensity. All right intensity means is using enough weight that forces you to do the reps slowly and very little rest in between sets.

Here's a great read about retirement. We talk a lot about these ideas, read the article though. Actively volunteering addresses a lot of the problems that the author cites.  

And a related excerpt from a different article.