Thursday, May 25, 2023

Finding Oneself in Torah: Enough Insatiable?

 

Finding Oneself in Torah #5 Enough Insatiable?

 

If one has a 100, he wants to convert it into 200;

If 200, he wants to convert it into 400

Midrash Rabbah, Ecclesiastes 1:13

 

And yet…

 

Mine is the silver;

Mine is the gold

Ethics of the Fathers 6:9

 

Shaddai means in Hebrew:

God, God Almighty, God All Sufficient, Enough

ENOUGH (sm) Jewish Personal Financial Planning: aligning meaning with means - the soul of the matter, spiritualizing the material materializing the spiritual to count…healing & managing personal financial anxiety, puttin’ money in its place to transcend elevate connect and align to one’s assignment/significance -what one is meant to do, meant to be -enough to live on,  Enough to live for --the soul of the matter ©

 

Otherwise, where is there ‘more’?

In the World to Come (Olam Haba --- The Hidden That Awaits?)

 The currency of exchange (shalom) there: authentic character

 CHEWish On This©:

When You Are ‘STUFFED’

 

Friday, September 16, 2022

MA (MOREons Anonymous)

 

MA (MOREons Anonymous) ©jim schwartz

The 12 Understandings, Recognitions, Acknowledgments & Affirmations


 

Hi. I’m ______________, I’m A MOREon.

(Audience response, Hi ______________, MOREon

1.      I admit we I am dominated & powerless over MORE in my life

2.      I have sought Im-MORE-ality thru More

3.      I now recognize More, Better, Now!! (damn it) becomes Less, Worse Later and that’s the LESS-on

4.      MORE derives from my feeling of not enough - and therefore I’m LACK-tose intolerance

5.      I acknowledge that perceived LACK is the present, More is the future, as Now is not enough for myself as a MOREon

6.      I know now that MORE is an extra material affair

7.      I recognize MORE is the ideology of a cancer cell as Edward Abbey said.

8.      I realize that MORE, MORE, MORE leads to MORE Musterbation

9.      I have come to understand  e.e. cummings rhetorical question, ‘More, More, More, what are we all morticians?’ that  often leads to the MORE-tuary prematurely

10.   Without question I accept that More, More, More is Sisyphusian

11.   I admit More, More, More for more’s sake is an a-MORE-al (not a moral inventory for valuation of myself).

12.  I seek a MORE-atorium from MORE, to recognize ‘good’ enough materially and acknowledge Shaddai in Hebrew ‘Enough’ as The Enough!

Thus, In Shaddai not More, I trust

Baker’s Dozen + 1 ---Note for Personal Financial Planners

13.- I recognize that personal financial planners’ compensation based on a  percentage of assets under management is counter to, anathema to abhorrent to Enough and just enabling MOREonic behavior

14 - Personal financial planners manage goals - MOREon financial advisors disguised as personal financial planners manage assets -  for MORE too often at the expense of goals (enough!) especially of they are compensated on the basis of a % of assets under management

Thursday, September 15, 2022

"Good" Enough

 

‘Good’ Enough

 

Stipulating:

 

On the first 5 days of creation, Hashem graded each day as ‘good,’ on the 6th day, He rated that day ‘very good,’ and on the 7th day God rested (no rating on that day).

 

Relative to my father’s place of birth (Girard Ave ((aka “Stinkard Ave”)) area in Philly) in reference to my mom’s hometown of Indiana, Pa sarcastically, Dad would say to Mom: “what do you want from a balagola  from Stinkard Ave, I’m not from the the best, the finest The Garden Spot of The World, Indiana Pa.”

 

          Working with very successful clients (no sarcasm intended) who were typically ‘the best, the finest” in their businesses in my then ENOUGH(sm) fee only personal financial planning practice, there was often problem usually realized but diverted, delayed, put on hold: ‘what next’ after their business, practice, ball playing days.

          In going through the ENOUGH(sm) aligning meaning with means process - the inevitable question became transitioning to ‘what next’ when the time comes. And rather ‘I’m gonna die with my boots on’ or  just going ‘cold turkey’ from one day to next, to that end, we examined their ‘some day things.’ (see The Soul Resume - After Life Insurance: Remember Me in the forthcoming Judaism On Purpose™ Homecoming Edition)

          One of the problems of ‘what next - and making a difference’ for  - those very successful ‘the best, the finest’ stars is their next endeavor as these type A+ overachievers  want to be stars in their next  episode…… in 20 minutes (forgetting the 20+ years it may have taken them to be the success they are in their current vocation.)

          Therefore, they needed ‘permission to not be good’ at their ‘what next, someday thing, episode giving them leeway without having to be ‘the best, the brightest the finest’ so they could ‘test it out.’ (Note in Hebrew the word for ‘test’ nes is the same word for ‘test.’ And for some to test - when not the best, and finest already - was sometimes ‘a miracle.’)

          The client (especially those ‘50’s +) with some reservations initially agreed to each week on the same day the same afternoon to try out - learn about - their someday thing, what next, their next episode - ‘with - again - permission to not having to be good at it.’ There was no - ‘I’ll do it once a week, when I have time’ or what I called ‘left over time.’

          More -so than not - this permission approach worked - however, in one case where it did not work I got a call from a spouse, ‘he needs to go back to work. He’s driving me nuts. He even put my spices in alphabetical order.’

 

‘It’s such a relief not to have to be good,’

said a confessed horrible surfer of 20 years

Wall Street Journal, ‘Failure Is An Option In Some Cases’ 09/12/22

 

          We’re never enough is the messages that bombard us hourly, daily, monthly year after year. And so, what’s enough? More or as JP Morgan once defined enough ‘just a little more.’

          Advertising be it on TV, web, billboard etc indicate we are deficient - not enough - but that can be remedied if we just bought this one product (i.e. Clearasil™ or service (i.e. Botox or ER solutions).

          And so imbedded, reinforced, acculturated & bombarding is a sense of inadequacy - not enoughness.

          Ironically, it is spiritually (otherwise, why are we here?)- where we are ‘not enough’ as only, God is ENOUGH - ‘The ENOUGH.’ And one of God’s names in Hebrew is Shaddai meaning ‘God almighty, God all sufficient, Enough.)

          Thus, while wee cannot be ENOUGH as only God is Shaddai-  but we can be ‘good enough’ continuing to complete the incompletions of our soul spiritualizing the material materializing the spiritual in this life.

 

Connect both worlds - the spiritual and the material

Reb Simcha Bunim 1765-1827

 

The Almighty has let His work unfinished so that man can continue it, striving toward completion; in doing so, man becomes a partner with the Almighty in the Divine task of creation….

So, too, man is not created complete

Ethics From Sinai, by Rabbi Irving M. Bunim, 1963, p121

(on Perek II, Mishnah 1)

 

          Yet, our perceived deficiency, defectiveness, inadequacy & lack (rather than assignment to continue to complete the incompletions of our soul) seeks more at the expense of good enough. (If anything, the concept of ‘enough’ has become association with settling and being ‘resigned to.’ Worse in accepting enough, we are merely adequate - mediocre - average (such that one could not even inhabit or be welcomed in Lake Wobegon "where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.”)

 

Identifying his body as himself - and fearing its extinction, man’s primary strategy for ‘im-MORE-tality is acquisition (which in Hebrew is Cain as in Cain and Able). The main derivative tributary of Acquisition: - more, more, more - and thus there is never enough let alone ‘good enough.’

          And so there is driven LACKose intolerance force (seeking im-MORE-tality) via acquisition & it’s more, more, more overwhelming & dismissing ‘good enough.’

 

Man has a will to meaning

Viktor Frankel

 

          Even when there is ‘the someday thing,’ the ‘what next,’ or better yet ‘meaning’ (as presented often as ‘making a difference’) - the someday thing, the what next, and or meaning are typically confronted by one’s inner harsh self inflicted grader imploring ‘be effective, Now!’ causing  not of not enoughness.

          The lack of effectiveness (up to one’s standards - immediately) or even if effective condemning oneself for not being efficient - causing a recycling to more because one is insufficient.

 

Wheat must be ground and mustard must be seasoned

 

          The first five days of creation weren’t finished - Hashem’s creation was good for man to continue to complete. In the same manner Good Enough isn’t complete - but rather subject to developing & refining - to continue to complete & to accept Good Enough rather than be on the never ending MOREon hamster treadmill of ‘more, more, more’ which is never enough without parole from one’s internal Warden.

         

          Again, after each of the first five days of creation, Hashem’s assessment was ‘it was good.’ And the sixth day was judged to be ‘very good.’ But none of the 6 days were considered finished let alone graded a A or A+ though Hashem’s creation was completed.  Man’s work, INside out and Outside IN, is, in junior partnership to develop and enhance Hashem’s creation via fabricating, assembling and transforming- not for more, more, more - but ‘good enough’ for Shaddai - ‘The’ ENOUGH.

 

CHEWish On This©

‘Good Enough’

Monday, July 4, 2022

Aligning Meaning With Means II - Specifications

 

Aligning Meaning with Means:  Means Specificiations

 

I.- INside Out Orientation vs Outside In Heuristic

·         Aligning Meaning with Means vs Aligning Means with Meaning

·         Enough vs More

·         Fear: Outliving Money

·         Adaptability & Resourcefulness on the Balance Sheet

 

II.- Give I - Retrofitting Each Prioritized Goal - Living, Contingent, &

      Upon Passing (Graduating)

  1. Meeting cash requirements (gottas not oughtas or shoulds) fundamental present daily living needs rather than wants - for preferably a 18 month period (the average time of a bear market so one doesn’t get the yipes)

 2 -After #1 Aligning meaning with means rather than means with meaning in priority

  1. after #1 &#2 the prioritized goals, goal parameters (ground rules) and risk capacity (% or amount of downside willing to take)
  1. goal specification (living)

-         amount,

-         duration

-         assumed

1.     after tax return, start finish),  

2.     risk capacity (% probability, % probability adjustment),

3.     guard rail criteria - Jonathan Guyton

§         initial 5%

§         adjust annually for inflation

§         prosperity rule - when withdrawals are 4% of less of accumulation increase 10%

§         capital preservation rule - when withdrawals of accumulation are 6% take a 10% cut in withdrawal

                4   attainment/adjustment: at levels + or - (funded or unfunded

§         of liquid income producing,

§         liquid non income producing,

§         illiquid income producing, illiquid

 

-         ((note for income adequacy for spouse, income replacement upon disability - contingency assets (((insurance))) are added).

-         CONSEQUENCE OF DOING NOTHING

  1. Investment Policy -

·         for asset accumulation goals i.e. education, financial independence ((via passive assets prior to retirement),

·         retirement (through go go, slow go, and no go years) -

o       again subject to an 18 month period of cash living expenses (the average time of a bear market so one doesn’t get the yipes)

          o       Longevity Assumption

                                                             i.      Puttin’ It In vs Taking It Out

                                                           ii.      Safety versus Returns relative to what is necessary for the goals

  1. goal specification contingent events

         Income Replacement due to Disability

    • Capital replacement due to capital impairment
    • Income Adequacy for Heirs (spouse)

1.     Longevity Assumption

    • Asset Conservation upon Passing Graduation

                                                             i.      Liquidity

                                                           ii.      Asset Disposition According to Desires & Criteria

1.     giving to who you want, when you want, how you want and based to your criteria (including provision for your companion animals)

2.     If  Then - earn out/merit - contingencies

                                                        iii.      Legacy

1.     To whom, for what only, earned on the basis of, with clawbacks for non performance

Tuesday, June 14, 2022

 

The Soul of the Matter:

Aligning Meaning with Means vs Aligning Means with Meaning

 Perceived Lack is the present:

More is the future

And now is never Enough©

Stipulating

    • Yes, when there is no means survival is meaning, the meaning is where do I get lunch and dinner
    • Maslow’s hierarchy indicates one first has to meet their material survival needs
    • The fear of outliving one’s money (means) supersedes meaning for most if not all
    • Mitch Anthony coined the phrase in financial planning ‘aligning means with meaning.’
    • ENOUGH(sm) Jewish Personal Financial Planning in contrast is: aligning meaning with means to and toward Shaddai (in Hebrew ‘God, God Almighty, God All Sufficient, Enough) via healing personal financial anxiety, putting money in its place to transcend, elevate, connect and align to one’s assignment and significance - what one was meant to do, meant to be - enough to live for, enough to live on - the soul of the matter to spiritualize the material and materialize the spiritual.(c)

 Given the aforementioned, per the late comedian Sam Levinson, ‘I finally got the means to the end - and they moved the ends apart.’

As a consequence of perceived lack, its primary derivative acquisition and secondary by product is the relentless seeking of more, more, more, and thus it is not unusual to hear  to hear the ‘then I’ll’s’ after ‘when I get mine.’ The “then I’ll’s” -have a habit of the ends (the goal posts) keep moving apart in the ‘aligning means with meaning’ construct - though well intended.

Aligning means with meaning inherently is susceptible to solve perceived lack number 1 and perceived lack #2 is promoted. Furthermore, without meaning as the priority, there seems to always be a new risk that is promoted - especially the high high serious potential problem that is low low low risk

Stipulating the following is an extreme example - a very wealthy individual (having more than enough as defined, diversified etc) created a place in Australia that would be self sufficient with crops, water etc etc. After 20 years the place was finished - self sufficient - with its own crop - only for parrots to wipe out the crops. To paraphrase a Talmudic saying, ‘man plans, God laughs’ and parrots are peckers.

Aligning means with meaning - where means has priority and the  inclination of becoming the end itself - rationalized by I’ll get mine and ‘then I’ll’ - a Sisyphusian continued never ending quest of if only, if only, if only…

There is always something - and yet we give ourselves - no credit for our adaptability and resourcefulness that from God given capacities we developed into capabilities that yield the assets in our care. Thus, we give our trust to money more than ourselves let alone God who gave us the capacities to yield the currency. (Note & proof: while goodwill is given asset value on a corporate balance sheet - human capital in terms of adaptability and resourcefulness is not credited whatsoever!)

 When one knows the why (meaning IN one’s life INside out) the how becomes less stifling and overwhelming perceived I can’ts. Aligning meaning with means climbs the mountain; aligning means with meaning mining the mountain

In the ENOUGH(sm) Jewish Personal Financial Planning process of  aligning meaning with means - meaning is established first then  ‘means testing’: determining the viability & feasibility of means to support meaning assuming the required personal financial goals are on track or met.

        Thus, in the ENOUGH(sm) Jewish Personal Financial Planning process of aligning meaning with means is means testing for meaning - rather than means for meaning supporting ‘then I’lls’ only after ‘I get mine.’ Note: isn’t it interesting the spelling of the ‘I’lls’ in “then I’IIs” corresponds to ill.

this land is mind, you are but wayfarers/sojourners 

Leviticus

 ENOUGH(sm) Jewish Personal Financial Planning Besides assumes wanting what we have in our possession not that we don’ t own but rather we are just at best caretakers to OWN UP To that which is in our possession during our short stay in this life

Man has a will to meaning

Viktor Frankl

          The label “Personal Financial Planning” is not only a misnomer but presented as a title out of sequence with reality of the practice. The sequence of the description should be Financial Planning applied to Personally Held Assets.

“Surprise, Surprise!”

as Jim Nabors as Gomer Pyle would say to Sergeant Carter

(per the ‘70’s tv series)

          With the demographic shift instead of 35 people working for 1 retiree to now 3 working for 1, and the natural progression of commoditization of financial product and services, there has been and will continue to be compression of ‘personal’ financial compensation.’ The ‘personal financial compensation’ model and method impacted the most is AUM - charging a percentage of ‘assets under management.’

          “Personal” Financial Planners in response to the fear of  percentage reduction (compression), all of a sudden, ‘surprise, surprise -Stg Carter’ are discovering goals based planning, holistic planning - focusing on what is required to achieve each goal rather than external comparisons to the Dow Jones or S&P averages. (Quite frankly, personal financial planning is about managing goals not assets - which one, what kind - or how one did relative to the Dow. This goals based planning ‘conversion’ - ‘born again so to speak’ putting the person back in personal financial planning is reminiscent of the politicians that change his or her position - in light of deteriorating polls in also known as ‘an election year conversion.’

          Aligning means with meaning (or variation thereof) is but - rebranding especially out of fear of reduced asset under management percentage compensation. Lacking specific outputs and action plans for meaning INside out with the client, this so called life planning is but, for want of a better description, ‘yakked yak - I’m your best friend’ planning to give the perception of ‘value added.’

          Without clear & accountable step by step process approach for aligning meaning with means - connecting means with meaning is disguised reversion & revision to the means - moving the goal posts in a Sam Levinson with a Sisyphusian chaser manner.

CHEWish On This©

The Soul of the Matter

          Refined for and per the Judaism On Purpose™ process model meaning guidepath is the Personal Prospectus from the ENOUGH(sm) process now titled Remember Me: The Soul Resume. (see the book Judaism On Purpose). And to give context below is the process of Judaism On Purpose™. Note aligning meaning with means is the last module - having quarried for meaning thru the modules of Jews of Meaning, Remember Me, The Ethical Will, Why I Am A Jew, The 1st to be 2nd Bar/Bat Mitzvah (having found oneself in Torah).(see www.rabbisjudaismonpurpose.com full discussion.

          Note: the Judaism On Purpose™ process can be applied to other religions.

          Bottom line (‘the soul of the matter”): aligning meaning with means - to count - the soul of the matter.

Wednesday, November 10, 2021

Risk Capacity & Fallacy of 'Risk Tolerance'

 

Risk Capacity

Stipulations

 

  • Risk tolerance scales are worthless. Risk is a game by Parker Brothers. Inclination predicted scorecards (if they had them) would have a lower rating for accuracy than Anthony Fauci (with excuses and denials optional).
  • Sequence of rate of return risk has been addressed in other writing
  • Most confuse volatility as risk (which is why qualified by the question of Enough as determined per each goal) at least 2 years of cash – money markets etc – as there seems to be an inverse relationship between high client risk bravado relative to investable assets when things are ‘good’ and greater fear and anxiety when things go down. Thus, the idea is to minimize whip sawing by the cushion by ‘this is different, this time.’

           Risk is not making one’s goals – in particular the clientele realizable goal and their determined payoffs. Risk capacity is the willingness to readjust one’s personal financial goals – in non euphemistic terms – get less – and trade off.

          More often than not, usually Monte Carlo analysis people and especially planners (incentivized by getting compensation by assets under management – the more assets under management the greater the compensation) want 95% - 100% probability. The result: more asset under management for the planner (for sure), a higher probability of an larger estate (assets for members of the lucky sperm and ovarian club), and usually less spending (out of fear of outliving their money) by the clients.

 There are no solutions only tradeoffs 

Professor Thomas Sowell

           Other than if the assets on a net worth/balance sheet were inherited, the net worth is a result of human capital (income less consumption and taxes) reinvested for investment capital. No where on personal balance sheets is the recognition of the human capital asset of adaptability and resourcefulness. (Note for those reading and saying right now – but I was younger then, but, but, but).

          We given little or no value to our resourcefulness to adapt and therefore (without the question of More vs Enough aside) 100% is sought at the expense of denying (even if one has more than Enough).

          So the question is risk capacity – is one on Monte Carlo will to take an 80% probability of success – a 20% adjustment if necessary? What is the tradeoff?

          Now when I was in practice – I required spending plans (a nice word for budgets) not just presently, but projected upon disability, slowing down, retirement and for the spouse if the client predeceased. Furthermore, the categories were broken down into:

  • Fixed monthly
  • Flexible monthly
  • Irregular Expenditures
  • Estimated taxes

Irregular expenses  (may be fixed – i.e. homeowners insurance, etc) but otherwise offer the most flexibility to reduce. Flexible monthly offer some potential for reduction (i.e. the cable etc bill). Of course, the degree or amount depend on the goal – if disabled, long term care, slow down, retirement, spouse income adequacy. Furthermore, the retirement objective should be broken down into three periods – go/go; slow go; no go. And yes, health expenditures go up in fixed and flexible but other costs depending on the period would go down.

By doing the budgets per objective – one can estimate the degree of flexibility –risk/adjustment capacity – to therefore determine 80%, 85%, 90% etc of what one is will to accept for adjustment to have a higher degree of spending.

Monday, October 25, 2021

Enough & Author Joseph Heller of Catch 22

 

Enough & Author Joseph Heller of Catch 22

 


At a party given by a billionaire hedge fund manager, Kurt Vonnegut informed fellow author Joseph Heller of Catch 22 fame, that the hedge fund manager made more money in a single day than Heller earned from all his royalties from Catch-22 .

 

Heller responded, “Yes (that’s true), but I have something he will never have …. ENOUGH.”