Last week, I wrote about the importance of having insurance because you never know when you might be the victim of a tragic event. Little did I know less that seven days later I would experience a real-life example of this.
Sunday afternoon while my wife and I were on our way to Worlds of Fun with the kids, a young girl failed to see a stop sign and crashed full speed into the side of our SUV as we proceeded into the intersection. Our vehicle was spun 180 degrees before flipping over.
It is moments such as this, that remind us of what is truly important in life and what is not. In the seconds after impact, I did not think about how much it would cost to repair or replace my vehicle, or how large the medical bills might be if anyone in my family had to be hospitalized. My only thought was, is everyone ok? An eerie silence engulfed the crash site as I called out to each person in the car individually to ascertain their condition.
Slowly as everyone regained their bearings, I began to hear the voices of everyone in the car as they started responding to my questions. Luckily, by the grace of God, we were all safe. It was at about that point good Samaritans who had witnessed the crash began attempting to get us out of the crushed car. I immediately asked them about the condition of the other driver. When I heard that they were ok as well, I began to relax just a little. I knew in the back of my mind that our car was destroyed, and that some of us might still be suffering some physical injuries from the impact, but everyone was alive and for me that was enough to feel at peace.
As a financial advisor I often talk about the important role money and possessions have in obtaining the life we all want. But the truth is, those things are not as important as we think they are. It is times of tragedy such as this when we all are forced to recognize what is really important in life. In this moment the annual performance of my investment portfolio held no importance. How many digits were in my bank account balance had didn’t matter either. All of the trivial things I had been worrying about just a few minutes earlier were now totally inconsequential. All that mattered were the people around me and their well-being.
My financial advice this week to you is stop worrying so much about your finances. Accept the fact that markets will fluctuate, balances will go up and down and your net worth will at times be lower than you wish it were. In the end however, those numbers on a spreadsheet will never actually measure how rich you actually are. Instead, place your focus on friends, family and faith. Those are things that are real. They are things that matter. They are things that will ultimately last.
(Past performance is no guarantee of future results. The advice is general in nature and not intended for specific situations)