A few fast bulletins earlier than I start at the moment’s publish.
1. My new e book, Boundless, is now accessible for ordering: After a beautiful response throughout the pre-order part, I lastly have the e book in my arms and am delivery it out shortly. In the event you’d prefer to get your copy, click on right here to order now at a particular low cost (accessible until tenth Could). Plus, I’m providing a particular combo low cost when you order Boundless together with my first e book, The Sketchbook of Knowledge. Click on right here to order your set.
2. Relaunch of Worth Investing Almanack: I’ve relaunched my premium publication, the Worth Investing Almanack (VIA), which subscribers have referred to as “…the very best supply in India on Worth Investing, for each newcomers and consultants.” Click on right here to learn extra and subscribe to VIA at a particular launch value (accessible just for the primary 100 subscribers). Additionally, when you want to take a look at the March 2025 VIA subject earlier than deciding to rejoin, click on right here to obtain.
The Value of Freedom
There’s one thing uniquely tormenting about wanting again at a call you made years in the past, one that you simply made with good intentions and possibly even a little bit pleasure, and realising that at the moment, you’d select otherwise.
I’d been wrestling with that feeling a yr in the past, each time I entered an condo I purchased in 2018. It was my second condo in the identical constructing, only a flooring under the primary one the place we lived. On the time, it appeared like a smart and thrilling step. Our children have been rising up, area was at all times tight in Mumbai’s famously matchbox-sized properties, and I imagined this second condo as a seamless extension of our present one. It had a ravishing view too: an enormous backyard and a hill within the distance, which is a uncommon sight of calm on this noisy and cluttered metropolis.
So, I went forward and acquired it. I funded the acquisition by promoting a few of my shares and mutual funds. That half, in hindsight, stings a little bit extra. However again then, it felt like a significant milestone, as I used to be attempting to create a greater life for my household.
Then life, because it typically does, moved in instructions I hadn’t deliberate for. We lived in that condo throughout the pandemic, however in 2022, my next-door neighbour within the authentic condo (a flooring above) supplied to promote his flat. It was a uncommon alternative to knock down the wall and mix two flats into a bigger one. Nonetheless a matchbox, however at the very least an even bigger one, and all on the identical flooring.
After a lot thought, I stated sure. And similar to that, I grew to become the unintended proprietor of three residences in the identical constructing.
Anyhow, right here’s the place the thoughts performs its little video games. That second condo, the one I as soon as noticed as an “emotional extension” of our residence, quietly modified classes in my head. It was now not “additional area” or “residence workplace.” It had grow to be an “funding.” And as soon as that psychological swap flipped, I couldn’t assist however begin calculating its returns, as if it had at all times been a portfolio determination.
The numbers weren’t variety. Seven years later, the anticipated market value would give me a complete return of no more than 15%. Not CAGR or annual return, however 15% cumulative, over the complete interval! And that’s earlier than subtracting upkeep prices and property taxes. If I added these in, the return dropped nearer to 10%, level to level. Not precisely the type of return you’d need after locking up a bit of capital for seven years in India’s business capital, and when, in hindsight (ouch!), you realise that you can have doubled or trebled that cash by simply staying in equities.
So, when you had requested me early final yr whether or not I regretted the choice from 2018, you in all probability wouldn’t even want a response. My face would have advised you every part. I used to be annoyed at myself.
However some gears shifted in my interior engine in 2024 whereas I used to be engaged on my second e book, Boundless. As I researched for the e book and dove into historical philosophies, religious texts, and the timeless knowledge of thinkers throughout cultures and centuries, I started to see “remorse” in a brand new mild.
One recurring concept that stood out was that remorse shouldn’t be a flaw of our minds, however a function of our freedom. That to dwell a acutely aware and intentional life is to often look again and wince. And never as a result of we failed, however as a result of we cared sufficient to decide on. We weren’t passive recipients of life however have been energetic individuals. And individuals, by definition, generally stumble.
As Seneca wrote in On the Shortness of Life:
The best impediment to residing is expectancy, which hangs upon tomorrow and loses at the moment. You’re arranging what lies in Fortune’s management, and abandoning what lies in yours. What are you ? To what objective are you straining? The entire future lies in uncertainty: dwell instantly.
And Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote:
End every day and be performed with it. You could have performed what you can. Some blunders and absurdities little doubt crept in; overlook them as quickly as you possibly can. Tomorrow is a brand new day. You shall start it serenely and with too excessive a spirit to be encumbered together with your previous nonsense.
The Stoics typically stated that we can’t management outcomes, solely our decisions. The Gita speaks of appearing with out attachment to outcomes. Buddhism teaches the impermanence of all issues, that each pleasure and sorrow go, and our struggling typically comes from clinging to what may have been.
Over time, I’ve come to see these as not simply lofty religious concepts, however sensible reminders that remorse loses its sting after we cease treating life like a system that may be perfected and begin honouring it as a course of or a journey full of studying, detours, and redirections.
And so, the condo? Sure, it didn’t work out the best way I imagined. I’m now seeking to promote it off, however I’ve stopped it with remorse. As an alternative, it has grow to be a part of my curriculum. It taught me humility. It jogs my memory that even with expertise, we by no means graduate from the college of decision-making.
Each part of life asks new questions. Each determination brings its personal unknowns. Remorse, then, isn’t a verdict, however a sign…that we lived, that we realized, and that we’re nonetheless evolving.
Isn’t that the unusual and exquisite factor about freedom? That it means that you can rewrite your understanding of the previous. And also you don’t do that to vary the details (you possibly can’t), however to vary the which means you assign to them. And in that reimagining, remorse can soften. It shifts from being a tormentor to changing into a trainer.
I’ve additionally realized that even probably the most fastidiously made selections include threat. The most effective plans nonetheless encounter shock detours. We don’t get to rewind the tape. All we are able to do is forgive the model of ourselves that acted with sincerity, and perceive that knowledge typically arrives late, often after it’s now not helpful for that particular determination.
The problem is to not dwell a life with out remorse. That’s not possible. The actual problem is to not let remorse harden into cynicism or self-blame. To see it, as an alternative, as a part of the value of residing a life with company. A life the place we get to decide on, to behave, and to threat being flawed.
I received’t fake the sting is gone fully. It nonetheless surfaces, particularly after I see the chance price in numbers. However I attempt to meet it now with much less self-judgement and extra curiosity. I remind myself that the very means to replicate, to really feel, to study, and to develop is its personal type of wealth.
So, when you’re residing with a remorse of your personal, possibly about cash or a profession transfer, a relationship or a threat you took that didn’t work out, I hope you’re taking a lesson from my lesson.
The actual fact that you can select means you have been alive to the second. You have been engaged and never sleepwalking by life.
Remorse might stick with us, nevertheless it doesn’t should outline us. It’s merely a part of the panorama we cross after we select to dwell freely. It’s like a quiet companion on the street we stroll after we determine, repeatedly, to dwell life on our personal phrases.
And I’d relatively have my bruises and all, than a life the place I by no means bought to decide on in any respect.
The Sketchbook of Knowledge: A Hand-Crafted Handbook on the Pursuit of Wealth and Good Life.
This can be a masterpiece.
– Morgan Housel, Writer, The Psychology of Cash
That’s all from me for at the moment.
Let me know your ideas on this subject of The Almanack of Good Life publication, and methods I can enhance it. Additionally, if in case you have concepts or assets you assume I can share in future letters, please e mail them to me at vishal[at]safalniveshak[dot]com.
If you already know somebody who might profit from at the moment’s publish, please share it with them.
In case you are new right here, please be part of my free publication – The Journal of Investing Knowledge – the place I share the very best concepts on cash and investing, behavioral finance, and enterprise evaluation that will help you safe your monetary independence so you possibly can dwell the life you deserve.
Additionally take a look at my Premium memberships, together with on-line programs on worth investing, monetary statements evaluation, and monetary freedom.
Thanks in your time.
—Vishal
