Last weekend my wife left me.
Don’t worry, I actually sent her away. I guess that still sounds bad, let me start over.
Last weekend was my wife’s birthday so I arranged for her and her mom to go to the beach for the weekend while I stayed at home with our young son.
(This is what I imagined my wife’s weekend to be like.)
While I was really excited for my wife to get some very needed time away, I have to admit I was pretty anxious. Being solely responsible for a young toddler for four days and four nights felt a little too close to my breaking point. For a while now, as I looked forward to the summer, this always seemed like the big hurdle that I would need to get past.
Some of you may be thinking I sound like a baby myself, but I suspect most of you know exactly what I’m talking about.
(This is kind of how I imagined the weekend might go without my wife.)
The fact that I am writing this article is testimony that I have indeed survived this great trial. In reality, it was an amazing time with my son that I wouldn’t trade for the world. It was also pretty hard.
In the end, I chose a maximum activity approach for the weekend. Adventures included extended time at The Home Depot, a trip to the local natural history museum, time at an indoor park at a nearby church, and several extended walks, one of which involved a tour of a fire truck. We had a great time (and so did my wife).
A few valuable takeaways…
Being a stay-at-home mom is really, really hard work. In my opinion, leaving and going to a job every day is typically much easier than staying home with kids.
If you get one thing out of this article, I hope it’s that moms deserve way more respect than they are typically given. Do everyone a favor and go out of your way to show your appreciation to a mother in your life today.
Why am I talking about this? Because I don’t want any of us to ever forget that life is so much bigger than money. Money is great, and it can help make a lot of things better, but ultimately it is only a means to an end. It’s important that we have the inner integrity to know what that “end” is for each of us and to make sure we don’t lose sight of things that matter most.
Options Experiment Update
A few weeks ago, I told you about an experiment I was undertaking regarding the purchase of way out of the money options.
As mentioned, after the big early gains, I sold enough to more than cover my initial investment. This means that there truly is no risk going forward. Here’s where things are as of the time of writing:
The VXX options are up a humble 3.65% and 8.9%. They’ve both been up triple digits, but I bought them hoping for more and plan to ride out the experiment as they don’t expire until September and December respectively.
The GDX options are up 338.69% and some SLV options are up 187.91%.
All these gains are in a period of right around a month or less.
As mentioned, I’ll continue to keep you up to date on the experiment as it runs it’s course. Be sure to sign-up for updates.
Final Thoughts
Have a great Fourth of July weekend (For my American audience)! The Fourth of July is one of my favorite holidays and I hope to enjoy a nice parade, some good barbecue, and a great fireworks show.
Let me know if you have any questions or if I can help in any way.
Best,
Brian
I’d like to see more content like this!
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The Next Stock Market Crash Will Not Be Obvious
Worth reading this week:
The real risk in the market is staying out of it – The Washington Post
As Low-Skilled Jobs Disappear, Men Drop Out of the Workforce – Real Time Economics – WSJ
Disclosure: This article is for information purposes only. Comments made by my guests do not necessarily represent the views of Brian or Investor in the Family. There are risks involved with investing including loss of principal. Brian and Investor in the Family makes no explicit or implicit guarantee with respect to performance or the outcome of any investment or projections made. There is no guarantee that the goals of the strategies discussed by Brian and Investor in the Family will be met.
Disclosure: I am long GDX, SLV, and VXX call options.