on May 7, 2019
After a long winter, the upper Midwest is finally coming back to life. Everywhere you look, people are tending to their yards, planting flowers, and preparing their gardens. There’s something comforting and extremely satisfying about planting a seed and watching it turn into a vegetable or flower. Maybe this is something deeply rooted inside us—our natural instinct to foster and nurture life.
I grew up in an area that was largely agricultural, so I can appreciate the effort it takes to cultivate crops. You have to have patience; you have to have a plan. You can’t just douse a seed in water once and expect it to grow. In many ways, growing plants is a lot like investing.
Like investing, it’s best to have a game plan when it comes to gardening. You can’t just plant your seeds willy-nilly. They need to be placed in a sunny spot that is protected from rabbits or tromping feet. When investing, it doesn’t do much good to throw your money at whatever you feel like. If you did, you might end up only investing in high-risk stocks or only socking your money away in a standard savings account. Neither route is optimal. Instead, it pays to be intentional. Work with a financial advisor to figure out which “soil” is best for your money seeds to grow!
When you’re gardening you need to have patience. If your seed isn’t growing as quickly as you want it to, it doesn’t do any good to dig it up and pocket it for later. Trust that with the right care, you will achieve growth over time. Investing takes a similar kind of patience. There may be weeks or months when your investments aren’t growing, but it doesn’t do any good to pull everything out and start over. The market goes through periods of sustained growth and periods of losses. If you’re trigger-happy with your investments, you’ll end up pulling out your money during the market’s low points and investing during the high points—a strategy that is less than optimal.
Gardening or farming involve consistent care and upkeep. You want to check in on your crops regularly and make sure they have the water and nutrients they need. Similarly, it’s a good idea to keep an eye on your investments, notice how they are growing, and “feed” certain accounts with regular contributions. This isn’t hunting or fishing—you can’t just slay your game and be done with it. Good, mindful investment requires your attention, and probably the attention of a qualified financial planner.
Remember, if you have an intentional strategy, patience, and the good sense to keep “watering” your investments, they will grow. All your intentional actions will be worth it when you finally get to bite into that watermelon you grew or enjoy your lovely lilies. Happy gardening/investing!