Dear valued client,
This is the last weekly newsletter in 2022. I hope you all had a safe and enjoyable Christmas.
Markets closed out the last trading week of 2022 with slight losses. Returns for the year have been underwhelming, to say the least. However, 2023 is gearing up to be an extremely promising year as markets historically perform best not when interest rates are low, but when they are on the decline. I anticipate quantitative easing on the part of Central Banks around halfway through 2023 and that markets will respond in kind.
Here are the performance numbers from the three major American indexes for 2022:
Dow Jones (30 largest companies): -9.15%
S&P 500 (500 largest companies): -19.1%
NASDAQ (roughly 3500 technology-based companies): -33.25%
With the dawn of 2023 upon us, I’d like to share some thoughts from a WSJ article proposing the best investment that can be made in 2023 is… in yourself.
There are three main categories of growth, the article explains, that can be enriched by investing in ourselves: professional, personal, and health. All three categories are intimately connected, and progress requires certain axioms that parallel successful financial investing, namely:
- Set a long time horizon. Let compound interest work in your favor. Improving by 1% every day will have immense effects down the road.
- Don’t forget to diversify. Balance is key. Dividing your time and attention between your career, personal life and health is a daunting but imperative task.
- Pay yourself dividends. Setting up a proper incentive and reward structure is essential to getting (and keeping) you on track toward reaching your goals.
I’d like to leave you with a few snippets from Beyond Good and Evil, a philosophical work by Friedrich Nietzsche that has left me pondering over the past few weeks. I hope they can do the same for you.
“He who despises himself, nevertheless esteems himself thereby, as a despiser.”
“The maturity of man – that means, to have reacquired the seriousness that one had as a child at play.”
“One is punished best for one’s virtues.”
“Insanity in individuals is something rare – but in groups, parties, nations, and epochs it is the rule.”
“To talk too much about oneself may also be a means of concealing oneself.”
“One loves ultimately one’s desires, not the thing desired.”
And my favorite…
“He who fights with monsters should be careful lest he thereby become a monster. And if thou gaze long into an abyss, the abyss will also gaze into thee.”
Have a terrific weekend, and Happy New Year.
PW
