“There is man in his entirety, blaming his shoe when his foot is guilty.”
— Samuel Beckett, Waiting for Godot
The most common comment I get when I talk to investors these days is “I’m just going to wait and see what the Fed is going to do before I make any moves.”
To that I say, stop sitting on your hands and take control of your investments! Nobody is going to do it for you, and waiting around for the Fed is much like the quote above, from the absurdist play Waiting for Godot.
Samuel Beckett’s play begins with two men — Vladimir and Estragon — waiting for a mysterious man called Godot. They have clearly been waiting a long, long time, and have been sitting idly by a tree, trying to decide how to pass the time while they wait.
Instead of actually taking any action, they spend the play arguing about the pros and cons of waiting for someone they don’t even know will ever show up.
It sounds a lot like sitting around and watching CNBC…
In this case, Vladimir and Estragon are the retail investors, and the Fed is Godot.
And much like most fatalistic investors, they will be waiting a long, long time. This is one of the most dangerous mistakes any investor can make — regardless of their age or net worth. Every day you don’t invest is a day wasted, pushing you further and further away from a dignified retirement.
Never, ever wait on something to happen. Make your own destiny. If you sit around waiting for things to happen, life — and investments — will pass you by and you’ll be sitting there holding an empty hat in your hand, wondering what the hell happened.
Estragon was fond of throwing up his hands and saying “Nothing to be done…”
There is always something to be done.
Here’s why you should never spend your time waiting around for someone in power to tell you what to do…
The data confirms how devastating this way of thinking is.
A study from the Government Accountability Office earlier this year showed that 20% of people over 55 do not have any retirement savings. That’s right none: no retirement savings, no pension, no nothing….
That is downright horrifying to think about.
But even the folks who haven’t just sat on their hands are coming up far short of what anyone would consider a comfortable retirement. The median retirement savings for people between 55-64 is around $104,000.
That is about $310 a month.
I dare you to afford even the basics of food, shelter, and medical care on that kind of income.
Even if you factor in Social Security payments — which for younger investors is a pipe dream — you’re still stuck with the bare necessities. Dream vacations, fancy dinners, college funds for the grandkids?
Sorry, nothing to be done…
But anything is better than nothing.
Waiting around is the worst thing you can do. I can’t tell you how many conversations I’ve had with family, friends, and readers who have all given me a slew of excuses why they haven’t started investing. “Stocks are too expensive, I don’t have enough extra income, the Fed is going to raise rates and crash the stock market…”
Excuses, excuses…
Let’s take a quick look at what each year of excuses costs you in the long-run. If you wait just five years before starting to invest and save, this is what happens:
Waiting around has cost you over $30,000 in that first 10 years.
After 20, it doubles to $61,000.
30 years from now you would have cost yourself almost $123,000.
Most terrifying — after 40 years — when you should finally be retiring, you would have left almost $250,000 on the table.
And those stats are based on waiting only five years. Most people I’ve talked to have waited much longer than that. So please, start acting right now. No more excuses.
There’s no reason to wait another day. At the end of Waiting for Godot, a young boy finally comes to tell Vladimir and Estragon that Godot will not be coming today.
They stare at one another and agree that they should probably stop waiting for Godot and be on their way. But they stand there, paralyzed, and then… the curtain falls. They’ve wasted their entire lives waiting…
Don’t let the curtain fall on you. Don’t blame your shoe when your foot is guilty.
Get moving and start taking your retirement into your own hands.
