Chatting today with colleague Stephanie McCullough of Berwyn, PA-based Sofia Financial, I heard these words come out of my mouth: “When did we get so far away from intentional spending?” We had been talking about how difficult it is for any individual to bust out of our culture’s rampant overspending into a healthy relationship with money.  Both of us fresh off our first trips to FinCon where paying off debt was a hot topic, it seemed like a reasonable question at the time.

“What is the best investment?” Back when I was a financial planner, I got asked that a lot. In those days, I would always respond “Well, there is no one best investment. The answer is different for everybody.” Blah blah blah big long CFP® school explanation about the listener’s goals, current portfolio allocation, risk tolerance, risk capacity, years until the money is needed, blah blah blah.

But I’ve recently come to the conclusion that there is indeed one right answer. So I would like to apologize now to everyone I led astray and make amends by revealing it.  Here it is: The single best investment for everyone is… drum roll, please…

I’ve been listening to a lot of personal finance podcasts lately, and what I’m hearing suggests that the times, they are a-changing. “Goals” are out; “stages” are in. “Retirement” is out; “encores” are in. Is anything really different or, just as prunes are now sold as dried plums, are we simply giving new labels to the same familiar concepts?  

That was the bill from today’s visit to the auto repair shop. So it seems that my “buy (used) and hold” strategy is validated. Or is it? The $35.16 fixed only the detached rearview mirror. The other two issues remain in limbo, both in terms of what needs to be done -  if anything -  and the cost.  

My recent posts related my Financial Grownup moment and the lessons learned as a result, specifically my “buy (used) and hold” strategy of car ownership. This included a comment about the possible downside of this strategy: higher maintenance costs. But I observed, in general, that the impact of this downside was modest. It seems that was enough to provoke instant karma to come looking for me.