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With geopolitical tension, inflation, cryptocurrency, rising interest rates, and market volatility all in the headlines lately, we hear the same question from clients every day.

“What is going to happen?”

It is a fair question, and one that takes many different shapes and sizes, too.

“What is inflation going to be next year? What do you see happening with Ukraine and Russia? China? Albania?” (Okay, Albania is a stretch.)

“Are markets going to fall soon?” “What will this administration do next?”

“Is bitcoin going to bounce back? Is Tesla stock a great choice? Is buying gold going to pan out this year?” (Yes, my punny jokes have come alive since becoming a dad.)

There was no room left for thought. I jumped over the bar for the last time. People were screaming and yelling, but tunnel vision apparently applies to the ears too; everything was muffled. I noticed a moment later that my legs had stopped working, and I had correspondingly collapsed on my back. Lying in a rapidly growing pool of sweat, my lungs felt like they were graciously hosting a bonfire. Dearly departed homeostasis aside, I felt grateful.

“We often live with a forward momentum, an inertia, if you will. This pushing forward, pushing forward. And when you suddenly stop, here’s a mixed metaphor, it can feel like musical chairs, and the music has just stopped, and you’re standing there and you don’t have a chair. And that’s really disconcerting. Because part of what we do, which I think leads to a significant amount of burnout and existential struggle, is we take meaning from motion…And then when I take away the motion, what happens to my meaning?”

“I’ll do it myself.”

It is a beautiful statement. It speaks to human ingenuity, determination, and bravery. It underscores a belief in oneself, either to be or become what you need to succeed. The sentence can be rooted in frustration when others fail to complete the task at hand. We even hear it in more sinister tones when the villain of a story intends to carry out a nefarious deed.

There is a popular character trope--perhaps more appropriately called a popular American character trope--of the immigrant with small means. Arriving in America with almost nothing, the immigrant resolves to pursue the American dream. They find work, earn what they can, and somehow manage to save a little. Over the years their dutiful, disciplined savings goes into a coffee can or small box. Eventually they buy something meaningful, like a gift to their children or the chance to finally get ahead. It is a beautiful sentiment that resonates with those who believe America is a place of opportunity.

That said, it drives the financial planner in me absolutely nuts.

Conestoga Wealth Partners just celebrated a decade helping clients succeed. Rather than my typical moralizing financial post, perhaps it is timely to share the story of how and why Conestoga came to be. Some might say it was a story of David beating Goliath. Others say it resembled the flight to freedom of settlers in America. Some would even knock us down a few pegs and compare it to Johnny Paycheck’s opening lines: “Take this job and shove it. I ain’t working here no more.” 

Enter Richard Thayler, a behavioral economist, and a legal scholar named Cass Sunstein. Candidly, a behavioral economist and legal scholar do not set the stage for a book laypeople sprint to the store to read. Yet in 2008, that is exactly what happened. Their book Nudge sold millions of copies, becoming a New York Times bestseller. Its message resonated with governments, corporations, and families alike.

Their book focused on how we make choices, and how we can inspire ourselves to make better choices. Instead of mandating changes or forcing ourselves to do something differently, they advocated for other ways to create meaningful change, whether it be for a young child or an entire country’s healthcare system.

They argued that the key to many outcomes we want lies less with heroic efforts of will, and more with making things easier, more convenient, or simpler. Of course, willpower is still indispensable for many difficult things in life, but relying on it alone can be…precarious. Willpower takes us only so far.

Early in our marriage, my wife Brooke came home from work in an uproar. She was just embarking on her journey as a teacher and submitting all the paperwork that comes with a new career. Among this paperwork were Brooke’s retirement benefits, where she was supposed to decide how much to save for retirement. Having financial advisors for a father and a husband, she was determined to aggressively save. She filled everything out, in her classic perfect penmanship, and proudly walked into an HR meeting where someone would review her paperwork.

She did not anticipate a struggle. The well-intentioned HR employee walked through Brooke’s paperwork, pausing at her retirement benefits.

“You are saving too much,” she said. “You should consider saving less.”

As a 7-year-old, I remember my parents decided it was time for a change. Determined to lose weight and improve their health, they latched onto Body for Life, a nutrition and exercise program. It was fun to watch the old videos of people following the program, changing their bodies, and becoming better versions of themselves. The books and videos featured people young and old, with before and after pictures and essays that were frankly inspiring. Of course, the program touted their own proprietary supplements to monetize the motivation, but the basic tenets of the program were fairly reasonable. My parents embarked on their fitness journey, and my dad went on to win a prize from one of their competitions--a trip to Cancun with my mom.

Watching my parents get up early to go to the gym before work and eating healthy, it made me want to do the same thing. My dad would humor me: he would make a little extra of his healthy breakfast and leave it for me in the morning, and he gave me a light dumbbell to do exercises when I insisted on lifting weights. Little did they know the monster they would create;