Hi, reader!
Trivia seemed to be a hit! Here’s another one:
Question: What part of the human body can regrow itself in 3 weeks?
With that, welcome to the 85th newsletter! This one is all about Dividends.
A definition.
dividend (noun)
1: an individual share of something distributed: such as a share in a pro rata distribution to stockholders
2: a resultant return or reward
3: a number to be divided (math nerds)
We are going to focus on the 2nd definition. A return or reward.
Source: Merriam Webster
A thought.
I recently read the book, Die With Zero by Bill Perkins. It was a fascinating, albeit contrarian, view on how we should approach our personal finances. The title is a dead giveaway (see what I did there?). The author advocates that your last check should bounce.
But a recap of the book is for another newsletter. The book highlights a concept that I loved and had to share. The concept is called a “memory dividend”.
When we go on vacation, we have to spend money. Gas for the car. Airline ticket. Parking. Food. Hotel. Campsight. Tours. You name it.
But we spend this money because we are investing. We are investing in creating memories. Memories with our friends. Our family. Of foreign lands.
Hopefully we return from the vacation thinking, ‘Wow, that was awesome! What great memories we just made!’
This means the investment was worth it! We got a return on our investment!
But the returns of the investment are not done there. Now we get memory dividends!
For the months afterwards (and years, even decades, if the vacation was really good) we reminisce about the vacation. We show pictures to others. Share our itinerary with co-workers. Tell our friends, “Oh, you HAVE to go!”. Call our travel companions to swap stories about our time together.
Each time we do this we earn a memory dividend. We get a return or reward.
Each time we do this, we put ourselves back into the mental space we were in on vacation. We smile. We laugh. We get excited about the prospect of doing it again. It adds fuel to our day.
The memories, if powerful enough, can pay dividends for years.
What vacation paid the most dividends for you?
A quote.
“Sometimes you never know the value of a moment until it becomes a memory.”
- Dr. Seuss (fun fact: he went to the same high school as my dad!)
Answer: Liver