[BLOG] If you feel defined by/stuck in the bad times, active investment might be the missing link

Storytelling as a way to get some ROI on your troubles

I have begun to think of bad times as investment opportunities.

Everyone can understand the good times as investments—you are thriving in one or several areas of life, you feel good, you look good. Your relationships might be peaceful and honest. Your job might be fulfilling and exciting. Your house might be blossoming into a home. Your health might be back on track. Your friends and family members might be thriving individually, and you have a front row seat to watch it all unfold. It’s not hard to feel like the highlights of life are investments.

But they aren’t.

I would argue that the highlights of life are returns on the bad times.

Stay with me.

Imagine if you had invested in the S&P 500 at the bottom of 2020 (or on Black Monday), forgotten that investment, and opened your account today. Or, if you weren’t old enough to invest in 1987, imagine that you invested a reasonable amount in Bitcoin in 2005 when (almost) no one saw its value, happened to remember the private key, and opened y…