A long, strange trip it's been

-Gerry Garcia, 1977

March 19, 2021

I've never been a deadhead. But I have that the song, "Truckin", by the Grateful Dead on auto play in my head all day.

"Sometimes the light's all shinin' on me

Other times, I can barely see

Lately, it occurs to me

What a long, strange trip it's been"

This week marks the one year anniversary when the World Health Organization officially declared the coronavirus to be a global pandemic. It was the least surprising thing ever. We all knew the announcement was coming any minute. Also year ago, the Dow Jones Industrial average plunged almost 13% in a single day, its second only to the 25% crash of 1987.

It was the week that school districts all over the country started shutting down. All three of our kids were suddenly remote schooling. Costco, Target, and Walmart were jammed packed with customers buying out everything from toilet paper to canned tuna. It was such a surreal time. States were shutting down. New York got the order to shut down all nonessential businesses on Friday, March 20th. I wrote my Friday email blast, shut down my computers, jammed my work station into the backseat of my car, and drove straight home. The suburban parking lot at my office building was was a flurry of office workers packing their cars too, with blank expressions on everyone's faces.

Actually, I could have gotten away with staying in my office because investment management was considered an essential business. But the important thing to my wife and I was that the kids need to see dad at home. We were worried about how this whole pandemic was effecting them. Parents across the entire country were going through the same exact thing.

The news out of New York City was horrible. The view of refrigerated trucks parked outside hospitals was absolutely heart wrenching and terrifying. The city that I call home had a new name; "the epicenter".

Fast forward to today, we have three vaccines for Covid 19. Businesses are opening. The TSA (Transportation Security Administration) reports that the numbers of flyers is growing Disney is getting ready to reopen its theme parks. And the weather is getting warmer. There's a sense that life is about to get better. Yes, there are scary Covid variants and I really do worry that those could set us back. But the new RNA vaccines could be updated quickly to address those, which rightly or wrongly, keeps my hope at a greater level than my level of worry.

I wonder how people felt after World War II. Massive celebration and relief for sure.. But there must've been an undertone of sadness; maybe even survivors guilt. A lot of American lives were lost, which affected so many family members and friends who lived through that era.

What followed WWII was a massive economic boom in America. A lot of you might not know this, but America's first planned suburb, Levittown, was built to provide affordable housing to returning service members. It's located on Long Island, about 30 minutes from where I live. Today, the economy is now revving up. just a year after the stock market crash of 2020, economically sensitive stocks are rising. The stock market is at an all-time high. The housing market is HOT HOT HOT. Today, the biggest economic worry isn't recession; it's inflation. Pent up demand is huge, driving GDP estimates higher on a near daily basis.

I was quoted in an NBC NEWS article a few day ago, a lookback at the stock market and Wall Street - what it got right and wrong It was almost like a celebratory article; not gloating or something douchey like that. After reading the published article, it just made me think of businesses that shut down. About people who spend their entire savings and went into debt just to put food on the table. About how food pantries struggled to meet demand, How millions of people are still out of work. And about how so many people are now the walking wounded; suffering from unspeakable loss.

I, for one, am ready to celebrate the reopening of our economy and getting my kids back into school full time. I can't wait to get back to in person networking and going out to dinner with other couples. I earned my right to celebrate, as we all did. We lived through a horrible, crazy, no good time. But I'll be low key about it. I'll be aware that my celebration could be in front of a kid who lost a parent or a spouse who lost their soulmate, or a person who went broke. Writing this made me realize I have some survivors guilt.

If you or anyone you know who is in bad straits and needs financial advice; be it starting to rebuild their savings from scratch, financial planning advice, career advice, or an introduction, I am here for you - no charge and nothing expected in return. My skills and my network are yours. And I know plenty of other financial advisors who want to help too. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me.

Lol, even deadheads are welcome to reach out too. What a long, strange trip it's been.

Thanks for reading and see you next week,

Mitch

Check this out: Grateful Dead, October 30, 1980, New York City. "Truckin'"

Truckin' by The Grateful Dead