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The U.S. stock market has been quite volatile this year so far – mostly down – as large company stocks have declined over 12% and small stocks have declined even more at over 20%. This is far from unusual and here are 5 data points that, hopefully, ease your mind about the future.

While checking out at Kroger recently I asked the guy bagging my groceries if he was from New York state since he was wearing a Geneseo sweatshirt. (The name is familiar since I know a couple people from college who are from there) He responded that he went to school up there and proceeded to ask me if I was a professor at UK.

The Serenity Prayer contains the following phrase: “God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference.” Not only good life advice but outstanding investing advice, particularly during a declining stock market as the first four months of 2022 have been.

In 1999, the French golfer Jean Van de Velde held a three-shot lead as he headed to the 72nd, and last hole, of the British Open. All he had to do to win arguably the most important golf tournament on the Continent was to score a double bogey or better – a 6 on a par 4. An almost insurmountable lead. Here is what happened:

In a recent article the author Tim Urban wrote about a concept he calls “depressing math.” In a nutshell, this concept comes from actually counting the number of times that we will get to experience something we enjoy from now through the rest of our lives. It feels like we have countless weeks ahead of us but, in fact, they are quite countable.

University of Kentucky men’s basketball coach, John Calipari, played himself in a cameo appearance on the Showtime series Billions last week. He, as usual, was brilliant. In fact, his advice to the fictional hedge fund traders was so spot on he might actually make a good financial planner some day. Here are some highlights followed by a link to the 1:47 video:

I recently spoke to a University of Kentucky class about financial planning and investing, as I have each semester for the last several years. The class has evolved some since those first couple of semesters to include more business majors than before. Their questions, however, haven’t really changed that much. Here is what I’ve found they’re most interested in discussing:

One of my golfing buddies texted our group wishing us a Happy New Year and informed us that, as of January 1, 2022, as far as he is concerned, we’re all starting the new year as scratch golfers. In other words, we’re now all WAY better than we actually are.

The list of books I most enjoyed during the past year isn’t quite as anticipated as former President Obama’s or Time Magazine’s – but maybe it should be. My list, however, simply shares the books I enjoyed regardless of when they were published. I hope you find something interesting here too.

I am obsessed with Succession, the HBO Max series about the uber-wealthy and powerful family vying to take over their father’s media empire. While exploring the motivations and psyches of truly terrible people, the show excels at character development and features brilliant writing. In the 2nd season, there is a scene where they provide striking perspective on wealth.