Markers
“To be a consistent winner means preparing not just one day, one month, or even one year – but for a lifetime.”
-Bill Rodgers, Four-time winner of the Boston Marathon
As I begin writing this, waves of runners are launching headlong into a rain-soaked beast of a marathon course in Boston. From its first running by fifteen brave souls 125 years ago, it has now grown to over 30,000 participants annually attracting roughly half a million spectators. Twenty-six-point-two exhilarating, painful, hard-fought miles mark a crowning achievement for these runners each year. As is true in much of life, glory and joy are right there intermingled with the painful and hard.
This is yet another picture of the rooted optimism we often talk about here at Tschetter Group. We’re running life’s marathon with each other and with you, doing our best to embrace all of it along the way. Sometimes the course is unremarkable and we’re comfortably in our running groove. At other times the road is marked with big events, both those we celebrate and those we mourn.
The start to 2023 has proved especially poignant on this front. Consider this, just among our “TG twelve”:
- Four marriage engagements
- Two final goodbyes to dear loved ones
- One baby due any day!
Of course, we’re most privileged to see and share many of life’s significant markers in the lives of our clients and friends. Already this year:
- The celebration of lives well lived paired with the hard reality of stinging loss
- A lifetime of hard work rewarded through retirement and/or business sale accompanied by the often-challenging transition to a new rhythm
- College admissions inviting the next cohort of graduating seniors to their exciting next chapter, while impending college tuition invites parents to some understandable handwringing
As it relates to significant markers in the market, in our January letter we shared that rising interest rates were “what mattered most”. Despite some banking system wobbles—which we would argue was precipitated by the impact of rapidly rising rates—the market is off to a strong start so far this year. Another notable development we alluded to in our last letter is the rapid emergence of ChatGPT and artificial general intelligence. We already have a number of companies in our portfolio strategies that we believe stand to benefit, and we’ll remain alert to additional opportunities and potential risks. Our investment team is working tirelessly to keep your investments well positioned.
Finally, we kicked off the year with the question: Where do you want to go in life and money?
It’s still the question most important to us. So be sure to tell us, what’s the shape of your marathon course? What are its significant markers? How do we help you harness and focus your financial resources to run your race well?
Let’s do this together.
Yours in (rooted) optimism,
