As most of our audience reading this passage knows, my father and I have been sharing the same physical office for over 30 years. Sometimes we are facing each other, a few times, at an angle, but never more than 20 feet of open space has ever separated us.
To acknowledge that I have learned from the “best” would be an understatement. His career began on Wall Street in 1966 and continues to outwork people half his age. There are not many around today that have experienced as many market ups and downs as Dad.
A favorite quote from my father, that has recently resurfaced is, “The worst bear market you will experience is the one you are currently in”. Simply put, we have been here before. While it never feels good to see your portfolio decrease in value, our experience reminds us that these drawdowns have always been temporary. “Time in the market has been a better strategy than attempting to time the market”, another quote from Dad. We remain steadfast in our belief that keeping calm and remaining diversified in high quality stocks and bonds will allow us to look back at these difficult moments and be happy that we did not stray from our long-term strategies.
There is one last thing to mention before we get to the meat and potatoes of our quarterly review. As we approach Thanksgiving, we take a moment to count our blessings and are reminded of those who are less fortunate.
Recently, Giselle and I were introduced to A Spring of Hope. This charity’s mission is to help alleviate poverty in South Africa. Our first contribution was to help fund and provide clean drinking water for schools in the Limpopo region of South Africa. The story does not end there. As radio pioneer Paul Henry would say, here is the “rest of the story”. We were so intrigued to learn more about this cause, that when we were blessed with the opportunity to visit South Africa, we set aside a full week to spend time in this community and see for ourselves, what impact our donation made.
Our new friends, Leanette (the School Principal) and Trygive (the Permaculture manager) were the kindest, happiest, passionate, and most generous hosts we had the pleasure of meeting. They were able to share and show us the impact of our contribution and what started out simply as addressing the lack of clean water has evolved to providing sanitation, an impressive permaculture garden supplying healthy meals for children who may only have 1 meal a day, and now, a chicken coop. This chicken coop will produce a much-needed source of protein, fertilizer and income for the children’s after school program. Truly the most poignant and inspirational moments for us was meeting the kids that these projects are benefitting. Seeing them smile and thrive gives us hope that by helping them with the basics of clean water, these children can realize their highest potential. I can go on for a very long time with more details, but I will leave you with this travel tip. If you are lucky enough to visit Kruger National Park in South Africa, please stop by and visit our friends in the Limpopo Province. Ask them to see the Cohen Family Chicken Coop and check on “Chicken Jon”. My friends in the chicken business tell me our recent gift will provide enough eggs to feed at least 100 underserved children daily and provide fertilizer to keep the school’s fruit and vegetable garden very healthy.