It’s been a while since I’ve written here and updated the blog. I just finished up a paper for my health psychology class. It’s finals week, and so I’ve been spending more time in the library (this is my all-time record) writing up the paper and finally submitting it. I’ve been in reflection mode lately about life and the direction it is going. Sometimes in school, it’s easy to forget the big picture when grades matter, keeping up with group assignments outside the work itself, suddenly you’re focused on maintaining GPAs, honor lists, etc., and before you know it, you’re burnt out and forgetting to enjoy the moment that will soon pass you by. It’s why I’ve been stepping back from posting, because I found myself needing to recalibrate and focus on what matters to me. Since I started school as a non-traditional student back in 2024, I haven’t been that focused on the big financial picture that has been my dream, and that is running my own private investment fund with my son, so we can have the life we actually want, versus the life that we should have based on society’s merits.
Since school is the pipeline to the traditional pathway, it is easy to get stuck in what you should be doing versus what you want to do, even if you have an idea of what you already want. It’s meant to help you get into the corporate world, the traditional world outside of entrepreneurial MBA programs. Even then, you find a lot of overlap between the traditional world and entrepreneurial spirit, where the former overshadows the latter. January was a tough month for me as well, as I had to evaluate who I spent my focus on in terms of giving back knowledge and helping with financial growth. It’s not surprising that my professors teaching the personal finance class I took this quarter are also financial advisors, and therefore, I was able to garner some wisdom. You can’t help everyone, even if you wish you could.
People will come to you, ask you for advice, or tell you they want you in their corner, but still not be ready, not be willing to listen, or take what you have to offer for granted. It’s made me be a lot more tight with my financial knowledge and who I am willing to step outside my schedule for, which perhaps isn’t starting to be a bad thing. I find myself focusing more on my own portfolios once more, researching companies like the old times, checking out books from the library, such as Peter Lynch’s Beating the Street and How Wall Street Works by David L. Scott, and listening to classical pieces from Erik Satie again, moments that have simply vanished while in school, because I too focused on the academia, and perhaps rightfully so.
As a friend mentioned, perhaps it’s just seasons: you were in the season of academia, and now you’re in another season of financial matters. I like to think of it that way; it’s another concept that vanished into the background during this time in my life. Still, it feels nice to be back at home, where I am venturing out and exploring new libraries, where thousands of finance books and any other topics are ready to be explored at my fingertips.
Sometimes I can’t help but sit back and feel grateful for these moments, to remind myself that I am still alive, therefore, I am able to have the fortune to create the life I want if I am just patient enough to play the long game and not lose sight of my goals. I recently was awarded a slot to the Western Psychological Association conference (WPA), and I will be going along with six other students to represent the UW spirit, but also to make the best use of what this conference has to offer. I think that is the most important. A former professor of mine suggested I put my hat in the ring, and so I did, and also, if it wasn’t for what happened back in January, the conversation wouldn’t have happened because it was that incident that led me to touch on the behavioral side of things with her, which led to that conversation happening about the conference.
Sometimes, you can find beauty in the ugly. I am okay now. I think sometimes the universe has a way of shaking you awake so you can focus on the things and people that matter. I’ve been spending more time taking advantage of events here at UW Tacoma, getting into the spirit of such matters, even joining in on the sustainability meetings held every other Wednesday, I believe. I still attend finance events, but most importantly, I have been going to events outside my scope, such as a miniature figurine painting event, where pizza and drinks were served. I sit here now in the campus library at the same spot I sat in yesterday feeling at home, jacket on the back of the chair, half-drunk energy drink and snacks to my left, water bottle and headphones to my right, and for the first time in a long time I feel my nervous system at peace, although I have a presentation coming up fast, which I am sure will shake me out of this state, but in the meantime I will enjoy this moment of silence and nourishment.
Another update is that I sold out of a position in two of our household accounts that I was going to hold on to for a decade, but as time went on, I knew that this wasn’t one of those vault decisions that we keep locked up no matter the market price. This had been one of those pandemic decisions when interest rates were low, money was essentially free to borrow, masking the future consequences of higher interest rates when the time came. It wasn’t a decision I made lightly, as I am a buy-and-hold investor, but after some consideration, along with a stock market challenge that my teammate and I did for finance class, I knew it was time to sell. One of the finance professors, Dean, when I told him that I had sold out of a position, he looked at me and said, “You know, it’s easy to buy, but it’s really hard to sell, and many people have trouble doing that,” in other words, it’s a wise lesson to learn, but hard for many to grasp, which fits into the loss aversion concept that we have been covering in my judgment and decision-making class.
Oddly enough, I have written about loss aversion and the endowment effect on here, even though I am not faring at all that well in my judgment and decision-making class. It’s the first time I might end up getting a C, or just above that with a B-, which for a while had me in the slumps. No matter how much I tried, I just couldn’t get the exams right, even though I understood the concepts, so much so that even the professor confirmed it wasn’t comprehension of the material but my performance on the exams. Long story short, I have the option of just taking an S and keeping my GPA intact if I am worried about the eventual drop. The ironic side to this story is that when it comes to the real world, I am doing quite well, and it just shows that sometimes what we know doesn’t always translate on paper.
I can’t think of any other updates than those, so I might leave you here. Other than that, I am probably going to take the night to relax, focus on some finance, and perhaps go over concepts for the presentation, which is for that class. I hope to get back to writing on here soon, more about investment decisions and analysis. I’ll be taking the summer off, so perhaps that is when you’ll see more of me on here. Until then, take care of yourself, and I’ll see you around in the next blog post.
The Broke College Student 
Leave a comment