I feel obliged to share a rather amusing discovery I recently made.
It was a picture of hedge fund legend Ray Dalio celebrating his 77th birthday in Ibiza, dancing until 4am in one of the island's many superclubs. Dalio later posted on X that he had "a blast", a level of enthusiasm usually absent from his discussions of debt cycles.
It is comforting to know that while I was debating whether 8pm was too late to begin a new TV series, Dalio was out there navigating smoke cannons, strobe lights and what one nightclub website describes as a 'psychedelic adventure of epic proportions'.
Besides the peculiar imagery this elicits, I must admit there is something faintly wonderful about all of this. Not because we should all aspire to spend our late seventies in a nightclub. Rather, the appeal lies in the complete indifference to the elaborate rules we've constructed around ageing.
Every generation inherits its own version of these rules. Teenagers are encouraged to chase novelty. Your 30s are for becoming a respectable member of society. And those beyond 60 are expected to develop an intimate knowledge of cruise ship itineraries and Bunnings' opening hours. I can personally attest to this as someone whose parents are currently plotting a transatlantic expedition aboard the Queen Mary.
Naturally these scripts vary across cultures, but the underlying assumption is that there is a correct way to occupy every stage of life. Lately, I've been thinking about these rules myself.
Unlike Dalio, I just returned from a holiday where I spent considerably more time appreciating the high-quality bedding than investigating the local nightlife. This would have horrified my younger self, but the prospect of 10 uninterrupted hours of sleep has recently earnt a new glamour.
To acknowledge the obvious, I am in no position to offer wisdom on growing old. I can, however, borrow liberally from those who are. Having spent several paragraphs questioning the wisdom of age-based rules, it may seem odd to arrive at a book titled More Rules for Aging. Author Roger Rosenblatt is also in on the joke. His latest work is a new iteration of his original 2001 bestseller and much less prescriptive than the title suggests.
Below are a few of my favourite 'rules'.
Look only at the rim
"When I was playing intramural basketball in college, I was 5-foot-11, a mite in the land of giants, and my all-around game was so-so at best. Yet most of the time I managed to score in the double digits by paying no attention to the defense. I simply pretended it wasn’t there. I looked only at the rim of the basket. And sure enough, most of the time the defense didn’t touch me.
Other games in life offer similar opportunities, at any age. Disregard the impediments to your well-being - a noisy neighbor, a treacherous colleague - and concentrate instead on where you are headed. You’ll be pleasantly surprised how easily you get there. Nothing but net."
I am a proud member of the 'Morningstar Mambas'. This is a team in a loosely organised lunchtime basketball league, where corporate workers temporarily abandon their desks in favour of missed jump shots and minor injuries.
Rosenblatt's observation resonated strongly with me. Much of my time on the court is spent observing the opposition, usually identifying the player most likely to embarrass me and then adjusting my game plan accordingly. Unsurprisingly, this approach has delivered very few points and an excessive amount of sweat for a workday.
Most investing content concerns itself with obstacles. Inflation, tariff wars, recessions. Whilst these are important topics, investors often discover that the greatest impediment to reaching a goal is spending too much time staring at the defence.
Grab the chicken leg
"So there we were, in our 20s, Ginny and I and a bunch of friends, having a picnic by the Charles River in Cambridge, when I picked up a chicken leg with the intention of eating it and held it aloft. A little boy walked by and took it from my hand and kept walking. My friends and I laughed - the boy was so casual.
Ginny said, 'He must think that life is a chicken leg, waiting to be snatched.' In fact it is, even when you’re no longer a spring chicken."
I think there is something distinctly American about Rosenblatt's optimism. The chicken leg exists to be taken. Somewhere between childhood and old age, many of us replace this instinct with hesitation. Of course, at times caution is appropriate, but we shouldn't consider it a proxy for wisdom.
Observe the moth
"In her essay 'The Death of the Moth,' Virginia Woolf notices a moth in its death throes, batting about a small windowpane. The author watches the animal’s plight with pity and admiration - awe, really.
Its struggles are beautiful. She imagines the moth saying death was too strong, even for it.
Observe the moth in its monumental fight for life, and do likewise. We gain life’s powers by knowing that eventually they will be taken away. There is beauty in this struggle. Murmurations of starlings occur only in the evening."
Woolf's essay feels strikingly at odds with modern conversations about maximising longevity. Admittedly, I occasionally fall victim to the odd 'anti-ageing' supplement from the chemist. Perhaps Woolf and Rosenblatt would argue that mortality is not life's great affliction, but one of the things that give it meaning.
Screw it up royally
"You’ve spent a long life telling yourself that mistakes are to be avoided, but that isn’t necessarily so. Playing jazz piano, whenever you make a mistake, which is inevitable, you make another mistake deliberately to make something right out of something wrong. Then you do it again. Theoretically, you could play an entire tune of mistakes, and it would sound just fine.
You may think it would be better not to make the mistake in the first place. But a creative mistake may be truer to life, as you’ve no doubt discovered. You took a job you didn’t want, soon to discover it’s the ideal job for you. You were born to do that job. When you think of it, life is an assembly of creative mistakes."
I believe what Rosenblatt is really arguing against is the illusion of control. Investors understand this instinctively. Entire industries exist to predict the future, yet the greatest fortunes are often built on developments few saw coming. Life appears to operate on a similar principle.
Do not seek immortality
"It won’t come to you anyway, certainly not through your works and achievements. But the good feeling you have for others, and they for you, that goes on forever. I’m fond of quoting the poet Philip Larkin: What will survive of us is love. That should do it."
It is a curious human instinct to seek some form of permanence from a fundamentally impermanent existence.
Modern culture is preoccupied with the idea of strong personal branding and leaving a legacy. But one can be both highly visible and quickly forgotten. Most people can recall a kindness received years ago, yet struggle to remember who won last year's industry awards.
Concluding thoughts
Many of Rosenblatt's 'rules' are less concerned with ageing than with liberation.
And perhaps the great irony is that ageing may be the only stage of life where we finally become free of the rules we've spent decades trying to follow.
Which brings me back to Dalio in Ibiza. Whether your version of freedom is dancing until 4am or going to bed before 9pm, the privilege of age may just be learning the difference between what you're supposed to enjoy and what you actually want to do.
Simonelle Mody
Also in this week's edition...
Harry Chemay walks through the all-too-familiar question plaguing many retirees - will you run out of money?
Tax rules have changed, but many investors are still using yesterday’s strategies. Noel Whittaker discusses the investment that sidesteps the new tax traps.
Kera Van Valen from TD Epoch argues that reliable dividend payers have also historically delivered consistent returns and weathered challenging market conditions.
Dr Joanne Earl is back with her retirement insights - 5 months in.
How effective has the RBA been at maintaining their 2-3% inflation target? Ashley Owen runs the updated numbers.
AI may prove as transformative as the internet, but markets are behaving as if success is guaranteed. Michael Turner asks whether investors can ride the bubble without overpaying.
Are markets still expensive? Amy Arnott walks through the seven key indicators every investor needs to know.
Curated by Simonelle Mody and Leisa Bell
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