Book excerpt: The Diary of a Novice Investor
Making up one’s mind takes time, and this Spanish Proverb holds true beyond investing. My parents had been experiencing difficulties with certain normal daily activities and we had some tough decisions to make. We were running out of time.
A couple of days after Dad’s funeral, I was at the church expressing to one of their friends, a woman in her late 70’s, how we tried to encourage them to move to a retirement community. Her response contained such clarity on the situation, it has been with me ever since. “Yes, we know we should do that. The problem is, it’s hard to decide when is the right time.”
Yes, deciding the right time to do something takes time. It may also mean that by the time you make the decision it’s too late. Do you know the right time to take action?
“During this time, my sister and I hired a law firm to pursue guardianship so that we could legally remove our parents from their home if it came to that. We had to plan these details in secret, so our parent’s wouldn’t know. If Dad knew, he would have been immeasurably pissed off and probably disowned us.”