Mindful Money Walk

Sheri Walks the Mindful Money Walk … in Europe

Mindful Money Walk

Mindful living, including spending money where it will be most meaningful, is certainly a regular theme here at SAGEbroadview.

To search for that meaning, there’s ample academic evidence suggesting that we tend to find more happiness spending money on experiences than things. For example, a Wall Street Journal article, “Can Money Buy You Happiness,” cites several studies that have explored the lasting effect of spending. “What we find is that there’s this huge misforecast,” says San Francisco University Associate Professor Ryan Howell. “People think that experiences are only going to provide temporary happiness, but they actually provide both more happiness and more lasting value.”

We do our best here at SAGEbroadview to abide by the same advice we give our clients … and I think we do a pretty good job at that, if I do say. But if there’s one area in which I may fall short, it’s my world travels … for a variety of reasons, I’ve never left the good ole USA, until this past October.

After dropping off our youngest son Devon at the Hartt School at the University of Hartford, my husband Dave and I packed our bags and headed out on a European cultural immersion.

 

It all began when our older son Dominic had the opportunity to participate in the Worcester Polytechnic Institute’s Global Projects Program, a projects-based learning program that took him to Rabat, Morocco for seven weeks. There he worked with three other students developing a “Geographical Information System for the Oudayas Kasbah of Rabat”. We’re so proud of Dominic, to say the least, but we also sorely missed seeing his smiling face.

Mindful Money Walk
Next thing we knew, we were reuniting with him in Paris. From there, we traveled together to Italy and toured Florence and Rome, some of the most beautiful cities I’ve ever seen.

The vacation was all I’d dreamed of and more. Next time the madness of the daily markets may take a toll on my energy level, I intend to remember the spectacular examples of human enterprise I saw in the people, places and millennia-old architectural wonders we found everywhere we went. The resiliency and enduring history we witnessed firsthand helps put our near-term frustrations in perspective, that’s for sure.

My time away also served as an excellent trial run back at SAGEbroadview, to confirm that the redundancy plans and support systems we’ve built over the years would ensure that our clients and our business would continue to thrive while I was away. I’d like to think I was missed while I was gone, but I’m happy to report that our daily operations continued apace.

That said, don’t you worry. Europe tugged at my heartstrings. The food and those little cups of coffee … Mama mia! But SAGEbroadview, my fabulous team members who took care of things while I was away, and our wonderful clients who have entrusted us with their own life’s dreams – these remain my family and my home.


SAGE Serendipity:  You know we love to read. The end of the year brings so many lists of great ideas for reading in the year ahead. In this week’s T Magazine, The New York Times features Eight Creative People Recommend Their Favorite Classic Books; it also delves deeper into each person’s top ten.  

You might remember a few weeks back we looked at the Goodreads Best Books of 2016 voting options — and the winners are  … Enjoy!


 

Sheri Iannetta Cupo, CFP®, Founding Partner (Retired) & Director
[email protected]

SAGEbroadview Wealth Management is a Fee Only firm offering ongoing financial planning and portfolio management, with tax planning woven carefully throughout our services. We work virtually across the country, with offices in Farmington, CT, Morristown, NJ, and Burlington, MA.