One lesson quitting the rat race taught me
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I used to work in an industry where it’s a never-ending race of social comparison. We climb up the corporate ladder, we get promoted, we make more money. But this climb keeps shifting our financial goalposts. We start to see what others around us do. We want more: fancier cars… bigger houses... It’s never enough. John Bogle was the founder and CEO of The Vanguard Group. He pioneered the first index fund. He passed away in 2019. He once said in a speech I’ll never forget: "Here’s how I recall the wonderful story that sets the theme for my remarks today: At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, the late Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal, the author Joseph Heller, that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel Catch 22 over its whole history.
Heller responds, ‘Yes, but I have something he will never have… Enough.’”
They say fear and greed drives the stock market. But there’s a third force at work – That’s envy. Why? Because envy keeps us from having… enough. And one of the hardest things about investing is not mastering our financial skills. It’s keeping our financial goalpost still. For many years, a group of academics operated one of the biggest hedge funds in the world. In its first year, the fund produced 21% returns. Then 43% returns in the second. And 41% returns in the third. Very impressive. But this hedge fund wanted everything bigger – more assets, more returns, more everything. In just four years, the company had managed US$4.7 billion of assets, but also borrowed more than $124.5 billion of debt in their fund. Can you believe that? This is a leverage of over 25 to 1. Even a bank doesn’t borrow that much. In 1998 during the Asian financial crisis, Russia blew up. Asia blew up. This hedge fund run by academics lost everything and was eventually bailed out by 14 banks. The hedge fund was called Long-term Capital Management. The thing is, there’s always a bigger mountain behind you. If we keep shifting our financial goalposts, if we don’t decide when is enough, it might lead us to take more unnecessary risks. In 2024, the 25 highest paid hedge fund managers totaled US$30 billion. Altogether, 11 of the total 25 hedge fund managers made more than US$1 billion. But what about the fund manager who makes US$170,000 a year? He will never be like what the top are making. Growing up, I defined success by an external benchmark — grades, money and promotions. And it doesn’t help when the very industry I used to work in encourages a lot of that. In some ways, envy became a pernicious disease. Eventually, I got burnt out. When I quit my job in 2018, I decided to stop defining my success by that outer scorecard. Instead, I started measuring success by my own internal benchmark. This means achieving success is doing work that’s aligned with my heart, while still challenging myself to grow and become a better version of Willie Keng. I invest so I can buy back my freedom, buy my own comfort, buy time with my family and do the work that is meaningful to me. Accumulating wealth along the way allowed me to quit the rat race, build my financial blog, push myself into new areas – public speaking, writing, and even growing my Diligence Wealth Club community to over a few hundred members today. I still work hard. I still have my busy seasons. I still enjoy the luxury of life. But knowing when is enough, knowing I already have passive income by my side gave me something priceless: Choice. You know, being able to decide when I get to take a break, to be there for important events for my kids – whether it’s a birthday party, a school Christmas event or simply deciding to take time off to drive up JB with my wife... I remind myself that it truly matters for me. Being your own boss isn’t for everyone. And neither is working for one. What I’ve learnt is this: We create our own life by design, not by default. When you’re starting out investing, you don’t have to be the next Warren Buffett. Or George Soros. Or Peter Lynch. Instead:
Focus on "Your Enough". Sometimes, investing can be simple. Willie Keng, CFA Founder, dividendtitan.com P.S. Like this issue? Click HERE to join other dividend investors reading my DT Compound Letter. I send my regular letters to your inbox. |
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