Protect the Weak
This is an email I sent out to my students on 3.12.20. At that time not many people were taking this situation too seriously. Now a lot more people are which is good, because it isn’t about you. It is about protecting the people around you. Protect the weak, that is one of the rules laid out by martial arts master’s of the past. You must protect the weak.
You have a moral responsibility to protect the weak martial artist or not. But especially true for martial artists.
Just wanted to touch base with everyone. I'm sure you all are aware of the safety precautions to take while this COVID-19 is going around. Here is how I am looking at it. You should do everything you can to prevent it not because you are worried about it, but because the downside of not taking the precautions is too high.
So wash your hands often, avoid large crowds, if you can self isolate as much as possible. AKA If you are able to work from home, then do it. If you can't but you have some vacation time or sick time, take it. Don't travel at least in airlines and if you are driving avoid stopping necessarily. Do not re-wear clothes, wash after each use. Keep your area's of operations clean and well ventilated including the school. I am okay if you only want to do forms at the school for class. You can do forms and conditioning for all classes if you like.
With the bad comes some opportunities as well. Here are the opportunities as I see them.
1. Investing - now is the time to buy stocks or index funds. If you are interested and all of you should be interested in it at least to some extend. There are a couple of opportunities right one being the stocks affected by the COVID-19 which are airlines, and travel companies, and really any because most large companies are global and will be affected by these circumstances. From what I have read for investing low cost index funds are the way to go (I have accounts with Vanguard and Charles Schwab they seem to have the lowest expense ratios). I like David Swenson's, Investment guy for Yale, investment allocation model and I try to follow that with index funds and my stock purchases.
There is also an oil stock opportunity. There is an oil price war going on right now between Saudi Arabia and Russia which is driving oil stocks down as well. Most likely the combination of this with the COVID-19 will drive us into a recession which means more cheap stocks. And the stocks you buy now will most likely decrease some more. But there is no way to tell when they will start coming back up, so I think now is the time to buy if you do a little research and make an appropriate.
If you are already invested in a retirement plan then now is the time to increase contributions. All the above circumstances are temporary and we will recover from them all. If the COVID thing turns into the zombie apocalypse then you have bigger issues to tend with than losing any invested money. But when it goes away you will benefit greatly from investing now.
I am no expert in investments so take this all with a grain of salt. But I want to let you guys know that now is the opportunity and to let you know my thoughts and what I am doing. I got into the investment game late, and I want you all to have the information that I have which I think will be useful to you all. Because I wish someone had talked with me about this 20 years ago.
I am not worried about myself, my child, or my wife or you guys as we all have strong immune systems. I am worried about bringing it home as a carrier to my mother in law who is in her late 60's. That could be devastating. So becareful, be clean, and be smart.