Apply Pragmatism On Your Journey To Financial Independence

“Final check on gear” the guide yelled. “One minute!” 

Our little aluminum jon boat was bobbing violently in the beautiful Caribbean waters.  We were a few miles off the coast of Roatan Honduras, an island paradise famous for its scuba diving.  The wind and chop were relentless, and we just wanted off the boat and into the water. 

We fully knew what we were diving towards, something that most would consider terrifying.  But as our stomachs grew increasingly upset at being thrown about, diving down was the better choice.  I mercifully hit the water before I lost my lunch, then opened the valve on my buoyancy vest to let the air out.  I sank into the abyss.

As I peered into the darkness below I saw what I came for, seventy-five feet beneath me the slowly swimming sharks were already circling. 

 

Is It Sensible?

I achieved financial independence around 2014.  One of the approaches to life that guided me on the journey was pragmatism.  A short definition of pragmatism is “to take a realistic approach”.  A longer definition is:

the quality of dealing with a problem in a sensible way that suits the conditions that really exist, rather than following fixed theories, ideas, or rules.

Pragmatists avoid letting emotion guide their decisions. They deal with the facts on the ground and strive to make decisions solely based on the facts.  Pragmatism, as Wikipedia says, “emphasizes the practical application of ideas by acting on them to actually test them in human experiences”. 

How can you apply pragmatism in your financial life?  Two of the biggest purchases that most of us make are a home and a vehicle.  How did pragmatism help me in these decisions?

Remember, pragmatism takes a realistic approach and deals with things in a sensible way.  When I bought my house, I was single and in my early thirties. A normal American approach is to buy more house than necessary.  My best friend bought a 2800 square foot house when he was the same age as me, and also single.  Not pragmatic. 

The pragmatic approach was a 1400 square foot house, arguably still more than I need.  But it was also a deliberate decision that was realistic based on the facts of my life.  In hindsight it was one of the best financial decisions I ever made. 

Sure, I’m human, and not immune to the desires of a big house with a garage in a massive yard.  But pragmatism is more effective, and profitable.  And after living in a normal-sized home for 17 years the temptation of the McMansion fades. 

Then there’s my vehicle choices.  Up until my mid-40s when I reached financial independence I bought and drove used jalopies.  Mostly station wagons, those timeless symbols of manhood and sexiness.  What were the facts on the ground at the time?  I had lots of outdoor toys like bikes, kayaks, and paddle boards, and I didn’t need four-wheel drive. 

So an SUV, even a used one, was a big waste of money.  But a station wagon was perfect for the job.  They had all the cargo space for my toys, but still got great gas mileage because they didn’t have four-wheel drive. 

And they also don’t have the big massive tires and all the silly expensive extras that drain your wallet over time that SUVs do.  Station wagons solved my vehicle problem in a sensible way.  And pragmatism doesn’t pay lip-service to vanity, so there’s that.

Upon reaching financial independence, I eventually bought a new Subaru Outback.  The facts on the ground had changed.  I could pay cash for whatever I wanted and I didn’t even have to work another day in my life if I really didn’t want to. 

So even though my numerous used (and totally sexy) station wagons met my needs for over 15 years and rarely had any problems, I upgraded.  I didn’t want to take the risk, however minimal, of picking out the right used vehicle with 80,000 miles that wasn’t going to fall apart.  I already won that game a couple times. 

A different ground truth required a different, pragmatic, and sensible approach.

Pragmatism helps you avoid lifestyle inflation, and is a guide to deal with investing decisions in a fact-based way that reflects reality.  It also helps you overcome emotion in everyday life.  This is handy when you want to do cool things that popular opinion might scare you away from. 

Like intentionally scuba diving with 25 sharks…..

 

The Ocean Is A Real Shark Tank

As we descended to 75 feet underwater, the sharks were everywhere, probably 20 or 30 of them.  They slowly circled the white bucket of chum sitting on the ocean floor.  This was a planned shark dive, it was and still is one of the most thrilling things I’ve ever done. 

Aside from the visual overload of swimming next to 10 foot sharks in the open ocean, common wisdom is that an activity like this is dangerous, even insane.  The facts, however, tell a different story.  The operation that runs the dive had been doing it for over 25 years.  They had taken thousands of divers down to swim with thousands of sharks. 

How many divers got attacked or bitten by a shark over the years?

Exactly zero.

So the facts on the ground – the conditions that really exist (not the visually alarming ones I was seeing) – are that this is a perfectly safe thing to do.  Turns out humans are just not on the menu for Carribean reef sharks in Roatan.

The conditions that existed had been done thousands of times. My sensible approach was to put emotion aside, and to deal with the reality.

So I swam with the sharks. 

I did this trip way back in the days before GoPro cameras.  So being able to take pics underwater meant using one of those plastic, disposable waterproof film cameras.  They were only rated to 50 feet underwater.  I got this one pick, which was lucky, then the camera gave out.  This is a scan of a film print.

 

 

If you want to see what it was really like, this is pretty much what I experienced for 40 minutes of fun!  This is a video from the same diving outfit that I went with and in the same spot.  And yes, they sometimes come right up to you to say “Hi”.