Reading Signs In San Francisco

It’s summer, and as a semi-retired FI-type, I figure I have an obligation to be out doing stuff that I just wouldn’t be able to do if I were still a Working Joe that was forced (because of my out-of-control consumption habits) to sit in a cubicle for 10 hours a day like a caged animal. So the JF crew of five hit the road (and air) last week for a fortnight of travel through northern California and up the Oregon coastline. Much of this trip has been underwritten by points from various travel-hacking endeavors, and I’ll share those details in a later post when I return to Freedomville. For today, I thought I’d share a few brief thoughts that I had as we traveled around San Francisco, our launch point for this FI tour. The thoughts were prompted by various visual displays, which I captured in photos.

Crisis counseling hotline on the Golden Gate Bridge

Bridge Suicide-Counseling Hotline: As we made our way on foot back across the Golden Gate Bridge from Marin County, I noticed multiple signs like this one promoting the availability of a “crisis counseling” service. I might have wondered exactly what this meant had I not already seen the placard that explained the suicide-prevention apparatus that was in the process of being installed throughout the bridge and surrounding area. This consisted mainly of a high chain-link fence on the outside of the existing four-foot guard rails that line the pedestrian walkway of the bridge. Translation: you’ve got a whole lot of people jumping off of this thing.

My first thought: WTF? These people live in paradise. The scenery and landscape are incredibly beautiful. But I noted as we walked through the city that most people we encountered did not seem very happy. In fact they seemed miserable. And angry. We had been on the city streets for only about a block (literally) before another pedestrian hip-checked my 7-year old and sent her to the pavement. She was skipping down the path not paying attention to where she was going—having a whole lot of fun I might add—and this guy refused to change his walk trajectory by an inch. I thought I was going to be arrested for a fist-fight during my first hour on the ground, but she was okay and I decided it wasn’t worth the hassle.

It’s obvious that there are a lot of unhappy people here.

But why? A couple of theories. The first can be dispensed with quickly.  I have to think that personal politics are a huge factor. This is an area that is so liberal that the prevailing ethos is: “anything goes, as long as it feels good . . . and sort-of kind-of doesn’t hurt anybody else (too badly).” Sorry to cross over into politics here folks, but that sort of attitude leads to really bad results. And a lot of damaged people. And self-loathing. But this is a personal finance blog, not a political blog, so we move on.

Second: there’s an ass-ton of money here. Or to be more accurate: an ass-ton of status-proving, wealth-destroying consumption going on here. So if you’re an individual that lives only for what feels good right now, only to prove your value to the world by the kind of car you drive and the clothes you wear, you are fighting a never-ending (losing) battle in this town. So maybe the 750-foot drop from the middle of the bridge looks pretty good.

The lesson for personal finance: don’t define your self-worth by what others think of you. Determine your value based on your character, and you’re free to avoid self-destructive consumption.

Foghorn info at Golden Gate Bridge park

Foghorns: So apparently we still need foghorns. A fairly low-tech device that continues to serve a critical function: warn sea vessels of navigational obstructions during periods of low visibility resulting from fog. A simple solution to a simple problem. When visibility is reduced, warn travelers by sound of potential obstructions.

It’s similar to what we do here in the personal finance blogosphere: serve as an alert for people that have had visibility cut with respect to their financial behaviors, and hopefully guide them away from the rocks.

A lonely ship traveling the bay

A Solitary Ship: This view was just too beautiful to pass up. As I stood on a hill in the Presidio Park area at the base of the Golden Gate Bridge on the San Francisco side, I watched this solitary vessel cut its path through the waters toward its destination. That’s Alcatraz that appears as the rock in the middle of the picture. I’m sure the boat was not headed there, but I pretended that it was, and likened the journey to that of the sojourn to financial independence. You can see the goal, but it’s off in the distance, and nobody else seems to be headed in that direction. In fact, they are headed in the opposite direction.

That’s okay. Keep going. It will be worth it. (And note: Alcatraz is a sold-out tourist destination these days . . . not a maximum-security prison.)

A cut-away of the Golden Gate Bridge cables.

Strength in Numbers: This is a look at a cut-away of the cables that allow for the suspension of the roadway of the Golden Gate Bridge. You can see them there in the background running up and down the iconic tower structure. If you look closely at the detail of the cut-away you can see that this extra-large cable is comprised of a bunch of small wires . . . 27,572 small wires to be exact. Individually each of these small wires would be relatively worthless in terms of supporting the massive weight of the bridge roadway. But when they are combined en masse, they are capable of immense strength that allows for the suspension of incredible weight.

It’s similar to the principle that wealth is built $10 at a time. Each $10 expenditure (an individual wire) is relatively worthless. But if you add enough of them up, they can support immense weight. If you accumulate enough of those $10 expenditures, they can even support the weight of allowing you to leave your entrapment chamber and devote your time to whatever the hell you want. Like traveling the Pacific Northwest for two weeks taking pictures and drinking kick-ass craft beer. (That’s just a hypothetical example.)

The world turned on its ear

Perspective Matters: Anything look odd in this picture? Plenty, you should be thinking. You’ve got houses and apartment buildings and condos built on an angle. You can’t build that way (leaning tower of Pisa notwithstanding). Perspective matters. Here’s what the world really looks like:

On a slant, but not slanted.

This is a steep-as-crap hill in the city. Hyde Street to be precise. It looks a bit odd as you take it in: a steep incline with structures in the background that are level. But it makes sense. The first picture makes no sense. Level road, but unlevel structures. Don’t be afraid to call bullsh*t when the herd that you are running with declares with emphasis and apparent certainty that up is down, and that day is night. The consumption and money habits of the world around us would have us believe that it makes sense to drive $80k cars and live in $800k houses before we are actually wealthy. Just because that’s how you signal to the rest of the herd that you are a BSD that makes a big income and will one day be wealthy. Bullsh*t. That’s backward. Up is down and down is up. How ‘bout this: why don’t we consider actually becoming wealthy before we decide to spend on consumption items that signal wealth to the world around us? Wouldn’t that be upside down? (er, I mean, right side up.)

Just one piece of the crooked-ness.

Beware Unintended Consequences: As you reach the top of the hill in the prior picture you reach this stretch of road. Lombard Street, aka “The Crookedest Street.” Right in the middle of downtown San Fran, an otherwise straight roadway is subjected to eight hairpin curves over a roughly 600-foot section. It makes for interesting scenery . . . and absolutely awful traffic management. The crooked roadway was built in 1922 to solve an existing problem: the 27 percent grade of the hill was too steep for cars of the day to climb, and this resulted in reduced property values in the area. The crooked roadway was built to mitigate the grade and facilitate car travel. Done and done. But today the road serves as a major tourist attraction. Imagine jumping in your car in your garage (at the base of your $3 million townhome) to run to the store for some bread and being blocked from leaving by heavy traffic . . . for 20 minutes. That straight-up sucks. So the solution for the area property owners in 1922 is creating some significant problems for the property owners of 2018.

Personal finance takeaway: short-term solutions will often deliver long-term problems in the form of unintended consequences. Often these unintended consequences—while unintended—were completely foreseeable ex ante. “I’ll skimp on my 401(k) contributions right now, you know, just to free up some cash that is otherwise being drained by my huge jumbo mortgage that I took out because I’m a BSD attorney” comes to mind as one example. Unlike the architects of the crookedest-street solution in 1922, you’ll have no room to argue that your inability to ever leave work was unforeseeable.

Ethnic enclave/tourist trap

Down and Out in Chinatown:  I made a compelling argument to Mrs. JF as to why we should spend the bulk of the day in the park surrounding the Golden Gate Bridge. She had a preference for shopping in Chinatown. So I found myself outside a tchotchke shop on a street lined with tchotchke shops about 30 minutes later.

This area that presumably began as an authentic ethnic community (and continues as such in some respects) has evolved into a tourist trap. It’s a reminder of a fundamental and nearly immutable rule: all human endeavors begin as a grass-roots movement, develop into a business, and ultimately degenerate into a racket. I fear that a couple of things that make my Freedom and yours (a) possible and (b) very enjoyable are quite likely in phase two of this inevitable cycle . . . and headed to phase three. I’m thinking of index investing and craft beer, respectively.

Damn. Oh well. Enjoy them while you can.