Quote to Ponder
"The three most important words in investing are margin of safety."
Recommended Links
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- High Child Care Costs to Blame for Women Leaving the Workplace at an Alarming Rate - Bjorn featured on KSTP 5 Eyewitness News
- How Quickly Things Can Change - Larry Swedroe via Substack
- The Math Doesn't Add Up on AI Spending - Greenlight Capital Q3 2025 Letter
- Every Person Explaining Their Investments - Instagram Reel
- Investing 101 - The Rational Reminder Podcast Episode
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Recent Content From Quarry Hill
If you’ve been following along on social, you may have seen some of our new videos and resources. Here are a couple of our recent favorites:
A note from Kyle moore, CFP®
During the first snow of last winter, I watched a driver struggle to brake on bald tires. The car skidded through a stop sign and almost hit my car. Then, once he tried to accelerate, the tires spun in place. It was an awfully dangerous situation for him and the other drivers on the road.
After cursing at him under my breath, I took a step back to consider his situation. If replacing those tires meant sacrificing groceries for a month, that driver faced a terrible tradeoff between safety and sustenance. The driver was likely suffering from a lack of slack in his life. The less slack you have, the more painful every financial tradeoff can be.
Slack is what gives life room to breathe. It’s the ultimate goal of every financial plan. Slack is the buffer between what you need and what you have. Having financial slack allows you to absorb the unexpected without unraveling your plans. Someone who earns $1 million per year can easily absorb an unexpected $1,000 expense, while someone who earns $35,000 might be devastated.
On the other hand, someone with plenty of financial slack might delay replacing their tires not because of money, but because of time. Between work and family, time slack can become the scarce resource. The tradeoff shifts from dollars to minutes. Someone without time slack might be unable to absorb an unexpected demand on their schedule and neglect to purchase new tires before winter.
A financial plan’s ultimate aim is to create more slack in both areas.
We all live with tradeoffs. Every dollar you spend today is a dollar you can’t use for something else now or in the future. That is the essence of opportunity cost. Yet when you have enough slack the weight of that tradeoff lightens. You don’t have to calculate every purchase or fear every surprise. That is the real power of having a financial plan. When you know you are saving enough to meet your future goals, you give yourself permission to stop worrying about each small decision.
Slack is what keeps a flat tire, a lost job, or an unexpected medical bill from becoming a full-blown crisis. It’s what lets you say yes to opportunities that don’t come with guarantees like starting a business, taking a sabbatical, or helping someone in need, because you’ve built the margin to absorb uncertainty.
The goal of good financial planning is to achieve this flexibility. When you have enough slack, you gain the freedom to make choices based on values instead of fear, and to take risks without risking everything.
This material is intended for educational purposes only. You should always consult a financial, tax, or legal professional familiar with your unique circumstances before making any financial decisions. Nothing contained in the material constitutes a recommendation for purchase or sale of any security, investment advisory services or tax advice. The information and opinions expressed in the linked articles are from third parties, and while they are deemed reliable, we cannot guarantee their accuracy.
