Why I stopped counting my Parkruns

There's a phrase I come back to often: "The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing." It sounds a bit tautological, I know. But it's one of the most useful pieces of wisdom I've borrowed, and it applies to almost everything, including how you think about your money.

Let me explain by looking at a few people who've got this right.

Rassie Erasmus and the noise machine

Rassie Erasmus became head coach of the South African Springboks in 2018 when they were in a mess. An 11-12-2 record. The worst in nearly a decade. There was a lot of noise around South African rugby at the time - political noise, noise about transformation, noise about who should be playing and why. Noise, noise, noise.

But Erasmus, a self-proclaimed ‘quiet, uncomplicated person’, had identified the main thing: winning. Simple. Not the endless cycle of debate and discourse, but the actual work on the field, the results. He didn't get distracted by all the commentary. He just got on with it.

Within a year they were No. 2 in the world. The following season, Erasmus led his team to a Rugby Championship title and would go on to achieve South Africa’s third World Cup with a win over England in the final. 

That's how you can tell someone knows what they're doing. They don't get caught up in the noise. They know what matters, and they focus on that.

Paul Sinton-Hewitt and the simple thing

Paul Sinton-Hewitt is the founder of Parkrun - you might have heard of it. A free, weekly, community event where you can walk, run, jog, volunteer or spectate. 5k timed runs, anyone welcome, including dogs (on a short lead) and children (within reach). It started when Sinton-Hewitt got 13 runners together for the Bushy Park Time Trial which later became Parkrun and now takes place in 2,500 locations across 23 countries. It celebrated its 21st anniversary recently - he built something that works.

Now there are techy add-ons: bar code scanners, way of analysing the data etc. But it still works because there's one simple aspect to it - it's not about the tech it's about community and showing up regularly. Everything else is in service of that.

But sometimes it’s hard to keep that clarity, especially in a world of shortcuts and hacks, and where persuasive storytellers abound.

The GP who asks the right question

A friend of mine is a GP (they, like financial advisers, are never off-duty) and he jokes that we’re all more interested in the prescription or supplement than the common sense advice. The main things for health, we all know: eat sensibly, don’t smoke, don’t drink, keep active and sleep well (as my coach says, if you’re not running, you’re resting). If you're thinking deeply about the medication, you’ve probably missed the main thing.  The Japanese don’t have better health and life expectancy because they have better tablets.

Boring. Like much of financial advice. Simple, but not easy.

When you chase the wrong main thing

I was counting Parkuns the other day; unless you take part it doesn't feel a big deal, but some in the community by now have completed hundreds, and sport t-shirts recognising their achievements with the numbers of runs they’ve done - 150, 250,  etc.

I’ve completed 51 and 29 have been since the last Budget. I’ve been chasing the wrong thing all year. Working out how long before I can get the forest green ‘250’ t-shirt. I’ve been looking at the wrong metric. I’ve been optimising for park run count instead of asking "What's the main thing I'm trying to get out of this?"

That's when you lose the plot. That's when you end up with a spreadsheet and a sense of obligation instead of the actual thing you were after. As it happens, Parkrun count is a leading indicator, the kilograms have dropped off and my knees don’t hurt.

But more importantly I belong to a community with a common love, and my running isn’t entirely a solo affair.

So what's the main thing with your money?

At last. Here's where I think this matters for how you think about financial planning.

Are you worried about the Budget? Are you worried about interest rates? The markets? Tax? Optimising your portfolio by another 0.3%?

Stop.

What's the main thing?

That's what I ask. Rather than think "What's the right answer?" because the right answer depends entirely on what the main thing is for you.

So, what’s your main thing?

For some people, the main thing is freedom. For others, it's security. For some, it's leaving a legacy. For others, it's not thinking about money at all and just enjoying life now. For some it's the ability to be generous. None of these are wrong. They're just different main things.

But until you've identified your main thing, you're going to chase the wrong metrics. You're going to optimise for the things that don't actually matter. You're going to miss what you were actually after.

The Budget and what was really being missed

We have spent a long year, a long year hearing about Budget changes, the last Budget, the next Budget – pensions, income tax, inheritance tax, all sorts of noise. And yes, some of those changes matter. But the noise machine was and is very loud. People were panicking about things they didn't need to panic about, or missing the actual implications because they were distracted by something else. Choices and decisions made on gossip and speculation, mostly proven to be wrong foundations.

Fortunately, not my clients. Despite the temptations, and the noise, we came through.

As a result we are wiser investors, smarter investors, better investors.

Dare I say, better humans.

Rather than get caught up in the Budget this week, have a think about what’s your ‘main thing’.  The main thing for most of my clients is how they turn their wealth into freedom. Theirs, or others.

Are you turning your wealth into the freedom you actually want?"

When you zoom out and ask that question, suddenly the tactics change. Suddenly what matters becomes clear.

Getting to clarity

The people who've got this right – Rassie Erasmus, Paul Sinton-Hewitt, my GP friend - they all know what they were trying to do. They weren't distracted by the noise. They weren't chasing the wrong metrics.

And neither should you be.

So, ask yourself: what's the main thing? What are you actually trying to achieve? What does freedom or security or generosity or legacy actually look like for you? What does it feel like?

Because once you know that, everything else falls into place. The tactics serve the purpose instead of the other way around.

That's when you know you're not lost in the noise. That's when you know the main thing is still the main thing.