DYNN 11- What's Diversity

Hi. I’m Minna, co-founders of Foco Academy, functional health and wellness coaches. As the world starts to wake up to the new normal, a lot has changed so we are also tweaking the focus of our messaging on how to get ahead in this new environmental, this new world. We are still focusing on time, health, and relationships and we are still utilizing the same set of success principles.

Diversity seems to be the latest trend. When I say the word 'Diversity', what do you think of?

As a business consultant, the government is imposing more mandates that require companies to look at all the suppliers that they buy from and make sure that their supplier base is 'diverse'. And the companies can be fined a significant amount of money if they are found non-compliant with the diversity requirements. What does that mean? Well, it could well mean that many companies now have to dump their current suppliers and look for new ones.

There are also talks about ethnical diversity and gender diversity. Even the TV commercials talk about small businesses, businesses owned by a colored person, and so on and so forth. All this is raising awareness about who we are and what we stand for, and I am not saying whether it is a good thing or a bad thing. I do love that fact that we have chosen to live in the most racially diverse city in the US and that is Houston.

Just the other day I heard people talk about how math is racist. And I gotta tell you, I was scratching my head and I don't understand it. Math is math. No matter who you are, 1+1 =2. If you understand what it means, drop me a note because I am curious.

And then there is also diversification in the financial markets right. When I went to college and Finance was actually my major, one of the hot topics was how to diversity your financial portfolio.

And, essentially, there were 2 ways to diversity. Now remember that this was back in the late 80's early 90's, before the internet, before crypto, before you can trade on your own. During those days, you actually had to go and visit your broker so that they could place the trades for you.

So there are 2 ways to diversity your portfolio. The first way, is to invest in different sectors. Meaning that maybe you like the banking industry but you diversify into the oil & gas so you hold stocks in both sectors. 

And then there was also diversification with different financial instruments. The most common ones, stocks and bonds. You may have heard that some of the most successful financial gurus puts 80% of their investments in stocks and 20% in bonds.

And during those days, when stocks goes up, precious metals goes down. It was an inverse relationship and a pretty reliable relationship. Stocks goes up, gold goes down. Gold goes up, stocks goes down. Gold acts about the same way as bonds during those days.

Fast forward 30 years, now what? Nowadays, trading is instant. We can all trade from our phones. Goldman Sachs spent millions of dollars laying their own fiber optics network just so that they can trade milliseconds faster than their competition. Those milliseconds can make all the difference in their portfolio.

What else? Precious metals are no longer a good hedge against stocks. Nowadays, stocks goes up, gold goes up. Stocks goes down, gold goes down. What happened to that relationship? I don’t know but somewhere along the last 30 years, that relationship broke.

Bonds? Well, we still hear of people buying bonds, mostly issued by cities, counties, municipalities, states or even federal bonds. But are they still a good investment? The rate of return was at an all time low. And get this. Every city, every county, every country are incorporated, meaning that these cities, counties, even countries, can actually declare bankruptcy at any time and they will be fully protected. But the bond holders? Well, they won't be as protected for sure.

What I am trying to say is this. We are coming into a new world. In this new normal, the financial world is also changed. And while we talk a lot about defining your new normal and figure out what you want, before you decide on your next course of action, here's the precautionary note.

You have got to protect your bottom line. It may mean that you need to figure out what your worst case scenario would be and what would you do about it. It may need that you need to figure out how to hedge and diversify so that your upside has no limits, it can go way, way up but your downside is limited.

And financially speaking, nowadays we have cryptocurrencies that is brand new to many people. And you will find people that are extremely bullish about it, and there are people that are just the opposite and think crypto will disappear. Not to mention that the governments of the world are trying to grasp their power over these new cryptocurrencies and they will try anything. China has banned bitcoin trading for probably 6 or 7 times now and bitcoin is still around as I make this video. 

But who knows? Anything can happen. And that is a good thing because now we can make things happen. And that is the theme of defining your new normal. Just that you do have to make sure that your downside is protected, your family is safe and protected, and your freedom is preserved.

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