Luthuli Capital

27/03/2025

A Hopeful Heart

As a business owner, a financial planner, an investment manager, an investor, and as a provider for my family, I could easily find many reasons to be anxious or pessimistic about the current perceived state of the world.

But as many reflect negatively upon the decline in the SA economy and uncertainty of global financial markets, I choose not to end in despair but to begin in hope.

Hope is not a plan; Hope is not a prudent foundation for success; Hope cannot be quantified or measured; and Hope does not translate into any form of currency or something that can be exchanged for a tangible good. Above all, Hope is not rational; but therein lies its power.

"Hope is like a road in the country; there was never a road, but when many people walk on it, the road comes into existence." ~ Lin Yutang

Hope is often a place where the most meaningful, transformative, and sustainable movements in human history find their respective genesis -- because Hope is the bridge from despair to relief and optimism, which combine to ultimately enable forward momentum and future growth.

As individuals, and as human beings, Hope is often all that remains when everything else fails. While it may not be a plan, a foundation for success or even a rational endeavour, Hope enables all of these.

When life hits you hard, do you find meaning in your suffering? Do you find opportunity in adversity? Do you run from a challenge or embrace it? Do you have Hope?

If not, I’ll leave you with my favourite excerpt from Viktor Frankl’s book, Man’s Search for Meaning, and I hope it gives you perspective about any challenge you may be facing now, and hope for your future endeavours:

"The last of human freedoms -- the ability to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances. Ultimately, man should not ask what the meaning of his life is, but rather he must recognize that it is he who is asked. What is to give light must endure burning. When we are no longer able to change a situation, we are challenged to change ourselves."

Thank you, Mr. Frankl...Hope is where we begin.

Wealth is a mental process, not a physical outcome. Nothing changes until I do. It's just me versus my mind every day.

25/03/2025

It’s an idea so simple yet effective it may change how you view reality.

Who do you call to break you out of a 3rd world jail cell?

20/03/2025

You work hard, you earn more, but somehow, you're still not getting ahead. Lifestyle creep can be a silent wealth-killer!

Let us help you identify areas where it is holding you back & create a tailored investment strategy to get you back on track: https://luthulicapital.com/contact-us/

20/03/2025

I AM RICH!

In essence, the phrase "get rich slowly" leads one to believe that their patience in pursuit of monetary wealth is a virtuous path. But does this path lead to a virtuous end? And does this end justify the means?

If, for example, one sacrifices the present for some unforeseeable future, then this delayed gratification, by default, is virtuous? Does the pursuit of monetary goals distract from meaningful pursuits? What is your definition of rich? Is it possible that you are already rich?

If one defines the word rich in non-monetary terms, the seemingly herculean feat of "getting rich" may be one of the hardest accomplishments of one's life. What if "rich" is simply defined as "being content”. Imagine how some of these definitions might make you "rich" now:

· Being in good physical, mental and spiritual health.

· If you are a parent, your children are healthy.

· Being loved and having someone to love.

· Making a difference in the life of another.

· Your life has meaning and purpose.

It is quite true that without sufficient financial health to provide the basics of life -- food, shelter, and clothing -- one's non-monetary measures of health (physical, emotional & spiritual) can be eroded.

If you have enough, however, to provide these basics of livelihood, then the pursuit of financial wealth need only be a support for pursuits that truly bring meaning and purpose to your life.

"Contentment is natural wealth, luxury is artificial poverty." ~ Socrates

Yes, absolute financial poverty erodes at all levels of health. The consistent raising of the desire for greater financial wealth, beyond enough, however, may also erode at your non-financial well-being. Contentment represents a balance and therefore is the healthiest and most virtuous definition of rich.

The virtuous are content with or without material wealth. The non-virtuous are unhappy without it and will destroy themselves to acquire it -- and once they acquire it, if they ever do, they often discover that material wealth does not provide what they were originally seeking.

Sure, you can continue in your path toward financial freedom via debt reduction, spending less than you make, investing your money wisely and all those conventional money management techniques.

But just think how much you can gain by detaching yourself from the need to define your wealth in monetary terms -- by simply learning the art of contentment?

If you are already rich in this sense, your financial pursuits become much more achievable and will provoke much less anxiety. Financial wealth ceases to be a marker of your self-worth and rather becomes a pursuit for meaning.

More money is solely desired if it brings more contentment. Contentment is not the fulfilment of what you want, but the realisation of how much you already have.

Now pursue contentment: Simply say to yourself, "I am rich!", find a non-monetary reason for this wealth and repeat this often... and you are on your way to "getting rich quickly!"

Wealth is a mental process, not a physical outcome. Nothing changes until I do. It's just me versus my mind every day.

19/03/2025

"Hell is other people." ~ Jean-Paul Sartre

The original proclamation that "hell is other people" came from Jean-Paul Sartre, the 20th century French existentialist philosopher and playwright, in his play No Exit.

The three main characters in the play arrive in hell, a hotel, and discover that their fate is to spend eternity together in one small room.

The characters further discover that hell is not torture by fire and brimstone but torture by other people and the perception that there is no escape.

Why is hell other people? Because, as Sartre has explained, "…when we think about ourselves, when we try to know ourselves, … we use the knowledge of us which other people already have."

In other words, if we are not recognised or if our individual pursuits and dreams are not validated by other people's approval, we often feel that our existence has less meaning or even that it is worthless.

The grip that other people have on our lives might derive from our deepest desire -- self-actualization (validation). Often, and to our detriment, our self-actualization is dependent upon the approval (or what we perceive to be approval) of others.

Our actions, therefore, are often a reflection of what we believe other people expect. This also extends to our desire to control our own destiny and to find the things (money, material wealth, social status) that we perceive will provide this control -- this validation.

Personally, I like the interpretation, and what Sartre himself has implied, that other people represent a purgatory -- a place that can be heaven or hell, depending upon one's own perceptions.

If hell is other people, then it is because you have made it so -- it is because you have allowed other people to shape your reality. Your need for validation, in this hell, is completely dependent upon the approval of others.

You play a kind of game -- a game of illusion -- with other people. You put forth an image that you think other people want to see which is often an illusion in itself.

Your resume, your web site, your page, your clothes, your car, your house, your choice of words, your vacation destination and your presentations to prospective clients all present an illusion to meet the expectations and validations of other people.

The good news is that this is normal. No man is an island after all, but as with anything in life, there is a healthy balance to be found.

The balance to be found is that, to co-exist with other people, which is inescapable, you must play this game of illusion to some degree; but you must also remain aware that this game is in fact an illusion.

The illusion you put forth must not be far from the truth or you will lose touch with your own reality and lose yourself along the way.

You must realise that others are playing this game of illusion and the perception of "winning" or "losing" must remain only in the minds of other people -- not in yours; and most importantly, do not become other people -- the people that define their existence -- their heaven or hell -- by the perceived expectations and validations of other people.

Hell, therefore, is not other people -- hell is being other people. Heaven is being yourself.

Wealth is a mental process, not a physical outcome. Nothing changes until I do. It’s just me versus my mind every day.

17/03/2025

Regarding money, the basic utility of your job or career is to earn enough money to pay for food, shelter, and clothing with perhaps a modest amount remaining for life's little pleasures.

It is quite normal, however, to perceive the function of your career as something quite different -- as a tool to achieve material wealth far beyond what is necessary and to overlook the opportunity to do something significant -- to achieve your innermost latent desire -- to find meaning and purpose.

This common sacrifice of self for money, material wealth and social status is where problems begin:

1. Life goals become defined by monetary goals -- or at least you perceive that money is the primary enabler for fulfilment.
2. You make your life fit the demands of your career, rather than the opposite.
3. And if you hate what you do, you rationalise the stress as a sacrifice for providing for your family, your retirement goals, and/or your desire to identify yourself as somebody.

One or all the preceding points likely have some degree of relation to your existence; but what can you do about it?

“Life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning.” ~ Viktor Frankl

Where most attempts fail to make lasting and meaningful change (i.e. diets and budgets) is where they begin. Your brain likes shortcuts -- lists of things to do -- that are quick, easy, and painless.

If you could take a pill to lose weight, your brain wants this. If you could read some quick tips on how to get rich and retire young, your brain wants this. The shortest distance between two points is not a straight line, except in your brain (and geometry)!

What your brain wants and what is good for you are not necessarily the same. Your brain wants the path of least resistance, yet it is the resistance that builds and defines you.

The greater the goal, the greater the resistance that must be endured. What your brain (and you) needs is the path to a meaningful existence, and this requires discernment, choosing to actively use your mind rather than defaulting and yielding to the brain's urges.

Rather than looking for shortcuts and rewards, which may be your greatest detriment as a human being, start taking hard and meaningful steps toward goals, the least of which should be defined in monetary terms, if at all.

Finding meaning in one's life cannot be prudently obtained by shortcuts and lists of things to do. Put simply, this meaning is acquired by aligning who you are with what you do, which first requires self-knowledge.

Wealth is a mental process, not a physical outcome. Nothing changes until I do. It’s just me versus my mind every day.

13/03/2025

Stay ahead of market trends and lock in profits with future contracts.

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Contact us today: https://luthulicapital.com/contact-us/

13/03/2025

Consider this common scenario: You are alone with your thoughts as they take you away from the present moment; perhaps you are looking out of a window in your office, your car, or your home imagining, "If only things were different. If only I had X amount more money, things could be so much better."

As your thoughts travel, they take you further away with them and you might even arrive at something more like fantasy: "If I inherited a large sum of money or won the lottery I could wipe out all of my problems -- my debt, my job, my boss, my dead-end existence -- I could build my dream house, buy my dream car, and become a hero by sharing money with friends, family, and charities in desperate need.

Life would be so easy and wonderful..."

A sudden noise awakens you from your fantasy and you re-enter reality with an increased feeling of discontent. Does this sound familiar in any way? Most of us would be dishonest if we said these thoughts, or thoughts like them, have never entered our minds. These thoughts are certainly normal, but is normal healthy? The obvious answer is No, but why is that?

Often, the pursuit and acquisition of short-term pleasures, what is normally confused as happiness, is the quick fix that enables the continuation of life in absence of the authentic self.

When the money goes away, in the middle of the month, the feeling of emptiness that comes is not due to the lack of money -- it is due to the lack of sufficient means to continue hiding from the fact that your life has a significant lack of meaning.

Unfortunately, there is no quick remedy for the loss (or the never finding) of one's self; however, there is a quick way to begin the journey of self-discovery: Minimize outside influences. What does this mean?

"It is no measure of health to be well-adjusted to a sick society." ~ Jiddu Krishnamurti

Imagine that your purpose in life is to fly. Throughout your childhood and adolescence, however, you are exposed almost exclusively to swimming.

While no one person or entity explicitly tells you that you must swim, you are exposed to endless images, media marketing, and social pressures that all implicitly, but clearly, suggest that one must swim to have a happy life.

In your younger years, however, you continue to dream constantly of flying. When describing your dreams to family, friends, and schoolteachers, the responses to you range from "Nice dream but it's not realistic" to "Are you crazy? Flying is impossible!"

As you grow older and into adulthood, you give in to the social pressures and conventional wisdom that flying is for dreamers, swimming is for winners.

You begin to keep your flying fantasies to yourself. Even in adulthood, as a seasoned swimmer, you often hear others say to you, it's a "sink or swim" world; but you know there is a third alternative and that this common phrase should be amended to say, "Sink or swim….or fly."

If your purpose in life is to fly, then how tragic is it to spend a significant portion of your life swimming? For many, social pressures are so present and media noise so loud that they never even hear their inner voice -- they never even discover who they are or what they are meant to be.

Minimize outside influences.

You may never attempt or discover your purpose is to fly when television, newspapers, magazines, Billboards, other people, and most social media are sending messages that you must swim.

My plea to you is to find the courage to begin the journey of self-discovery, or you’ll continue to find that when the money goes away, in the middle of the month, that feeling of emptiness will come back and it’s not due to the lack of money -- it is due to the significant lack of meaning.

Wealth is a Mental Process, not a Physical Outcome. Nothing Changes until I do. It’s just me versus my mind every day.

11/03/2025

As we have seen, having--the concept of ownership--is a fiction created by ego to give itself solidity and permanency and make itself stand out, make itself special. Since you cannot find yourself through having, however, there is another more powerful drive underneath it that pertains to the structure of the ego: the need for more, which we could also call 'wanting.' No ego can last for long without the need for more." ~ Eckhart Tolle

How many of your financial decisions are made consciously? If you believe you make conscious decisions with your money, how do you know they are conscious?

It is difficult to think about money honestly and objectively because it is difficult to observe the ego honestly and objectively. The simple act of thinking is not consciousness; it is a function of ego, which is the antithesis of consciousness.

In other words, if you are thinking of money, whether it is investing, saving, budgeting, or something as simple as buying groceries, ego is the “inner voice” that you hear; it is giving you the rationale for your financial behaviour.

What does this mean and why does it matter?

The short answer, from a financial perspective, is that ego costs you money! The longer answer, which I will touch upon in this and in future posts, is that ego can take you farther away from your authentic self and cause harm in all areas of life, not just financial, by causing attachment.

Ego leads to the identification of self with things.

You may recall or intuitively understand this simple progression of attaching and identifying with things outside of the self:

- A baby identifies itself as one with the mother: Think of separation anxiety. For most babies, it takes a few years to realise, "I am a separate being; I am not my mother". Until this realisation takes place a baby can get extremely distraught when separated from its mother.

- A young child identifies with toys: Starting at the "terrible twos" one of the first words a young child learns is "mine." The child identifies themselves with toys. Try taking a toy away from a two-year old. The result is often screams of protest. The child actually feels as if you are taking a part of them away.

- The adolescent and young adult identifies with things: My clothes, my iPad, my car, my house, my money. The self-worth is interchangeable and indistinguishable from the financial worth.

Displaying wealth and identifying with material objects is as old as humanity. It is a manifestation of identifying with things outside of the self. If I have things, if I have money (or at least if I can make people believe I have them) I have created the image that "I am of value" to others.

By virtue of having (or at least showing) monetary and material wealth, one's social status is raised.

The risk with this behaviour, however, is that the identification of self with things, and the more this behaviour continues, the false rewards of greater monetary, materiality and social wealth have the cumulative effect of burying the authentic self with layer upon layer of stuff.

As I have said before, there is inherently nothing wrong with wanting more things, it's human nature.

Where people lose themselves is in the perpetuation of a carrot-chasing, rat-racing mentality that is the pursuit of happiness, absent of contentment. It is in the false belief that something external of you can make you happy, or that happiness is a desirable pursuit.

Once I have this, then I’ll be happy. Always becoming, never being.

Do not seek more until you can be happy with what you have now. Break the illusion and you'll save yourself, your money, and your sanity. Ego is an illusionist. If you are aware of an illusion, it ceases to be an illusion.

It is not until one begins to think about thinking—when the observer and the observed are the same (you)—that the ego is revealed and the illusion dissolves. In other words, ego and awareness cannot co-exist; therefore, only self-awareness is required to minimise or remove the negative potential of ego.

Look at your finances over the last year and see how much ego has cost you (in monetary terms and in life): Investment losses, unnecessary purchases, career choices, personal relationships, and so on.

With less care for identity, less care for comparing, competing, winning, you can stop ego from its damaging tendencies. When you are aware of the ego, you are enabled to stop the noise of inner turbulence and find peace.

The chatter in your mind ends; the need to compare and categorize ends; the worry and concern over what is ends. You accept things for how they are; you are no longer becoming, you are Being.

Awareness minimizes the negative effects of ego; awareness dissolves the illusion that ego presents. The ego, however, is a natural function of human survival; therefore, it is not healthy to fight or deny the ego; and it is not necessary to be a PhD in psychology to counter it; simply be aware of it and ego can be overcome.

Wealth is a Mental Process, not a Physical Outcome. Nothing changes until I do. It is just me versus my mind every day.

10/03/2025

Think Beyond Stocks and Bonds!

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10/03/2025

Happiness happens; it is not a healthy pursuit, which is what the meaning of happiness has evolved to be today—a destination reached by hyper-intentional pursuit.

To say one is seeking happiness is to say that one is trying to capture randomness, to surprise oneself. Random events and surprises are happenings—things to be encountered and discovered—they are not creations; and they are certainly not pursuits, although this will not stop most people from seeking happiness (and thus missing contentment).

Ask not that events happen as you will, but let your will be that events should happen as they do, and you shall have peace. ~ Epictetus

Ironically, and to the detriment of modern humanity, today's meaning of happiness is not at all what the early Greeks, namely Aristotle, referred to as something called eudaimonia, which is more accurately translated as well-being or contentment.

Aristotle himself would likely be disappointed, yet not surprised, that his happiness has evolved and has been distorted into something more akin to the mindless pursuit of fleeting pleasures.

And thus, we have one of the most common paradoxes of life: To find happiness, one must stop looking for it.

Happiness may be enabled (by learning contentment) but it is not created; it happens; and it is discovered. You are not made of things; your true identity is not your clothes, your car, your house, or your career. None of these things can make you happy.

The real you is nothing, not something; you are empty, you are naked. You are enough and if you would allow it, you would be happy. Once you realise this, you are enabled to receive, you are free, because, as Jiddu Krishnamurti once said, "Only in that which has emptiness can a new thing take place."

Wealth is not a Physical Outcome; it is a Mental Process. Nothing changes until I do. It's just me versus my mind every day.

06/03/2025

You Will Only Live Once

"Challenging the meaning of life is the truest expression of the state of being human." ~ Viktor Frankl

I believe, like Viktor Frankl did, that life is not primarily a quest for pleasure, as Freud believed, or a quest for power, as Alfred Adler taught, but a quest for meaning.

Meaning and purpose in one's life is given more clarity in relation to the proximity to death. In other words, if you can embrace (and have a healthy relationship with) death, you will be enabled to embrace life and all its meaning and purpose as it relates to your own existence.

This is the foundation of existential philosophy and the foundation of this blog as it relates to money and life. What does the thought of death have to do with finance or philosophy? Everything.

In most western cultures, we are programmed from childhood to understand that "money makes the world go around" and that our abilities are measured and limited by monetary means. Often, our self-worth and perceived happiness is mistakenly tied to our financial worth.

We then erroneously approach financial planning with a focus on our financial worth, whereas financial planning is best delivered as life planning; and life planning begins by thinking of death.

What do you want to accomplish during your life? What do you want people (friends, family, co-workers) to say about you at your funeral? How do you want to be remembered? Who are you and why? What is your self-worth.

To answer any of these questions we must begin with the end in mind. Once the purpose of one's life is clarified, the purpose of one's money may be subsequently clarified.

Most people find financial planning to be a boring and meaningless endeavour because they see it as numbers on a sheet, as opposed to an expression of their life’s desire.

The financial plan holds no gravitas because most people never think about their death, and thus never really think about their life, and what they want from it. We live as if we’re immortal and that’s a shame, because to do so is to strip your life of all meaning because you will only live once.

I don't mean that in a "spend money now and live life fast" context. Unfortunately, that's the socially accepted meaning of a phrase that could otherwise be quite useful for self-improvement.

My purpose for using the phrase, "YOLO" is to provoke the kind of thought that could potentially set your life's course on the best path. For many, it takes a Near-Death Experience to shift our thoughts and values on the course to a meaningful existence.

Must it take the closeness of death to bring us closer to life? What, if anything, else might bring about the kind of changes and realignment of values that will place you on the path to a meaningful existence?

What would you do if you were given three to six months to live? What changes would you make? Unless you've had an NDE, these questions will be extremely difficult to answer without complete and honest consideration of your life and the impact it has on others.

Life is not about how to achieve your dreams. It's about how to lead your life. If you lead your life the right way, the karma will take care of itself. The dreams will come to you. Without adequate words to add, I will end this blog post with the title of this post, hopefully, the words will have different meaning for you this time...

You will only live once.

Wealth is a Mental process, not a Physical outcome. Nothing changes until I do. It's just me versus my mind daily.