MAY NEWSLETTER | Less Urgency, More Joy
Hi friends,
While we navigate our complicated world’s news cycles, our Modernist manifesto reminds us to seek balance and cultivate hope by envisioning a better future for us all—helpful for investing in markets or our communities!
We’re also noticing how urgency can undermine grounded money decisions. Which has us wondering: How do we recognize authentic urgency? Who creates it? How do we question it? And most interestingly, does an added sense of urgency support our deepest values?
In solidarity and slowing down,
Georgia + Team Modernist
investment insights
Over on the blog, we’re discussing tools to overcome negativity bias despite the market’s ups and (recent) downs.
If market news is making you nervous, we recommend practicing what you can control: taking a break from economic news. Take a walk or a nap, call someone you love, read a new poem, or do nothing at all for a bit. Your portfolio could thank you!
StructurING Your Wealth Around Your Value:
defining urgency by pausing
We’ve noticed an increased sense of urgency. Georgia posits that this is actually a reaction to a deep collective grieving, for who we’ve been, what we’ve lost, and uncertainty about where we’re headed next. So normal!
So we’re reminding clients (and each other) not to make big decisions when things are uncertain or changing quickly. Big money decisions rarely benefit from urgency; there is great wisdom in pausing.
⚡️ On Being with Krista Tippett is ending their storied podcast, but has recently launched The Wisdom App, a mini-retreat and learning adventure to help fit mindfulness into daily life. We’re loving their mini-courses focused on cultivating hope: For The Exhausted and Overwhelmed or Becoming Wise. Try these resources to cultivate pausing. Let's be slower and easier with ourselves, and the rest of us, too.
FUND YOUR HEROES: reproductive justice
If you’re looking for actionable things you can do to support reproductive justice and access to health care for all, here’s a great resource compiled by Alison Turkos.
It reminds us: “There are extraordinary folks who have been setting up the infrastructure, preparing for this, and doing this work non-stop.
Black and Brown folks have been leading Reproductive Justice efforts for decades, listen to them. Give them your money. Invest in their leadership.”
ART BREAK: the people’s wpa
In the spirit of the original WPA, The People’s WPA commissioned artists to produce posters that uplift the essential forms of labor from cultural workers, artists, organizers, and educators.
Watch this short video to see the wheat pasting in action!
A Song That is REALLY About mental health
We can’t get enough of Florence + The Machine's new album: Dance Fever. The album digs deep into mental health and how we chart a way to back to balance.
We love the video for “Free”, especially since Florence's anxiety is played by Bill Nighy. The lyrics remind us: music and dance and joy can be an essential north star when we're out of alignment.
It picks me up, puts me down / Picks me up, puts me down / A hundred times a day...But I hear music / I feel the beat / And for a moment / When I'm dancing, I am free
last, but not least… a farewell note from jonas
After two and half years with Modernist Financial, I am transitioning to new adventures, spending time with family and traveling before gearing up to study for the CFP exam.
I joined Modernist in November 2019, excited to join colleagues, clients, and partners doing good work and doing it well. Thanks for the opportunity to explore, laugh, grow, support, listen, and collaborate through times of joy, challenge, and triumph. I’m proud of the work we accomplished together.
To the Modernist team…keep making good trouble.
To our clients and our allied partners...it's been an honor to serve. Thank you. Please stay in touch.
With gratitude and appreciation,
Jonas Merrill