Anniversaries

Every book that I have read on personal finance or behavioral economics points out that we humans are very loss averse. If we invest $100, we experience greater pain from losing half of it than we experience delight from doubling our investment. This behavioral reality can ultimately lead us to decisions that hold us back. What does that have to do with anniversaries, you ask? Not much, perhaps.

We use anniversaries to commemorate significant events – weddings, the births of our children, victories, defeats and personal losses – think of VE Day, the attack on Pearl Harbor, and the death of a loved one. All are anniversaries, and I suspect that, as in behavioral economics, we feel the losses more deeply than we feel the delights. It isn’t logical, but it is often so, as Mr. Spock once said.

Yesterday was our son’s birthday. Today is our 41st wedding anniversary. Tomorrow is our son’s wedding anniversary. Then there is Christmas. December is a busy month for us. There will come a time when we experience these dates with a sense of sadness because one of us is gone. It is inevitable.

For the moment, we are all here and celebrating our years together. Susan helped me to make chalupas compuestas for tonight’s anniversary dinner, and we had a glass of wine and flutes of Prosecco for a celebratory toast.