“Dogs are a financial scam!”
If you walked the halls of our office five years ago, you likely would have heard me adamantly saying this to my colleagues. I didn’t have a dog and certainly didn’t want one, yet everyone around me kept telling me how great they were.
This led to an ongoing debate. Is a dog a worthwhile investment or not?
Leave it to the financial nerds to analyze something that doesn’t need to be analyzed.
I was very clearly on team “it doesn’t make financial sense to get a dog.” Although I am not sure if it was a team as much as it was an island.
The debate even made it out of our office and into this very publication. My teammate wrote about the great debate in July of 2021 and “Those on the other side” (thanks for sparing me the hate mail by leaving my name out of it, Melissa).
The point of Melissa’s article was that life has tradeoffs. What is important to one person won’t be important to another. And, while that lesson remains true five years later, there has been an interesting development in the infamous debate…I now have a dog.
And you guessed it—I love the little guy more than anything. As I type this, I am balancing my laptop on one leg while he uses my other leg as a pillow.
The obvious takeaway is that I was wrong.
The more important takeaway is why I was wrong.
When forming my original opinion, I didn’t have all the data. It was never really about dogs. It was about spreadsheets. It was about how expensive vet bills can get. How much grooming costs. How costly food can get. And, how all of that cost equated to little perceived value from my perspective.
Yet, that was only half the story. I had never experienced a dog running at full speed down the hallway to greet me when I walked in the door. I had never had a dog fall asleep in my arms. I had never experienced a dog crying when I walked out the door.
In Morgan Housel’s book The Art of Spending Money, he notes that “All behavior makes sense with enough information.” I can’t think of a better way to sum it up.
If a dog can flip my perspective this completely, how many other opinions am I carrying around that are due for a second look? More importantly, how many amazing things am I missing out on because I don’t have all the data?
Life is all about growing and learning as the years go by. It’s why having colleagues, friends and advisors who can help you see the big picture is so incredibly important.
I hope you don’t fall for a financial scam, but if you do, I hope yours comes with as many cuddles and face licks as mine has.
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