Recession and Love Life...

‘Pink’ just announced that she was dating an investment banker and its going rather well (knock on wood! now!!). I am so happy for her. Atleast someone is getting somewhere. :)

The thing about dating an investment banker, is that you are pretty much dating the world markets. Yup, the global markets. The status of stock exchanges around the world defines his moods at the end of the day. And his moods affect your relationship.

And we all know this is the most horrible time to be dating anyone from the Financial Services industry anywhere in the world. I agree, this is a high risk industry with high returns. And like all good things in life, nothing comes with a guarantee. A high risk , if played well, in most cases brings high returns. Positive returns or negative is just your luck.

See that's the thing about relationships, they are like stocks. If good and carefully invested in, they bring in huge positive returns. If not, they both tear us apart in millions of ways. And like Lehman, some may never recover.

This other friend of mine – BLUE - has had some pretty intense and high investment/risk relationships. Happy and really heady returns initially. But, I am afraid, in atleast one case she hasn't even recovered completely from the relationship crash. The returns were wiped out and it sent her into this dizzy spiral of a string of zero investment relationships. It took a lot of investment by others into her stock to get her to recover completely. And there are times when the fear does resurface. She has completely sworn off high risk investments/ relationships and plays safe. Never betting on the unsteady, high promise guy/stock. I am still figuring out if that's the right thing to do, but its sure a saner approach.

If finance and relationships are similar why do we keep investing?

So PINK is happy with this new guy and I know that if all went smooth, this is the ’ONE’ for her. She revealed it to me in a moment of drunken weakness. Shhh..

But will the markets let it be the ‘ONE’? Additionally, low markets create job insecurity across the world across industries. This affects men’s need to be the ‘Bread winner’ for the family. So all the men who were thinking of settling down and proposing to their steady ‘love of their life’ are now thinking twice or postponing the plans. God knows how long they will have their jobs. Practical, but not good for the fairer sex.

As it is we all know men have this fear of commitment. God knows how long all of them took to even come close to thinking of settling down. And here we go again. Its back to the drawing board.

Recession is hard financially and emotionally. And now ‘Pink’ is all flustered. Not just the mood swings but even the overall stability of the relationship is questionable. As if she doesn't have her own set of worries with her boss and her job.

My advice is what will be will be. So hopefully their relationship will outlast this financial recession. If not, I know there will be some other stock to bet on some day which will be right for her and worth the risk.

Maybe that's the thing. The dream of happy returns is way higher than any losses you can ever make. It's the hope, that some day it will be so good that it will wipe out all the historical losses. And maybe that's the addiction with risks. Because you never know the outcome. Hence, most people hope for a happy outcome even if the numbers/logic/facts dont add up. Its easier to live that way, its easier to bounce back from times like today that way and its easier to believe that way.

That some day the return on the right investment/risk will wipe out a lifetime of miserable relationships/finances.

Risk is the price for ‘Hope’.