Time is the Asset We Don’t Value Enough
By Kawika Shoji
This week I am trading my desk for the dunes of Ireland. I will play six rounds of golf in six days with my father, who turns 80 this year, and his two closest friends (one also turns 80 this year!). It is a bucket list trip. For years, it has lived between a dream and a plan, so we finally pulled the trigger, understanding that the window to take it won’t stay open forever. Dad is still healthy and mobile, able to walk 18 holes a day and hit fairways and greens in regulation. The time is now. See you soon, St. Patricks, Royal Portrush, Ballyliffin! All of these courses are carved into the edges of the Atlantic, where the game was born and where the elements will humble you quickly. Solid rain gear is not optional!
In our world, we spend a lot of time underwriting financial capital. We model returns, assess risk, and build long-term plans designed to preserve and grow wealth across generations. But there is another asset that rarely gets the same level of attention: time. Unlike capital, time doesn’t compound. It doesn’t recover after a downturn, and there is no opportunity to average in later. There is no catching up.
As an ex-Olympic and professional athlete, I understand deeply what it means to delay gratification (that doesn’t mean it’s easy!). Those habits serve me well and inform how I think about investment strategy daily. There is a flip side, however, that we don’t talk about enough. Do we know when to deploy what we’ve built? Many of our clients spend a lifetime accumulating and are genuinely uncomfortable drawing down. Part of my job occasionally is to simply give them permission to spend and enjoy what they have worked so hard to create.
Lately, that idea has moved from theory to lived experience. Several friends and clients have lost a parent recently, and I don’t write any of this without thinking of them. Grief has a way of reminding us all not to wait. Their grief was a helpful reminder for me to act now.
In multigenerational planning, we tend to focus on how wealth transfers and the tax ramifications of various strategies, rather than how relationships and values carry forward. Those are built through shared experiences, not spreadsheets. True legacy isn’t only what we leave behind, but it also includes what we choose to do together while we still can! My conversations with Pops in the pro shops, pot bunkers, and pubs are also inheritance.
One of the more consistent conversations we have with clients centers around when to shift from accumulation to utilization. The default answer is to keep delaying, delay until I have more money, delay until the calendar opens up. The problem with that strategy is that opening or moment rarely comes on its own, and/or we are unable to recognize it. We need to create that moment. We spend a lot of time and energy attempting to protect clients from financial risk, yet we underestimate a very important type of risk that doesn’t show up on a statement: the cost of waiting to enjoy a life we’ve already earned.
Money is renewable. Time is not. People in your life are not. This trip didn’t happen because the timing was perfect, rather we decided that it was time. Some opportunities aren’t meant to be optimized. They need to be taken.
I am excited to report back. Until then, I will be somewhere between Ballyliffin and bliss, creating and collecting the kinds of memories that no portfolio or bank account can produce.
This material is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment, tax, or legal advice.
About the Author
Kawika Shoji is an investment advisor and portfolio manager at Regency Capital Management. He advises individuals, families, retirement plans, and institutions to assess, develop, and implement their investment and financial goals.
