Running for Your Life: Invest in Sweat Equity

When it comes to traditional investments, I’m pretty low-key. I’ve done none better than join with my wife M in buying a brownstone in Brooklyn in June 1992.  (She had some inheritance, I had just been hired by Birnbaum Travel Guides, a HarperCollins  imprint.) The rest is plain vanilla: a sliver of a company pension, a medium-risk 401(k), an M&L IRA. Stuff that rarely comes up in conversation – even with my wife !

As for risk, I invest in sweat equity. The charts tell me I run hard for my age. About 25 beats per minute above the top target range of 136 BPM. While training for Brooklyn 2015, I’ve been doing a hard run of 45 minutes on the treadmill. I’m sweating pretty good at twelve minutes. By the time I’ve crossed the tape at 45 – or about 5.2 miles from the first stride – I’m drenched.

And for hours afterward, feeling fabulous. Investing in sweat equity clears my mind, helps my appetite (for fuel foods like bread, nuts and fruit, pasta), pumps me up with energy, lightens my mood, contributes to my lights-out/without meds sleep history.

This might not be the kind of risk you want to take on in your portfolio. But if you do, and do it smartly, you won’t be sorry. If you ask me, it’s the key that turns the engine of a well-rounded investment strategy.

Next: Running for Your Life: If the Greats Were With Us Thursday