The Dark Side of Stealth is Silence

I have a little world that exists inside my head. It’s full of numbers and figures. Projections and estimations. I plot these thoughts on spreadsheets, in my mental calculator. I know the last ten years of S&P 500 returns, and have considered the ups and downs of stock picking. Mulled over the expense ratios of my favorite funds. Relentlessly checked and rechecked. Optimized. These thoughts I retain remain inside me. The dark side of stealth is silence. The personalized, isolated, silo’ed mania in the hot pursuit of financial independence.

I have tried to share these thoughts at the dinner table. Fielded questions late night over a few beers to a restless crowd. Listened silently as one intimate or another relayed the latest venture into gold, or Bitcoin, or penny stocks, or vacant land.

Yep, Uh-Huh

The dark side of stealth is silence. The response is always affirmative. Affirmative-ish. As your point is totally ignored. No one wants to really understand the nature of speculation. They want to get lucky. They want to get rich quick. * I totally agree with what you’re saying, but*. There is always a but. Always a moment of recognition before pitching to the wayside your thoughts and concerns.

So you stop commenting.

Conquest

You don’t talk about your purchases. You buy secondhand. Used. Old. Beaten. Reliable.

Your friends are always bragging about their conquests. That which they dream of buying or just bought. Sports cars and overbuilt houses. They speculate on the millions that will one day overflow in the bank, and then they reminisce about how they blew the whole paycheck on a night out at the bar that they no longer remember.

The dark side of stealth is silence. You bite your tongue.

Online

So you retreat to Facebook, and twitter, and Reddit. Or whatever form of social media that helps you connect. And you feel for once that you don’t have to be stealth anymore. In an artificial environment, often without names, or faces, or any real chance of consequences.

They drive beaters too. Understand what the acronym SWR stands for. And can relate to the pitfalls of discussing details with friends. The immersion becomes more and more complete. Faces fade into mobile devices and screens, and miss the beauty of everything else which is going on around them in the world.

But it is hard to stare into the eyes of an online friend. Hard to hold a hand or give a hug. This is something we usually save for relationships in real life and not online.

The dark side of stealth is silence. Silence in real life.

Silos

The dark side of stealth is silence. Silos. Separate lives lived anonymously and disjointedly. Disconnected.

Alone in our little rooms. Waiting for the next comment, the next like, the next post to pop up on Facebook or surface on our twitter feed.

Our superpower separates us. Makes life more simple. Easier. Lonely.

The Millionaire Next Door talks about those who are “all hat and no cattle” to refer to people who brag about wealth that doesn’t exist.

We in the stealth wealth community are all cattle and no hat.Yet we live in a world where community, connection, and even love is often based on one’s consistent ability to marvel over the stupid flippin hat.