Money lessons from the women of GOT
“When the snows fall and the white winds blow, the lone wolf dies but the pack survives.” ― George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones
The much-loved Game of Thrones show came to an end, in my personal opinion to an absolute abrupt end. With six seasons that we loved as viewers, anticipated and indulged ourselves in character arcs the last two seasons left us a bit underwhelmed. Some of the characters and their strengths have, however, left impressions and taught us how to build resilience. Let’s talk about some of the inspiring women characters of GoT.
Four women, four lessons
Sansa Stark — from the “little dove” to “The Queen of Winterfell”, Sansa at no point had it easy. From her early life goals coming crashing down to her growth through all the mental and physical torture she endured, from the pain of it all, rose a woman, smarter, more clever and with that a woman with a high level of empathy. If I were to attach an investment profile to Sansa, it would definitely be someone who invests for the long term, endures whatever market volatility throws at her, and through it, all gets to her goal.
Arya Stark — in contrast to her older sister, Arya is one who is absolutely goal-oriented from the start. Knowing fully well she never wants to be a “Lady Stark” or Lady anything. With a single-minded focus, Arya faces atrocities, learns and invests time and energy into her learnings. From an investor point of view, Arya would be perfect, goal oriented, invests regularly and with razor-sharp focus, gets to her goal and kills it (pun intended).
Cersei Lannister (Late) — you may love her or hate her, but one couldn’t ignore Cersei Lannister. “ A Lannister always pays his debts”. However, Cersei ended up taking a huge loan from the Iron Bank that would have gone unpaid. Causing even more damage in the process of paying it off, I’d say with investing, don’t be a Cersei.
Daenerys Targaryen (Late )– better known as the Mother of Dragons, Khaleesi, the Unburnt, Breaker of Chains — you know the drill. (We could be here all day rattling off titles for the fair-haired Dothraki queen.) Despite several setbacks, she never allows her circumstances to defeat her. She seeks good advice, and she works hard to regain what’s taken from her. You can bounce back, too — even if you don’t have fire-breathing “kids” to help you. All you need is a solid plan, some hard work and a little patience.
Let’s look at the positives and ignore how her story ended
Let’s refer back to the opening quote of this article, “the pack survives”, in the context of investing, the pack is a combination of investments, to ensure that you see through the winter of your investments. No one single investment will get you through rough times, it has to be a well-diversified investment plan with multiple strengths.
I did another quick calculation. So for those who watched the entire series over all these years, we have spent 69.8hours indulging in this show. Over eight years with some breaks.
What came to my mind was, what if, I had invested ₹10,000 in a balanced mutual fund (let’s call it Tyrion Lannister) every time the season premiered. Basically saying, I invested ₹80,000 ( ₹10,000 at the time of each season premiere). I went and had a look at the movement on the stock market and balanced funds in specific. Turns out my ₹80,000 would have been sitting at a sizeable ₹1,30,000(approx) at the end of the show finale!
I would think that’s not bad at all! At an annualised return of 12.4%, I actually would have made money and compensated for the loss of my time, yes almost 70 hours is a lot.
I’d like to end by saying, let’s be smarter about investing. Being wealthy does not mean investing a lot of money, it could be small amounts over a systematic period of time at a somewhat moderate interest rate.
“Don’t be so sure. Safety is never a permanent state of affairs.” — Davos Seawort.
