The Midnight Sun — Liberty Wealth

I am writing from the Lofoten Islands, a Norwegian archipelago that sits 300km north of the arctic circle. I love to research our family trips, and I had spent hour after hour pouring over photos of this, the most photogenic of places. However, nothing quite prepares you for the magic of Lofoten.

Here you find traditional fishing villages flanked by steep, rugged mountains and fjords. You find white sandy beaches with water as clear as the Caribbean. You find people who have come to experience adventure, great outdoors and the awe of nature. You find saunas everywhere – normally on a rock by the sea so you can hop right into the ocean when the heat overwhelms you. You also find, for two months of the year, the midnight sun.

Our first stop - handy to be staying two minutes walk from this football pitch.

It’s always hard to drag them up a mountain, but so worthwhile

It’s intoxicating. As the evening wears on, you expect it to get dark. But it doesn’t. The sun never sets. We have spent the week staying on the habour front in one of the most picturesque of fishing villages. All night long the boats come and go. Kayakers too. People hike up the local peak at midnight and descend at 3am.

The kids roam free here, perhaps because there’s no ‘be home before it gets dark’. Being out ‘late at night’ takes on a whole different meaning. The Norwegians are known for their ‘free-range’ parenting.

It’s currently 11.30pm at night – I never work at 11.30pm at night. I am normally in bed by 9.30pm. Whereas the darkness typically marks the end of the day and the start of the night, you don’t get that here. The evenings linger...and linger and linger. Going to bed is really hard. And then sleep isn’t necessarily easy either. The Norwegians don’t seem to do blackout blinds, so when you do tear yourself away from the daylight, the bedrooms are not conducive to sleep. An eye mask is essential for a trip to Lofoten.

The midnight sun is something to be experienced – a true bucket list item. I don’t think words, or photos, can really describe it.

But here’s the catch.

The Norwegian’s don’t get this for free. Two months of daylight comes at a cost.

Two months of darkness.

In the middle of winter it never gets light. They get a few hours of ‘twilight’ – explained as a blue light, enough to get out and do a few things.

It’s been interesting speaking to people about the winter. One waiter came in winter to work for the season and lasted 5 days. He went crazy. Never seeing daylight did something to his mind.

I had a wonderful conversation with an artist living on one of the smaller islands – inhabited by only 200 people. She had lived there for 27 years, all-year-round. She told me she painted all winter and exhibited all summer. She was blissfully happy.

Our kayak guide has, so far, endured two winters. He explained how you have to know what you are going to do during the winter. His time was taken up with maintenance of the beautiful old, restored fishing village where he worked.

Staving off depression takes time and effort. It seems that people with a plan for how they will spend their days do a lot better than those who show up thinking they will ‘wing it’.

It’s an epic high, followed by an epic low. You don’t get one without the other. And you need a plan, a really good plan, to know how you are going to get through the low.

And there it is....exactly what we go through in our investing journey; epic highs and epic lows. You can’t get the ups without experiencing the downs. You know it’s coming and you’ve got to have a plan.

Right now we are experiencing the market’s equivalent of the midnight sun. The S&P 500 sits just a touch off it’s all-time high. We have experienced 38 all-time-highs so far in 2024. The market is up 16% since the start of the year.

In Lofoten we know exactly when the midnight sun will set for the year. In the markets we have no idea - it can never be timed. It could end next week or next year, or not for another 5 years. At some point, the market will go down for a while, before turning around and resuming its uptrend. Just like the sun.

It’s ok – we’ll live through it, we’ll survive another day. As the islanders do here, we will look forward to brighter days, knowing they are coming. We have a plan. The darkness always ends, there can be no other way.

Georgie

georgie@libertywealth.ky