Given that so many of our family and friends can’t travel to see us during this pandemic, Aaron and I wanted to share an early access glimpse into our asset management firm’s new home. It’s not the same as seeing it in person but it should at least give you an idea of where we will be spending a lot of our time in the coming years as we allocate capital and scale operations.
Following our recent discussion in the past post on COVID-19, some good news has emerged: In a recent interview, Dr. Anthony Fauci stated that, although there was no way to know for certain and he didn’t want to be held to it given the ever-changing nature of the situation, he now estimates that the death toll from COVID-19 will be in the 100,000 to 200,000 range. This is a dramatic reduction from worst-case scenarios that had thought to be around 2,200,000 only a brief time ago.
We need to have a hard conversation. These conversations are not natural, or even comfortable, for a lot of people but at this time, in this moment, it is necessary. To that end, I am going to be candid and may even offend several of you. That is not my intention. Rather, I think it is important for us to be honest about what we are facing, the trade-off calculations that are going to have to be made sooner rather than later, and the political and social ramifications of those decisions.
Along with 1 out of 2 Americans, including the entirety of the rest of the State of California, Aaron and I have been sheltering-in-place and practicing social distancing. Given that we spent a vast portion of our lives together living semi-retired, this is not a significant change for us. If anything, it feels like a return to our Missouri days, especially considering that after two years in the heart of Newport Beach, we decided not to renew the lease on our existing place and, instead, move up to Newport Coast so we can decide if that might be where we ultimately want to buy a house once our kids are born.