This is Optimal Finance Daily, episode 1827.

Downhill Racing meets Value Investing by Vitale Casanelson of ContrarianEdge.com.

And I'm your host and personal finance enthusiast, Diana Mariam.

Now let's get to today's post as we optimize your life.

Downhill Racing meets Value Investing by Vitale Casanelson

of ContrarianEdge.com.

I'm a skier. When someone says this, you assume he or she is good.

Well, I thought I was good. I was not Lindsey Vaughn, but I had the technique down.

I'd be the fastest person going down the mountain, always waiting for my friends at the bottom.

Then, at the beginning of last season, I went skiing with my kids at Vale.

It had snowed nonstop for a few days. Vale is a very large resort, and the mountain crew

could not keep up with the snow. So I found myself skiing on unusually ungroomed slopes in powder

more than me deep. Suddenly, something changed. I could not ski. I could barely make turns.

I was falling multiple times per run. My kids, including my nine-year-old daughter, Hannah,

were now waiting for me as I dug myself out of pile after pile of snow.

My technique, along with my confidence, was gone. The discomfort from constantly falling turned

into fear. I was ready to go back to the hotel after only two hours on the slopes.

I was devastated. It was if I had never skied. So I talked to a ski instructor about this incident.

He told me that I'm a good skier on groomed slopes because they allow me to go fast without

trying hard. Speed covers up a lot of mistakes and lack of skill. Skying in powder requires different

skis, not the skis I had, but more importantly, it slows you down and makes you rely on skills that

I thought I had but didn't. Since 2008-2009, the Federal Reserve neatly groomed manicured

...