The American Harvest

In October of 1863, during the Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln proclaimed a national Thanksgiving Day.

He sat at his desk, deep in thought and prayer, understanding that the harvest that year would go to the front lines to feed troops who were fighting a war many of them never wanted to fight.

The nation was hurting, as Lincoln wrote in his proclamation. As President, he felt the weight of that pain and reflected with God on what it meant. In the middle of the only Civil War in our history, he felt the best way to help the country was to call for pause, peace, reflection, repentance, and acknowledgment of God.

He wrote:

“And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners, or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it, as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purpose, to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquility, and union.”

—President Abraham Lincoln, October 3, 1863

Thanksgiving was officially set for the final Thursday of November.

I cannot pretend to understand what life was like in 1863 as I sit in front of 65 inches of computer screens. Our country was at war then. Fast forward to today and even with all our challenges, our country is unified in ways that would have looked miraculous to those living through the Civil War.

Today, as we pause to give thanks, I want to share with you the proof of America’s harvest, and why I believe that in ten years, you and your money will be in a significantly better place.

171 million Americans will travel this year to celebrate this occasion.

Thanksgiving is a time for family and gratitude. America will pause in just a few hours to be at peace and in union. That does not mean life or your financial life is perfect. You will have conversations you may or may not want to have. There is uncertainty everywhere and, quite honestly, pain. Inflation still stings. AI is rapidly evolving and changing life in real time.

As a wealth manager and a writer, it is easy to get consumed with risk. Our clients at Fjell pay us to worry for them, to look out behind, above, beside, and in front. Risk is everywhere, and you know that.

But I want you to also know this: what we have in the United States is good. It is so good.

Here is why I am deeply optimistic about the future and why I believe you and your financial life will be in a far better place ten years from now.

The Land of Prosperity

I read a statistic earlier this year that more than 90 percent of people in France think starting a company is a bad idea. I have nothing against France, have been there a few times, and it is incredible, but I laughed when I read that because it could not be farther from America’s truth.

When people in the United States quit their jobs to start a company, people celebrate, even though the chances of failure are high. America is a melting pot of ideas and people, but we are not a melting pot when it comes to our belief in risk taking, entrepreneurship, and ownership. This ideal, not idea, continues to forge a better future. Why? Because we are wired that way.

If you trace your lineage back only a few generations, you will likely find someone who owned a business. My great-grandparents were farmers in eastern North Dakota. They built their farm by hand, working the land without knowing if the summer rain would come or if an early winter would spoil the harvest. It was hard work, the kind of hard that hardly exists anymore. But they laid the foundation for my family today.

You can probably say the same. Someone in your family line either owned a business or boarded a ship to start a new life an ocean away. That is deep within us, and for the last 250 years Americans have worked with intensity, creating freedom and prosperity at a pace unlike anything the world has seen.

We Are the Edge

AI is changing the world at a pace that feels impossible to comprehend. Even so, the United States remains the center of it. This country has always turned technological disruption into opportunity. It is something in our DNA: we adapt, we build, we move forward.

The most important AI breakthroughs are happening here. The most trusted companies are based here. The most ambitious founders come here. Capital flows here. Talent stays here. That combination gives the United States an advantage no other nation can match.

Some countries will lose economic ground as AI replaces outsourced labor. The United States will gain ground because our strength has never been cheap labor. Our strength is innovation, creativity, ownership, and the ability to turn ideas into industries.

More Options Than Ever

When markets work, they create more choices over time. Think about it this way. A grocery store in the 1850s carried only a handful of items. Today, a grocery store carries tens of thousands.

The same thing is happening in capital markets. The menu of investment options has exploded. Crypto, multifamily syndications, private credit, private equity, and every trading strategy you can imagine exists here in the United States.

Innovation in capital markets is constant. Choice is something I am grateful for as a professional investor. We have it, we will get more of it, and discerning investors will benefit from it in the decades ahead.

Capitalism Still Works

You and I would have very little hope for a strong financial future without the incredible companies we invest in. Albert Einstein once said compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world. You need great public companies for that to work, and capitalism has been and will continue to be the answer.

It is evolving, but it still works. A group of Americans can come together, serve their customers, create jobs, fund dreams, and impact communities through business. Capitalism stacks the deck in your favor.

We Know What to Fix

Aging infrastructure, old school defense, high energy costs. We are far past the “we should build an app for that” era in life and investing. We’ve built apps for everything and everyone is moving to the infrastructure, the hard things to conquer and build, and there’s an appetite to fix real problems. We know those problems and we’re going to fix them.

What matters most is not that everything is perfect.

What matters is that we know what is broken, we are willing to debate it, willing to take risks, willing to invest, and willing to pursue a better future.

If you know me personally, you will know I care about three things in this season of life: faith, family, and Fjell.

I live a narrow life. I work a lot, then go home to be with my family. I do not hang out with friends much and my hobbies are on the back burner. But my life is deep, and the time is flying.

Not my time, but theirs.

I have three beautiful young kids, ages 6, 4, and 20 months. They will grow up in the blink of an eye, and my wife and I have one shot at this amazing season of life with little kids.

My faith is my why, and Fjell is my American dream.

This beauty runs against everything being portrayed in the news.

I have learned that I can view the next ten years in two ways. I can believe this country is headed downward, or I can believe the future is bright and the opportunity is endless. My kids are clueless about the issues in our country. They have no idea when markets correct. They only know what every adult longs to find.

Joy, hope, and love.

And while there are things I wish were different, my great-grandfather, the farmer, would have said the same thing. Yet he worked, he loved, and he believed. He would be proud of where his family ended up, amazed by how it all unfolded, and delighted by the food on the table.

Lincoln’s proclamation is just as true today as it was in 1863.

We have a great gig going on. The future is bright. Keep investing, and enjoy your time with your loved ones.

Tom