Calm Wins: Investing Lessons for 2026
Financial markets, news, social media, and even the church potluck are saturated with commentary. Intelligence and information are common; discipline is scarce.
Financial markets, news, social media, and even the church potluck are saturated with commentary. Intelligence and information are common; discipline is scarce.
When it comes to investing, stories can be powerful. A good story can make people excited, confident, or even a little fearful — and those emotions can move the market just as much as company performance does. When that happens, people start buying or selling based on headlines and hype rather than what a company is actually worth.
Baseball Hall of Famer Yogi Berra once said, “Baseball is 90% mental; the other half is physical.” The same can be said about money and investing — 90% of it is behavior, and the other “half” is knowledge.
This is a summary of the article “3 Mistakes to Avoid When Preparing for the 2024 Election” by Samantha Lamas. During election years, individuals are particularly susceptible to cognitive biases, driven by the high stakes involved in potential outcomes. Uncertainty dominates, overwhelming rational thought processes. As the 2024 election approaches, it’s crucial to recognize and...
Have you ever bought a stock “just because everyone else was”? Felt pressured to invest in a trendy new technology, even if you didn’t fully understand it? Welcome to the wild world of herd behavior in behavioral finance! Simply put, herd behavior is our tendency to mimic the actions of others, especially when faced with...
As a seasoned financial planner with over three decades of experience in the industry, I've witnessed countless instances where investing common sense has clashed with our natural instincts. It's a fascinating paradox...
Let me start by stating one can gain investment know how (knowledge) by reading books listening to podcasts, and studying investment materials. In the same way one can learn to walk a tightrope by practicing in the backyard on a rope 6 inches off the ground. You can become very good at navigating that tightrope in the backyard. When the tightrope is strung between two buildings 300 foot off the ground that "experience" isn't as valuable.
Welcome to the complex yet fascinating world of investing. Like you, I am an investor and over the past five decades, I've had the privilege of witnessing the intricacies of financial markets, making my fair share of mistakes, and, most importantly, learning from them. As you embark on your investing journey, I'm here to share with you the ABCs of investing, with a touch of wisdom gained through experience.
Every few years we have this discussion about whether or not we are going to raise the debt ceiling. Let’s just be honest, the debt ceiling will be raised. Since 1960, it’s been raised 78 times (more than once a year). The chart below shows the times the debt ceiling has been raised since 1970....
Everyone has met someone who had a friend who “made a fortune on XYZ stock on a hot tip”, but much like expecting to win the lottery, expecting to cash in on a hot tip probably won’t happen for you, me, or even someone you know. Seemingly everything we do in today’s world is at...