So over the weekend at my soccer gig (football for all the real ones out there), side note one of the best side hustles that I have found is reffing and managing soccer fields. I legit get paid to play soccer and watch soccer. It's so amazing!
Anyway, when I'm on duty as a field supervisor. I'm not allowed to play in games. Because anything can happen and I need to be available to help as needed, I’m like a lifeguard in a sense.
But since we've returned from the pandemic, nothing has happened. It has been pretty much smooth sailing. So I started thinking,
What if I played in a game today? Nothing has happened. Nothing's gonna happen 👀
FAMOUS LAST WORDS!
There is almost no one in this world that can watch a sport they love and not want to join in the action.
So I start asking around if any team needs an extra man. A team agrees and I start playing. I was having a blast dominating the opposition. I mean we destroyed them 7-1. I'm not saying that I’m Lionel Messi or Cristiano Ronaldo but I am saying I AM MESSI & RONALDO COMBINED! (Truthful Kelechi here, he played against a HORRIBLE team and the team he joined was decent so it wasn't him. Carry on).
I was having so much fun and then I hear the agonizing scream of a FULLY GROWN MAN! If you have never heard a full-grown man scream due to pain. Well, I hope you never hear it. I didn't think a dude could scream like that. I look around and on the field to my right a guy is holding his knee. At this point, it has swollen enough that I could see it from where I was standing.
I panic!
I take off from the field I’m playing on. I grab some ice packs and Biofreeze (the magic spray you see medical staff use players).
We carry him off the field and he calms down enough to tell us that he thinks his ACL is destroyed. A friend of his takes him to the hospital and the incident ends with little drama.
But the incident got me thinking about the Status Quo Bias in Investing.
This is the belief that because things have been a certain way, they will remain the same way forever!
For the last 10+ years, we have been in a RAGING BULL Stock Market.
Going up and to the right with barely any kind of pull back. I mean there was the blip in 2018 but it wasn't too bad. Don't even talk about 2020, We recovered so fast!
It's been amazing for investors. Especially if you invested in Tech, it's been a blessed run for you.
But here's the problem, when good times go on for long periods. We forget that there can be BAD days as well. We start believing that these days will never end. We believe the market will continue giving us money forever and ever. We forget that there are RISKS in investing in the Stock Market or investing in anything. See previous posts on “Distractions Everywhere”.
Much like me when I was on the field. I had started believing that nothing bad could ever happen and there was no real danger in me playing rather than watching the fields.
What if I didn't hear the guy scream?
What if it was something worse like a concussion?
There could have been so many worse outcomes from this situation. Ironically, we've had situations in the past where someone almost went into shock because the field supervisor didn't provide the necessary aid on time. Guess what the field supervisor was doing at the time.
Yup, you guessed it.
He was playing in a game.
It's so easy to get lulled to sleep and stop practicing good Risk Management in investing. It's easy to fall into the trap of thinking it doesn't matter what I invest in cause Stonks only go UP!
It's easy to believe that we will never see long periods of Flat or a Declining market. We forget history!
This is not to scare you (well, maybe scare you just a bit). It is to make you think about your decisions making. Remember, Volatility (Price going up and down) is not the same as risk. Risk is not knowing what you are investing in but investing in it anyway because you expect it to just magically go up.
My whole point just like I said with the “Distractions Everywhere” post is for us to be CAREFUL! Cause as Big Daddy Buffett says:
Thank you for reading.🙏🏾
I hope you all have A WONDERFUL week. Go subscribe to Rambling Mind Podcast for more personal finance and investing thoughts. You can also catch me on TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube every day.
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God bless Each and Everyone of y’all
✌🏾
-Kelechi