One of my favorite quotes is by Seneca which is "Know Thyself".
I've been able to get a better view to "Know myself" through investing.
Investing is a weird thing because, at first look, everyone believes it’s all about numbers. But in reality, it has much more to do with behavior and psychology. This is why people still listen to Warren Buffett. We may have come to Buffett for the secrets of investing but we stayed for the lifelong pearls of wisdom he shares.
Anyway back to talking about me, here are a few of the things I have learned from 2 years of actively investing:
I LACK PATIENCE
So Many of the companies I bought into late 2020 and early 2021.
Roblox
Sofi
Lemonade
Shopify
Palantir
Airbnb
I knew each of these companies was way too OVERHYPED and their valuations had nothing to stand on.
BUT I just wanted to be a part of the company and the story was just too good to pass up.
This showed my inability to remain patient and allow things to come in due season.
Sidenote: I have also been learning this lesson from my house.
I AM EASILY INFLUENCED
If I believe someone has a good argument, they can easily sway me to begin to think of things in a totally different way
This leads to me being very inconsistent and wishy-washy.
I will add that changing your mind is actually a GREAT THING!
But how and why you do it MATTERS!
This is why it is so important for me to watch who I allow into my head
I had to stop listening and watching so many people cause they were warping the way I saw the world
I LOVE SIMPLICITY
If an investment takes me becoming a financial analyst, I'm out
This can be a good and a bad thing see above for how simplicity killed me
Complexity annoys me because it is usually used to hide things from people.
Which leads to the next one
I AM LAZY
Investing is hard and takes a lot of work.
I thought I enjoyed the research process of companies, but I DON'T
It takes way too much time and effort in my opinion and I just do not care enough to be at that level where you know all the intricacies of a company
I will take the lazy path of trying to make more money and get that money invested passively
However, I do enjoy listening to other people breakdown businesses
I GET TOO COMFORTABLE
I basically have one tool for all my investment
DCA
DCA
DCA
DCA
Dollar-Cost Average
I am like a guy who just learned how to use a hammer so now everything is a nail
It goes back to I like simplicity and I am LAZY
I AM STUBBORN
For some reason, I am still invested in Alibaba even though the company freaks me out.
I have REVENGE RETURNS on my mind.
I did, however, reduce my stake in the company
I LIKE BEING RIGHT
My little brother knows this one all too well
This is dangerous because if I chase being right more than getting it right, I will never make progress
Sometimes, my way is totally WRONG and I have to accept that someone else has the answer
These were the few I could think of at the moment.
This list will continue to grow and I will keep updating it. But I hope you see the point.
Investing has caused me to learn more about myself than anything else. Mainly because I am forced to face my own actions unlike anything else. There is no one else to blame but myself for any of the decisions. Investing forces you to choose to either be accountable to yourself or to live in self-denial.
I have been forced to rethink the way I see things. It's almost an out-of-body experience where I can actually see myself making decisions without being a part of the process and then evaluating myself. We do not get that opportunity very often.
You can do this same exercise with money in general. Take time to look through your spending or savings and try to think about why you made some of the decisions you made.
Share some of your lessons with me by emailing me at ramblingmindshow@gmail.com or hitting me up on Instagram @bykelechiwuaba or on Twitter @kelechiwuaba