02 Feb Investors Play your Own Game

As in life, so in investing, we often wear masks and pretend to be someone else. We listen to others except for our own selves while making investment decisions. And now with the plethora of voices all over traditional and social media that tell us what to buy and when to buy, we are always second-guessing the internal voice that may suggest us to do something else.
We venture beyond our circle of competence to buy investments we don’t understand, we overpay for stocks because others are overpaying (and so it does not seem like overpaying), we trade in and out of stocks because others are doing it and making money at that, and we start believing that investing in stocks is an easy way to get rich quick (which it often seems).
Gradually, our conviction is someone else’s, our stocks are someone else’s, our mistakes are someone else’s, and we become investors we never wanted to be.
Noted financial writer George J.W. Goodman – who used the pen name of Adam Smith – wrote this in his wonderful book, The Money Game –
If you don’t know who you are, this is an expensive place to find out.
When it comes to investing to build wealth (not to make money fast), it’s a very personal game. The risk you can take is personal. Your financial goals for which you invest, are personal. And your time horizon is personal.
If you understand this well and play the game you understand well, the stock market can be a wealth-creating machine for you over a period of time. Else, you will come to regret why you came here in the first place.