“Investing is simple, it just isn’t easy.” – Warren Buffett
I’d like to tell you a quick story. Back in 1999 there was a 23 year old fellow, let’s call him John, who was fresh out of university and had diligently saved $4,000, his life savings at the time.
John was going to invest into a blue chip share based investment (simple but not sexy) but his 23 year old eyes were caught by this amazing new hot and cutting edge ‘Tech Fund’ which the previous year had returned a whopping 95%. Wow, wow, wow! Everyone was investing in it and everyone was excited.
John made plans in his mind on what he would do with all that money in 12 months when it doubled and all caution was thrown to the wind. Diversification, who needs that when you’re going to get a 95% return??
Lo and behold 12 months later, post the “Tech Wreck” and after a lot of heartache, John’s investment was only worth a measly $400. That’s a massive 90% loss, yes a loss. The fund never recovered.
What a lesson to learn – 4 years of manual labour jobs at university to save that $4,000 and now it was basically gone in 12 months.
Now, if you haven’t already figured it out yet, John was me. This was the worst of inexperienced investor behaviour at play and what a great lesson 23 year old Ben learned.
Why do I tell you this? Because I continually hear things like, “It’s different this time” (Tech Wreck), “It’s different this time” (Mining Boom), “It’s different this time” (GFC)… and so it goes on.
As Warren Buffett said:
“Investing is simple, it just isn’t easy”.
And what’s not easy for the average investor is avoiding the shiny, exciting and sexy investments that are recycled every decade or so and carry with them an inordinate amount of risk.
So do your research, educate yourself so as to avoid the simple mistakes and make securing your financial future simple!
Have a great month.
Cheers,
