When I was a kid, I grew up on a dead-end lane, Baker Lane, but it wasn’t as bad as it sounds. The street hockey games were epic. I remember playing with the bigger kids when they’d have games at one end of the Lane or with my friends at the other end in front of my house. It’d get heated at times, especially when the bigger kids would get into wrestling fights after a play rolling around in a neighbor’s front yard. A little scary to see when you’re little.
Why am I writing this to you? Well, I read an article yesterday about how millennials are taking the task of investing into their own hands, and it got me thinking about the fourth grade. One memory I have was when I was standing in front of the class at the chalkboard and didn’t know the answer and the teacher kept pushing me to figure it out, my mind blanking out and how embarrassed I was. It was terrible. But I’m pretty sure I forgot about it as soon as I got outside to play street hockey after school.
The thing about investing at different stages in your life is how you handle the big hits. When you’re in your 20’s, you’re the equivalent of a grade school investor, just like standing, embarrassed at the chalkboard in fourth grade, you don’t have that much to lose. You don’t know what it’s like to really be in a tough spot in the markets. Think about someone you know in their twenties today, or who just graduated from college. Chances are they only know a rising stock market. They haven’t invested in the three brutal bear markets this century.
Action Line: Markets don’t just go up. Sometimes you have to experience the big hits to realize investing real dollars, or the equivalent of a lifetime of savings, isn’t a game.
