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Investing Habits of the Fairly Weathy: #5 Math

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Dear Fairly Wealthy Investor,

You might be better off staying in bed. It’s that bad. One morning, you wake up, and there’s a full-page spread in the Wall Street Journal on the perils of a balanced portfolio. It reports how owning stocks and bonds in a 60-40 mix is dead.

Nonsense.

Be Intelligent: Join Dick Young & Get My Friday Email

And it’s not just them. When you’re in the business of selling newspapers, newsletters, or email subscriptions, it’s what gets attention that sells. Which is a disservice to you, my valued reader.

You and I know investing is hard because we know the work it takes to save ’til it hurts. These guys are about selling. Not investing. They need eyeballs today, tomorrow, and the next day, simply for their survival. That’s not my game.

I’m Your Survival Guy.

I tell you what I’ve learned over a lifetime of working in the trenches, taking live fire side by side with investors in real markets, and living to fight another day. Yes, I hope we get through these tough times together. But what I do isn’t for everyone.

Which brings me to investing habit number 5: Math. Investing is math. And like a math test in high school, you need to stick to your own work to understand the lesson. You need to do the math. Prices are not math; they come, and they go, like yesterday’s paper.

But not without doing a major disservice to the patient investor trying to live in dangerous times.

When you can’t even watch the six o’clock news because it gives your grandchildren nightmares—that’s not a good environment. When protesters fill the streets, that’s not a good environment. When tent cities litter sidewalks near the Children’s Museum, that’s not a good environment. When homeless zombies take over the Commons in your neck of the woods, that’s not a good environment.

Your Survival Guy offers you plenty of reasons why you want to understand that investing is math. It’s up to you to make the connection. It’s up to you to understand the path forward for your family.

Action Line: When you’re ready to talk, let’s talk. But only if you’re serious.

Warm regards,

Your Survival Guy

P.S. You don’t need to compound big numbers to get big results. With the T-bill paying over five percent, for now, you can double your money in no time. But will it pay.

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Read about all of the Top 10 Investing Habits of the Fairly Wealthy here. 

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E.J. Smith - Your Survival Guy

E.J. Smith is Founder of YourSurvivalGuy.com, Managing Director at Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd., a Managing Editor of Richardcyoung.com, and Editor-in-Chief of Youngresearch.com. His focus at all times is on preparing clients and readers for “Times Like These.” E.J. graduated from Babson College in Wellesley, Massachusetts, with a B.S. in finance and investments. In 1995, E.J. began his investment career at Fidelity Investments in Boston before joining Richard C. Young & Co., Ltd. in 1998. E.J. has trained at Sig Sauer Academy in Epping, NH. His first drum set was a 5-piece Slingerland with Zildjians. He grew-up worshiping Neil Peart (RIP) of the band Rush, and loves the song Tom Sawyer—the name of his family’s boat, a Grady-White Canyon 306. He grew up in Mattapoisett, MA, an idyllic small town on the water near Cape Cod. He spends time in Newport, RI and Bartlett, NH—both as far away from Wall Street as one could mentally get. The Newport office is on a quiet, tree lined street not far from the harbor and the log cabin in Bartlett, NH, the “Live Free or Die” state, sits on the edge of the White Mountain National Forest. He enjoys spending time in Key West (RIP JB) and Paris. Please get in touch with E.J. at ejsmith@yoursurvivalguy.com To sign up for my free monthly Survive & Thrive letter, click here.
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