There may be no “I” in team, but we do think there’s still room for individuality. Teamwork doesn’t get us very far if we lose sight of our values in the process, so it matters whether each player is able to trust her gut. What does megastar Taylor Swift have to teach us about this topic? More, in this week’s video.
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Taylor Swift has made a name for herself as a songwriter, pop star, and fashion icon, but now she’s making headlines for another role: as an effective investor.
Recently, Taylor was featured in the news for making a wise financial decision. She had a chance to be a paid sponsor for a—let’s say—questionable product. Instead of diving into a high-risk, high-reward situation, she asked questions, did her research, and declined the offer.
Whether or not Taylor’s music is for you, we admire her curiosity and commitment to herself. Her influence reaches all over the world, and she showed that she was not going to stand behind something she didn’t believe in. And every investor has the power to do that work. We do the research so that we know exactly what we own, why we own it, and how it fits into the big picture.
We at 228Main.com might not have the cumulative reach of Taylor—yet 😊—but we know how important it is to act by our values, no matter who is watching. It’s our responsibility.
Taylor seems to know hers, too, but it took determination to build the reputation she has. You don’t achieve that pop sensation status overnight! She has worked her entire adult life to build her empire, and she was not going to risk throwing it away based on someone else’s opinion or make a quick buck (or a hundred million).
One rash decision can cause a huge ripple effect, and most of the time, the impulse to do the trendy thing is not worth it. There are always going to be temptations in life, but it doesn’t mean any opportunity that comes along will work for us. Only we are in charge of keeping an eye on our future.
We don’t mind going against the crowd. At 228 Main, we consider all the angles of an opportunity, with our own critical eye. We don’t rely on others’ opinions. (When the cattle are all getting steered together, it rarely ends well for the cattle.) Certain products might be getting a lot of attention, but that does not mean they are necessarily great investments.
Please do ask your questions when you have them, and we’ll think about the potential outcomes together. We try to make informed decisions, in the direction of our goals.
So be your inquisitive, confident self. Like Taylor says in her song “The Lucky One,” “In the real world, if you have something that makes you different, you’re lucky.”
Dare to be different? Call or email us, anytime.
Investing involves risk including the potential loss of principal. No investment strategy can guarantee a profit or protect against loss. Past performance is not a guarantee of future results.
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It sounds great in an action movie: “This is no time to panic!” But… is it ever a good time to panic? Sounds like a lot of work, anyway. 😊
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Clients, some of you have reported that some people around you are finding it inexplicable that you haven’t yet sold out of the stock market, given its rough times. One of you even heard the prediction, “You’re going to lose it all!” These conversations are happening at coffee time, out to dinner in a group, at every kind of casual gathering.
We often think of peer pressure in connection with children. But there are strong forces at work among not only children: it’s also retirees and everyone in between!
In ambiguous situations, humans tend to copy what other people seem to be doing. If we don’t know what to do, we may assume that others do. So we emulate them. This type of behavior is sometimes referred to as “social proof”: we take our cues from others when we feel unsure what to do.
In some social groups, people react to rough markets by selling out; in other groups, people cling to the long-held belief that investing is too dangerous for anyone. If everybody in your “group” seemed to be doing the same thing, you’d have lots of social proof to reassure you that, surely, you must be on the right path.
But this social influence can hold more weight in our choices than it deserves. Yes, someone marching to a different drummer can seen as a rebuke. The contrary behavior—going against the crowd—is full of resistance. Sometimes it takes a big splashy effort to swim upstream! Hence the hectoring and lecturing.
But we choose our own course, and it does not start or end with what others think about us.
You can see the core principle at work: “avoid stampedes.” We believe this has kept us out of fads—and pointed us to bargains. We think going against the crowd may be profitable, though no guarantees of course.
If your friends hassle you about your investing, be kind to them. You can always change the subject if you need to. Maybe in their mind, fear is in the driver’s seat right now. Or maybe they’re in the grips of peer pressure.
Either way, we know what we’re about. And that’s enough.
Clients, if you would like to talk about this or anything else, please email us or call. You are among the best clients in the world, a group where you may find all the proof you need that being contrary may be a great thing.
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“Getting in on the ground floor” may sound enticing. We humans like to be first, best, and on top of things. But just remember that the view is usually better from higher up.
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Back in the snowbird chapter of my life, we learned that looking for shells was always more fruitful when the weather had been rough. The world situation and our markets have been nothing if not stormy this year! What has come out of the churn so far?
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An acquaintance of ours is a real charmer with her friends’ children. At her house, when adults ask children for “the magic word,” they don’t answer, “Please!”
Instead, she teaches them to answer, “Now!” And everyone dissolves into laughter.
“Now!” from a spunky child doesn’t carry as much weight as, say, an angry manager barking orders to an employee or a firefighter at an emergency yelling instructions.
But “Now!” gets thrown around fairly often. Our mail, our pop-up ads, and even our dentists insist they need our attention immediately. We simply must respond to this limited offer, this overdue action, this short supply.
Manufacturing urgency where there is none is a tactic. It compels us to turn our attention to whoever shouts “Now!” the loudest. And it can be startling.
Fear as a mode of motivation may “work” in the short term—it can really get people moving, right away—but a person can’t sustain the fear state. Fear triggers the part of our brain that wants to react quickly and prioritize survival. Maybe you’ve heard about those reactions: fight, flight, or freeze.
But fear is not a long-term mode of persuasion. Shaping others’ behavior has to happen with their consent and participation, over time. Habit changes, for instance, can’t be ruled by fear alone: there must be something providing positive reinforcement.
Hope, ease, intrinsic motivation—something of personal meaning must be present in any financial goal or financial habit. Otherwise, why would you do it?
Clients, people will shout “Now!” for all sorts of market reasons. We know to be wary. The shouting can be a sign of a stampede, sell-off, or unwarranted turmoil.
But don’t take our advice without investigating for yourself—even if we say, “Please!”
Questions for us? You won’t get scare tactics from us. Call the shop or write.
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Find the bargains. Own the orchard for the fruit crop. Avoid the stampede.
Our three main principles form a pretty clear constellation, guiding our practices here at 228 Main. They are action-oriented, so it’s not hard to tell day to day whether we’re sticking to them.
But what makes us stick with them, especially if we’re bracing for a downturn?
In life, when the going gets tough, our defenses can erode pretty quickly. Our energy flags. Anxiety kicks in. And loss can trick us into believing that good times will never return, that the hurt wins.
Writer and businessperson Arianna Huffington suggests a simple way to get sound decision-making back on track: choose love.
“You’ve got to make your heart bigger than the hole,” she says in her book Thrive. “You just have to make your decisions out of love. And when we make the decisions out of fear, that’s when we have problems.”
Trouble and triumph, set-ups and setbacks—those are constants, and our lives travel the roads back and forth to each. Why should we let fear take the wheel for any part of the journey?
Clients, we know that you’ve felt these truths: it’s part of what makes you the best clients in the whole world, after all. Let this be a reminder, then. We’re with you. We journey together.
When you’d like to talk about this—or anything else—please write or call.
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Investors can learn a lot from Willie Keeler, one of the smallest major league baseball players in history. Wee Willie stood 5’4” and weighed 140 pounds.
Playing from 1892 to 1910, Willie was a prolific hitter, with a batting average of .345 over that long career. He explained his success with words that have become part of baseball lore:
We believe it makes sense to strive to understand investment opportunities, researching companies, trends, and economic developments to try to gain an edge. This is what it means to “keep your eye on the ball.”
As contrarians, we seek to avoid stampedes. If the crowd is there, we probably want to be somewhere else. As Warren Buffett once said, “be greedy when others are fearful, and fearful when others are greedy.” Isn’t this the investment version of “hit ‘em where they ain’t?”
It would be interesting to know whether Wee Willie Keeler did any investing. Did his investing philosophy match his baseball hitting philosophy?
We cannot know the answer to that. But we do know, our investing philosophy matches up very well. “Keep your eye on the ball, and hit ‘em where they ain’t.”
Clients, if you would like to talk about his or anything else, please email us or call.
The opinions voiced in this material are for general information only and are not intended to provide specific advice or recommendations for any individual.
All investing involves risk including loss of principal. No strategy assures success or protects against loss.
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