Everyone Had a Say in My Money Except Me.
The filter I built after losing almost everything.
When I first got into investing, everyone I knew was glued to the same channel, and every day it was hype about the dot-coms and where the market was going next. I got caught in it myself, all in on one stock with borrowed money at twenty one, and it cost me almost everything, because I had given everyone a say in my money except the one person it was for.
That was a long time ago, and the noise never left, it just keeps changing subjects. It’s still real and it’s still dangerous. I’m not telling you to close your eyes and ears to everything, because I don’t. But I am very selective and very cautious about what gets anywhere near my money.
What I finally figured out is that the person on the screen has never met me. They don’t know my life, they don’t know what my money is for or when I’ll need it, and if they’re wrong about me it costs them nothing, which is exactly why they can sound so sure. It’s the same for the anchors and the influencers and the guy at dinner who just made a killing. It’s all opinion, and an opinion is just an opinion, no matter how sure it sounds. The only people who get a real say in my money are the ones who actually know my life and have something at stake in it, and honestly, that’s a very short list. When something real does happen, I ask myself one thing before anything else. Does this change what my money is for, or when I’ll need it? If the answer is no, then it has nothing to do with me, no matter how big the headline gets.
And there’s one rule I don’t break. I don’t make money decisions on the loudest day, period. A good decision today is still a good decision next week when things calm down. And if it stops making sense once things calm down, then it was never a good decision in the first place. That’s when I consider making a change. But even that change gets made in the calm, on purpose, not in the middle of the noise.
The market will make news again this week, probably more than once, and now you know what I do with it.
Talk Friday.
— Mateo
Mateo also holds a Florida real estate license and has outside real estate businesses, which can create conflicts. See our Form ADV.
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