When I was a kid, I ate cereal at least once per day. If Michael Jordan or Walter Payton was on the cover of Wheaties, it was a must buy. Besides forcing down the occasional Wheaties (ick), I pretty much enjoyed everything except Cap’n Crunch or Lucky Charms, the soggier, the better (weird, I know).
If I learned one thing from eating thousands of bowls of cereal, it was this: the picture on the box was “enlarged to show detail.” Well, duh. Who on earth would think cereal was that big and who would want gargantuan Cheerios in the first place? After all, doesn’t Kellogg’s make Frosted Mini Wheats instead of Frosted Giant Wheats because smaller cereal is better? Wouldn’t extra large cereal mess up the cereal to milk ratio?
All right, enough of the Seinfeldian questions. My point is that even harmless cereal boxes carry the disclaimer “enlarged to show detail” because marketers make a bigger deal of the cereal to misdirect the consumer, grab attention, and increase sales. Unfortunately, this exaggeration and misdirection are prevalent in the financial world as well.
The countless number of stock market commentators, shows, channels, and websites do the same thing. These networks only exist to grab your attention, drive emotion and increase ad revenue. Offering advice in your best financial interest is pretty far down the line, if at all. You’ve probably seen the required financial disclaimer “past performance may not be indicative of future results.” This warning is more passive than a cereal box! What if we added something more specific and meaningful for the daily talking heads like:
“short-term price changes are enlarged to freak you out”
“we report stock prices every 60-seconds to keep you watching and sell advertising”
or my favorite, “The stock market has forecast nine of the last five recessions” (1966 quote by Paul Samuelson, the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Economics)
I understand that daily and weekly stock price movements like we’ve had over the last few months can be unsettling. It is entirely reasonable to be emotionally responsive to change - it is human nature. That’s precisely why it is essential to intentionally not pay attention to the markets on a daily basis and pay more attention to things in our control like relationships, hobbies, exercise, sleep, and career.
Your portfolio is more like your home than a box of cereal. With your home, you plant flowers and grass and don’t waste time watching it grow. You paint without watching it dry. You also maintain the mechanicals, trim the hedges, and make periodic changes to improve your home’s value. It is a long-term plan, not a house-flip. Don’t allow the typical financial media and talking heads to distract you with their “enlarged to show detail” marketing efforts. Nothing changes with a well-built plan based on what happened last week or month. A well-diversified portfolio, like your home, is built to withstand blizzards, require less maintenance, and be a better investment of your time, emotions, and money than the alternative.
