Good morning & happy Monday!
“You can measure a man’s character by the choices he makes under pressure.”
– Winston Churchill
In November 2015 I hosted a family reunion for my family in the Smoky Mountains.
The house I rented was quite large and would accommodate the entire family, which I believe was 24 members at the time.
It was an absolutely wonderful time of connecting, laughing, and eating. Precious memories were shared and created.
But the memories from the first day were anything but amazing.
The house was on a dirt road up the side of a Tennessee mountain. As we drove all day from Florida to Tennessee I was exhausted and looking forward to finally arriving at our destination.
The GPS said we were 2 minutes away and the anticipation was growing as we were all excited to see the home we would be staying in for the next week.
Well, behind me there was pickup truck that was clearly a local who wanted to go up this steep, windy dirt road much faster than I was interested in going. I was probably going 15-20 miles per hour … and it clearly was not fast enough for the guy behind me as he was riding my bumper.
In an attempt to be courteous, or maybe avoid him hitting me from behind, I pulled over to the side of the road so that he could pass me. That was a critical mistake.
There was no shoulder on this dirt road, a fact I did not see on the dark, remote mountain road, simply a huge ditch that ran along the roadside. And I ended up stuck in that ditch … with 3 of my 4 wheels off the road.
Forward. Reverse. Push in neutral. Nothing worked. I was stuck. Any attempt to get out only made the problem worse.
It was now around 9pm or 10pm at night and the temperature was dropping. This Florida family was not doing well with temperatures in the 40s.
Well, I called AAA and after what felt like a multiple hour wait the tow truck came.
Long story short, it took 2 tow trucks to pull our Toyota Sienna minivan out from the ditch the night of November 22, 2015. Fortunately, the kind tow truck driver drove my wife and four kids the remaining 2 minutes up the road to the rental home while we were waiting for the 2nd tow truck to arrive.
I’m not sure if tipping tow truck drivers is a standard protocol, but I tipped those guys. 😊
When it was all said and done there was only minimal damage to the van, and I drove the van into the driveway an hour or so later to a home with an exhausted wife and four sleeping children. It was a lousy way to start what was otherwise an incredible vacation.
Here’s the thing: it was 100% avoidable. This was a self-inflicted wound. I ended up in the ditch because I felt the pressure from some moron driver behind me and caved to that pressure.
In our investing journey it is easy to feel pressure from all sorts of outside influences. Friends, neighbors, family, the media, on and on it goes … they all have an option on what you should / could be doing with your investments.
Much of the time this is well intentioned … not with the financial news media, they are scum … but it is anything but helpful.
They don’t know your plan. Your goals are not their goals. Your objectives are different from theirs.
Don’t let any outside influence distract you from pursuing your goals.
The shiny new investment strategy or the flavor-of-the-month mutual fund may seem tantalizing, but they are distractions. To be successful investors we must avoid distractions as much as possible and stay focused on our goals. The clearer the goal, the less tempting the distractions are.
That unsolicited advice is noise, tune it out. The hot new stock tip is a distraction, recognize it for what it is. The talking head financial guru on TV is an insensitive jerk riding your bumper on a dark, dirt, mountain road, don’t give into the temptation to get off the road leading you to your goal … you may end up in a financial ditch.
Thank you for the tremendous honor of assisting you as you travel along your journey. If there is anything we can do to provide further assistance, please let us know.
Make it a great week ahead.