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Back In The Saddle - E39

January 29, 2024 / 25:10

This episode of the Best Interest Podcast covers personal finance, investing strategies, and the concept of hindsight bias. Jesse Kramer discusses his plans for future episodes, encourages listener questions, and highlights key articles from his blog.

Kramer introduces the idea of the "Perfectly Imperfect Investor" and explains the common pitfalls of hindsight bias in investing. He shares a case study of an 80-year-old investor named Payton, who feels frustrated with his portfolio's performance.

The episode contrasts the "Perfect Investor" who can time the market perfectly with the "Imperfect Investor" who acknowledges their limitations. Kramer emphasizes the importance of self-awareness in investing and the need to focus on long-term goals rather than short-term market fluctuations.

Listeners are encouraged to submit their questions for future episodes, reinforcing the interactive nature of the podcast. Kramer concludes by reiterating the significance of making informed decisions in personal finance.

TL;DR

Jesse Kramer discusses investing strategies and the pitfalls of hindsight bias using the example of an 80-year-old investor named Payton.

Video

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[Music]
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welcome to the best interest podcast
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hosted by Jesse Kramer where we discuss
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today's best ideas in personal finance
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and investing the best interest is a
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personal podcast meant for entertainment
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purposes only it should not be taken as
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Financial advice and is not prescriptive
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of your financial
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situation here's your host Jesse
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Kramer hey guys what's up this is Jesse
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Kramer with the best interest this is
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episode boy what is this I would say
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this is episode 39 of the best interest
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podcast um right now I'm what I'm doing
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episodes like once every 6 months no boy
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once every seven months the last one was
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in January I should probably address
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that first so some of you have reached
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out to me in the last couple months and
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said some pretty nice things about the
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podcast and that's been encouraging and
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motivating and the thought started going
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through my head that maybe I should get
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back behind the
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microphone and and start recording
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episodes again so my hope my plan the
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ideal is that I record one episode a
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week roughly one episode a week it might
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not be too long I'm not sure 20 minutes
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30 minutes something like that it
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depends on how much good stuff we have
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to talk about and we'll do just a
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general chitchat about personal finance
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and investing some some topics that
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happen to be in the news or that people
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are asking me about uh I also want to
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answer your questions and so there will
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be a couple calls to action today in the
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episode send me your questions email me
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Jesse bestest uh sorry Jesse bestin
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interest. blog uh find me on Twitter or
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Instagram uh comment on my blog itself
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which is bestin interest. blog if you're
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not familiar with that or if you know me
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I mean shoot shoot me an email uh send
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me a Facebook message whatever you want
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to do because I want to answer your
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questions it turns out that the
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questions that you guys have often
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create excellent content because other
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people are asking the same questions
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that you are so you can help yourself
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and you can help others by asking those
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questions and I will do my best to help
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all you guys by answering them here on
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the podcast and then the third thing
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that I'll probably be talking about and
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I know I'll talk about a little bit
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today is I'll use my recent articles
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that I've written as some sort of
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content motivation for for something to
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talk about here so if you don't read my
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blog no worries that's totally fine I
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want to use this podcast as some sort of
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support or some sort of Cory to the blog
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so that even if you're not really really
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a reader you don't want to spend you
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know 10 minutes a week reading the
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Articles totally fine if you'd rather
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listen I will paraphrase the Articles
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here for for lack of a better term I
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probably won't read them word for word
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but I want to talk about the ideas that
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I talk that I write about on the blog I
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want to talk about them here on the
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podcast so with no further Ado let's
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jump
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[Music]
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in so I have written 63 articles this
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year which is kind of hard to believe uh
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being August 23rd but especially earlier
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in the year I was on this writing
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tear right I was writing sometimes two
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or three or four articles in a week and
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I've I've calmed down a little bit more
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recently but there's a lot of good stuff
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to talk about a lot of cool articles to
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kind of bring those topics back up and
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discuss them here on the podcast but the
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one I'm going to start with is uh the
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most recent article I just wrote it
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yesterday I wrote it August
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22nd it's called Uh the Perfectly
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Imperfect investor and again you don't
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have to go read this article you don't
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have to pull it up I mean that's why I'm
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talking about it here today and uh so
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we're going to start talking about this
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thing called Monday morning
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quarterbacking that most of you have
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probably heard you know don't be a
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Monday Morning Quarterback and that
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refers to of course the sport of
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football quarterback and the fact that
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most NFL games most professional
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football games are played on Sunday
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college games are played on Saturday so
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I suppose they're all played over the
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weekend and most Monday mornings find uh
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somewhere in Corporate America Two
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disgruntled guys usually let's face it
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most football fans are guys uh huddled
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in some break room complaining about
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their team's decisions right they're
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second guessing their quarterback on a
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Monday it's they're being Monday morning
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quarterbacks because it's pretty hard to
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be a elite quarterback I suppose you're
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making Split Second decisions while
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Defenders are trying to you know tackle
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you injure you harm you it's a stressful
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uh stressful situation with not much
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time to to choose the right path to
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throw uh it's much less difficult to be
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you know staff accountant level three at
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some uh midlevel company and then just
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complain about the quarterback's passing
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choices uh on a Monday so Monday Morning
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Quarterback it's pretty easy to complain
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after the fact it's very easy and very
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human in fact to criticize any sort of
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choices after the fact this is called
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hindsight
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bias it's uh incredibly common it
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affects people and decisions far beyond
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the realm of football and it's well
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studied uh psychologists and behavioral
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economists have studied hindsight bias
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officially since the 70s I mean people
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have written about it for centuries and
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centuries just because humans noticed
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other humans doing it we notied that
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people frequently change their opinions
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after the fact so that their new opinion
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more close matches the way that reality
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actually unfolded and people also create
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explanations after the fact they
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incorporate the events that actually
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happened to rationalize decisions that
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they previously made so hindsight bias
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basically what it means is before a
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certain event you thought one thing and
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then you were probably wrong but the
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fact that you were wrong and the way
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that the event actually played
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out kind of changes your opinion as time
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goes on and and you end up looking back
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at the event and think to yourself like
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yeah I knew it all along they they call
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a hindsight bias the knew it all along
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bias where even if you were to say keep
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a diary you would realize that you were
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wrong beforehand but your brain kind of
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fools you into thinking that you knew it
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all along after the fact yeah it's a
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frequent problem it's a Troublesome
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problem uh especially in the investing
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world and the more time I spend in the
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investing world the more I see this
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hindsight bias affecting usually
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individual investors people who aren't
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incredibly familiar with investing but
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know enough to be dangerous and I
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recently spoke with an 80-year-old we're
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going to call him Payton to keep with
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the football theme we're going to call
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him Payton and he had a few uh
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interesting complaints about his
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portfolio now his portfolio there going
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to be some numbers in this episode but
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I'm going to try to keep the numbers
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fairly simple uh his portfolio is 60%
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stocks 40% bonds this is a pretty famous
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uh fraction the six 640
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portfolio and Payton's first complaint
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is that because 40% of his portfolio is
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not exposed to the stock market right
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40% is in bonds because it's not exposed
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to the stock market Payton has missed
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out on some serious gains over the past
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decade and to give you an example of
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that uh the stock portion of Payton's
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Investments the stock portion of his
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portfolio that's up about 133% per year
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over the last decade so 60% of his
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portfolio is up 133% if you do that math
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you realize that uh his annual portfolio
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return about 7.8% per year of his
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portfolio return is attributable to
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stocks that's because 60% of 13% is
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7.8 but Payton's Bond allocation that's
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only up about 1.5% per year over the
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past decade so 40% of his portfolio is
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exposed to a 1.5% gain which means that
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his portfolio return from bonds is about
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6% per year so the sum of those two
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numbers leads to Payton's total
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portfolio return which is 88.4% per year
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7.8 from stocks 0.6 from bonds 7.8 plus
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0.6 gets us 8.4% per year and 8.4 that's
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considerably less than the
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133% that a 100% stock allocation would
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have provided Payton and he's he's
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frustrated by that he sees that he could
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have had 133% per year but he only has
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8.4 and that frustrates him and Payton's
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second complaint to me was that his
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portfolio is down about 10% this year
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and he's he's an older gentleman you
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know his portfolio isn't huge he's
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drawing down his assets every year to to
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fund his lifestyle right he's living off
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of his his Investments so drawing down
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your portfolio while it also drops 10%
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it's kind kind of like a double whammy
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so it stinks for him that he's lost
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about 10% this year losing value is
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never fun uh so the way Payton kind of
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feels is that when the market was great
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his portfolio was only good and now that
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the market is down Payton's portfolio is
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down too so he feels like he's getting
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the worst of Both Worlds he
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underperformed when the market was great
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and now that the Market's down well he's
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down too he's not down as much as the
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overall Market this year but you know
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he's he's down and being down stinks so
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Payton's questions to me were were
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simple the first one was why wasn't I
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invested 100% in stocks up until the end
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of 2021 and the second question is why
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didn't I sell to all cash at the
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beginning of 2022 and miss this crash uh
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so Payton in my opinion is suffering
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from some hindsight
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bias I knew it all
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so to help explain Payton's hindsight
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bias uh I want to think about something
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that I call the perfect investor this
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idea maybe they're a real person we'll
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get to that later but this idea called
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the perfect investor so the perfect
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investor they
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allocate uh their portfolio to 100% into
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stocks when the market is at a local
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bottom right they buy low and then they
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allocate to 100% 100% bonds or maybe
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even 100% cash to be more conservative
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when the market is at a local top
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meaning they they sell high right so
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every single time they buy low and they
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sell high and this perfect investor has
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a perfectly rational brain that can
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handle all risk meaning all stocks or
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they can handle zero risk all cash
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depending on market conditions and then
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they really have no in between they're
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either all gas no break or they throw
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their cars their car keys out the window
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and then they don't drive at all it's
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either all or nothing and as I alluded
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to they time the market perfectly every
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time they always know when the market's
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at a bottom and that's when they choose
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to buy they always know when the market
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is at a top and that's when they choose
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to sell so that is the perfect investor
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and I want to compare the perfect
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investor to someone who I call the
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imperfect investor so first the imper
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perfect investor cannot time the market
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they don't know how the market will move
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today tomorrow this month this year they
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don't know what the future holds for the
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market uh but they do have faith that
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over decades the thousands of companies
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comprising the stock market will on
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average grow their revenues and that's
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good for investors you want companies to
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be growing their revenues if you're
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invested in those
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companies well the imperfect investor
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they also know that cash or bonds will
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tend to underperform the stock market
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over time uh there's some fairly
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straightforward reasons for that um
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stocks and bonds tend to be lower risk
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and lower risk means lower reward that's
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simply the risk reward spectrum that
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relationship um but despite the
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underperformance from bonds and cash the
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imperfect investor knows that bonds and
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cash still have a useful purpose now
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namely uh one of those purposes is for
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short-term financial needs where lowrisk
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assets provide Safe Money uh this is a
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key component to that whole concept of
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bucketing your money uh which maybe I'll
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get to in another podcast episode and
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low-risk assets also help investors to
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rebalance their portfolio over time
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provides some uh some ballast in the
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portfolio from which an investor can
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draw on when when it's a good time to be
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buying
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stocks uh and lastly the imperfect
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investor they know well well maybe they
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don't know it but
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the imperfect investor has an irrational
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brain an irrational brain they feel
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anxious about the idea of an all stock
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portfolio uh they fear missing out on
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rewarding opportunities if they hold all
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cash uh when the market is rising they
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they sometimes feel this irrational uh
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euphoria that other Market participants
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feel and when the market is falling
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sometimes they do feel despondent or sad
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so their psychology is not perfectly
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rational so now I want to jump to
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amateur investors when I speak to
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amateurs or non-investors casual
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investors they often believe that the
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perfect investor is not only real but
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can be found at every advisory firm in
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America every Bank in America every
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hedge fund in America they expect that
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their financial professionals the people
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that they're dealing with in their life
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resemble the perfect
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investor so they they think that someone
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is going to put them into stocks when
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the market is about to boom and then
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that perfect that Financial professional
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is going to invest their money into cash
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or bonds when the market is about to
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crash so it's hard it's challenging and
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probably disappointing to explain to
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these novices to these amateur investors
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that nobody is actually that good in
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fact nobody is even close to being that
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good that's one of the key points of
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today's episode nobody is even close to
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being as good as the perfect
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investor the perfect investor doesn't
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exist far from it and and why let's talk
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about why the perfect investor doesn't
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exist so first timing the market is
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famously challenging even for financial
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professionals now but surely you might
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think a professional can get their
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timing close right so so maybe they
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aren't perfect to the day but they
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should be able to see the market drop
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for a few weeks pick up on that Trend
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and then sell before the market drops
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even more right or maybe they see that
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the market Rises for a month and then
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they buy stocks before the market rises
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even further right they pick up on the
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trend early and they react but again
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that's not really how the stock market
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works that's not really how Financial
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professionals tend to work the market
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movement is actually pretty random um
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it's getting and this is getting a bit
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technical uh but the stock market is
00:15:32
anything but smooth and it often
00:15:34
exhibits something called longtail
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Behavior now a long tail that's where a
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small number of tra in this case trading
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days account for a large portion of the
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overall Market return so I'll say that
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one more time a small portion of trading
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days account for a large portion of the
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Market's overall return now to give you
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an example we're we're going to look at
00:15:59
the S&P 500 from 1990 until
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2019 during that time we're going to
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exclude dividends for now during that
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time the S&P 500 returned an annualized
00:16:11
average of 7.7% per
00:16:14
year now the best day in each of those
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years accounted for on average a
00:16:21
3.8% return so again on the year the
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market returned at
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7.7% the single best day accounted for
00:16:33
3.8% okay now the best two days combined
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accounted for a 6.9% return the best
00:16:40
three days combined accounted for a
00:16:43
99.5% return in other words if an
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investor was so unlucky as to miss the
00:16:51
three best days each year it would turn
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their
00:16:56
7.7% gain into a 1.8% loss so that in a
00:17:01
nutshell is the problem with timing the
00:17:03
market it is very easy to get your
00:17:05
timing wrong by a week or a month or a
00:17:07
quarter we've been over that right you
00:17:09
can't get it right to the day but what
00:17:11
if you're wrong by a month well the
00:17:13
problem is if that month happen to
00:17:15
contain the best day or two or three you
00:17:18
can completely hamstring your
00:17:20
portfolio's return and that often isn't
00:17:23
a risk worth
00:17:25
running so remember markets are
00:17:28
comprised of people right people like
00:17:30
you and me and in the marketplace those
00:17:33
people vote with their dollars creating
00:17:35
demand for particular assets stocks
00:17:38
let's say creating demand for particular
00:17:40
stocks and that demand affects those
00:17:43
stocks prices it's hard to vote
00:17:46
correctly every time every day that's
00:17:49
really what you're asking someone to do
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if you want them to be the perfect
00:17:52
investor you're asking them to vote
00:17:54
right on every stock that they buy or
00:17:56
sell every day
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and as the simple example that we just
00:18:00
talked about shows getting those votes
00:18:03
wrong a few days a year can be punishing
00:18:06
the perfect investor doesn't exist it's
00:18:08
too hard for real humans to be that
00:18:11
perfect but then we have to ask an
00:18:14
important question if the perfect
00:18:15
investor doesn't exist then who are the
00:18:18
best investors or at least who are the
00:18:19
smartest investors how do you be a smart
00:18:23
investor how can you be a smart investor
00:18:26
now ironically the best investors tend
00:18:28
to be versions of the imperfect investor
00:18:32
that that person we were talking about
00:18:33
before who is imperfect their best skill
00:18:37
by far is self-awareness so I'll say
00:18:40
that again the best skill the best
00:18:42
investors tend to be imperfect and one
00:18:45
of their best skills tends to be
00:18:47
self-awareness now for example the best
00:18:50
investors often eliminate the desire to
00:18:52
time the market because they know that
00:18:54
they can't do it they don't worry about
00:18:57
buying or selling on a a daily basis
00:18:59
instead they tend to buy and hold for
00:19:01
the long run and only when they come to
00:19:04
a point in life where they need to start
00:19:05
selling in order to live off those
00:19:07
assets which for most people happens in
00:19:09
retirement that's when they stop buying
00:19:11
and holding and they start selling so
00:19:14
again they're self-aware that they can't
00:19:17
time the market so they choose not to
00:19:19
time the market pretty easy uh these the
00:19:22
best investors they tend to pick an
00:19:24
asset allocation by understanding two
00:19:26
criteria their need for investment
00:19:29
return and their risk appetite they
00:19:33
ignore the vicissitudes of the market
00:19:35
and that's a fancy way of saying they
00:19:37
ignore whether the Market's going up or
00:19:38
down the market the recent market
00:19:41
performance doesn't change what their
00:19:43
ideal asset allocation should be only
00:19:46
their personal need for return and their
00:19:49
personal risk appetite affect what their
00:19:51
asset allocation should
00:19:53
be the the best investors accept that
00:19:57
their portfolio will never be perfect
00:19:59
right when the market Rises they know
00:20:01
that part of their portfolio likely
00:20:04
won't be exposed to the good times it's
00:20:07
a bummer it goes back to Payton right
00:20:09
Payton holds a 60% stock 40% Bond
00:20:12
portfolio his portfolio isn't perfect
00:20:15
right the perfect portfolio over the
00:20:17
last 10 years would have been 100%
00:20:19
stocks but also when the market Falls
00:20:22
the best investors know that part of
00:20:24
their portfolio will be exposed to the
00:20:27
Carnage and and that hurts um it's
00:20:30
better than the alternative though
00:20:31
because the alternative the perfect
00:20:33
investor doesn't really exist and the
00:20:36
harder you try to be the perfect
00:20:37
investor the more likely you are to
00:20:39
hamstring your
00:20:40
portfolio so the imperfect investor they
00:20:44
are self-aware enough to know that their
00:20:47
portfolio is imperfect during the great
00:20:49
times they know that their portfolio
00:20:51
might only be good not great and during
00:20:55
the worst times they know that their
00:20:56
portfolio might be affected too and
00:20:58
they're okay with
00:21:01
that they also they don't make perfect
00:21:04
the enemy of good you might have heard
00:21:05
that before don't make perfect the enemy
00:21:07
of good and I love this quote from
00:21:09
famous investor Bill Bernstein who said
00:21:12
the purpose of investing is not simply
00:21:14
to optimize returns and make yourself
00:21:16
rich the purpose is not to die poor so
00:21:21
again the purpose of investing you
00:21:23
shouldn't have dreams of becoming a
00:21:25
billionaire right that's not the purpose
00:21:26
of investing but if your dream is to
00:21:29
live out your retirement in reasonable
00:21:32
Comfort right living a perfectly normal
00:21:35
lifestyle that can be a reasonable dream
00:21:37
so you don't have to try to maximize
00:21:39
your returns to become a billionaire all
00:21:41
you have to do is minimize the
00:21:43
probability that you die
00:21:46
poor and lastly these ideal investors
00:21:49
they they don't fall victim to what I
00:21:51
call results oriented thinking and
00:21:54
results oriented thinking is another
00:21:55
name for Monday morning quarterbacking
00:21:57
or the hindsight bias that we talked
00:21:59
about earlier they know that their
00:22:01
portfolio was designed originally with a
00:22:04
specific purpose now whether the market
00:22:06
has recently gone up or down the
00:22:09
original purpose remains their their
00:22:11
guidepost it remains their Compass they
00:22:13
don't let recent Market affect whether
00:22:16
they think their portfolio is good or
00:22:17
bad because the portfolio was good and
00:22:21
is good based on their original
00:22:24
purpose so those best investors they
00:22:27
would look at today's circumstances what
00:22:29
we've been talking about and they would
00:22:30
say well based on Payton's goals and his
00:22:33
risk tolerance and his timeline how do
00:22:35
we maximize his probability of hitting
00:22:38
his goals and minimize his probability
00:22:41
of financial failure now maybe the
00:22:44
answer is a 6040 portfolio like the one
00:22:47
pton is already invested in uh and if
00:22:50
the market does go up next week Payton
00:22:53
might ask why was I in 6040 why wasn't I
00:22:56
in 100% stocks and if the market goes
00:22:58
down he'll ask why do I own any stocks
00:23:01
why am I suffering this loss again he's
00:23:04
Monday morning quarterbacking he's
00:23:06
suffering hindsight bias he's asking the
00:23:08
wrong questions because the simple truth
00:23:10
is that the 60/40 portfolio maximized
00:23:13
the probability that Payton would hit
00:23:15
his goals and it minimized his
00:23:18
probability of financial failure we made
00:23:20
the best decision based on Payton
00:23:23
circumstances at the time that we made
00:23:25
the decision that's all we can ask for
00:23:27
the future changes in the market it
00:23:29
neither confirms nor denies that we were
00:23:31
right now there's this great great quote
00:23:34
from Annie Duke famous poker player and
00:23:36
now she's an author and Annie said two
00:23:39
things determine how your life will turn
00:23:41
out luck and the quality of your
00:23:44
decisions okay guys we can't control
00:23:47
luck all we can control is the quality
00:23:50
of our decisions and when we build say
00:23:53
Payton's portfolio that's a decision
00:23:56
that we control the quality of and our
00:23:58
role is to make the best decision
00:23:59
possible whether the market goes up or
00:24:01
down in the future that's partly luck
00:24:04
and we can't control that so the more
00:24:07
you accept your investing
00:24:09
imperfection ironically the closer to
00:24:12
perfect you'll be be
00:24:15
[Music]
00:24:17
perfect now it's just too
00:24:20
late and we can't go back I'm sorry I
00:24:25
can't be per
00:24:28
per okay guys thank you again for tuning
00:24:31
in again this is Jesse Kramer with the
00:24:33
best interest if you haven't yet check
00:24:35
out the blog bestin interest. blog and
00:24:39
uh as a reminder send me your questions
00:24:40
I would love to answer your questions
00:24:42
here in fact if you want to send an
00:24:43
audio file I can probably find a way to
00:24:45
sneak the actual audio file into the
00:24:48
podcast but if not just write in send me
00:24:50
an email Jesse at best interest. blog or
00:24:53
DM me on Twitter find me on some other
00:24:55
social media that is all good and uh
00:24:57
thank you you again for listening to the
00:24:59
best interest
00:25:02
[Music]
00:25:08
podcast

Episode Highlights

  • Engaging with Your Financial Questions
    Listeners are encouraged to ask questions to create valuable content for the podcast.
    “You can help yourself and help others by asking questions.”
    @ 02m 02s
    January 29, 2024
  • Understanding Hindsight Bias
    Hindsight bias can affect decision-making in investing, leading to unrealistic expectations.
    “Hindsight bias is a troublesome problem.”
    @ 06m 20s
    January 29, 2024
  • The Perfect Investor vs. The Imperfect Investor
    The concept of the perfect investor is a myth; real investors are imperfect and self-aware.
    “The perfect investor doesn’t exist.”
    @ 18m 08s
    January 29, 2024
  • Investing Purpose
    Bill Bernstein emphasizes that the goal of investing is not just wealth, but to avoid dying poor.
    “The purpose is not to die poor.”
    @ 21m 16s
    January 29, 2024
  • Quality of Decisions
    Annie Duke highlights that luck and decision quality shape our lives, underscoring the importance of making informed choices.
    “Luck and the quality of your decisions determine your life.”
    @ 23m 39s
    January 29, 2024

Episode Quotes

Key Moments

  • Podcast Introduction00:03
  • Episode 3900:31
  • Engagement Call to Action01:27
  • Perfect Investor Concept10:09
  • Imperfect Investor11:29
  • Purpose of Investing21:16
  • Quality Decisions23:50
  • Investing Imperfection24:07

Words per Minute Over Time

Vibes Breakdown

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