Investing Should Be Easy.

I talk to a lot of people about investing and probably once every other week someone mentions how they know someone who made some money trading stocks or options or crypto or whatever and is super jazzed about it. The next question is always, "so what do you think about trading?"

Here's my honest answer: anyone can get lucky at trading some of the time. But almost no one anywhere is any good at consistently beating the market by trading in & out of different investments.

First of all, most people with the "you'll never believe what a great trade I made" story probably aren't telling you about the dozen other trades that didn't work out so hot. But let's leave that to the side for now and focus on a much more important reason for not getting into trading: it takes a ton of time and focus, and those are always in limited supply.

In fact, trading takes way, way, way more work than the kind of investing I like: just buying something you believe in and owning it for a long time.

Here's an example: let's say I'm trading shares of an Exchange Traded Fund (called an ETF) that tracks the S&P 500. And let's say that I have a method for knowing exactly when those shares are overvalued or undervalued. Even if my methodology is rock solid, that still means I have to constantly pay attention to market movements and respond with lightening speed to capture any upside from those price mismatches. That's a lot of time & energy devoted to a side hustle.

Conversely, let's say I just buy shares of that same S&P index ETF and plan to own them for 15 years. The odds of that investment growing over those 15 years – doubling or even quadrupling – are dramatically in my favor, and I will have spent no additional time or energy working for that money in the meantime. THAT sounds like a much better way to make money to me.

Because here's the thing: you already have a job. And you probably feel like you already spend plenty of time & energy on that job without adding more to your plate. Getting into trading is like getting a second job that requires a huge amount of time & attention – and is really, really difficult to do well.

Investing for the long-term, though, is the opposite: your money works for you while you spend your time on something else. Which one sounds better to you?

Investing should be easy. And the easiest way to invest is to consistently buy things that you can own for a very, very long time – possibly the rest of your life – so your investments do the heavy lifting for you while you focus on more important things.

If you want to have a conversation about investing for the long-term, hit me up. This email address is always checked by yours truly.

Thanks,

Timothy Iseler, CFP®

Founder & Lead Advisor

Iseler Financial, LLC | Durham NC | (919) 666-7604

Iseler Financial helps creative professionals remove stress while taking control of their financial lives. We'll help identify current your strengths and weaknesses, clarify and refine your long-term goals, and prioritize decisions to improve your financial well-being now and later. Reach out today to take the first step.