Not a Single Thing
A few people told me they took issue with this post. Apparently, “I don’t care” came off a bit too curt. That’s just how I communicate. Maybe some added context is important, though, so let me explain.
Now before I get into it, please keep these three things in mind:
- The full sentence is: “As an investor, I don’t care.”
- I care about a lot of things. I just don’t care about things that don’t impact my clients’ ability to achieve their financial goals.
- As long as envy and ingenuity exist, the stock market will remain the best place to put your long-term savings. And remember: the end of the world only happens once.
So why don’t I care?
If I had to pinpoint the exact moment, it would be the story I’m about to tell. I’ve shared it with colleagues for years.
It’s February 2012, and my title at the credit union I’ve been working at since June is “Investment Specialist.” My job is to get people to invest their savings. The Great Financial Crisis is still fresh in everyone’s mind, mine included, so the job is tough. Everyone just wants to buy GICs.
On RRSP deadline day, I’ve got a meeting with a man I’ve never met, but his last name tells me he’s either Dutch or South African.
I walk into the lobby and shake his hand. He towers over me. His hands are twice the size of mine and he speaks with a thick Afrikaans accent. We head to my cubicle, and as he sits down, he says:
“I’m here to make an RRSP contribution. My accountant says I need to put $30,000 into an RRSP to cancel out any tax owing. What should I do?”
My response takes twenty minutes. I talk about inflation, hyperinflation, deflation, the Fed, interest rates, corporate earnings, the global economy (Europe doesn’t look so good right now—thanks, Greece), recent headlines like non-farm payrolls, and a bunch of economic theory garbage I picked up in university. I feel like the smartest person on earth.
At minute twenty-one, he raises his hands like he’s surrendering. He’s visibly annoyed.
“Man, you talk so much it screams insecurity. I’m going to do this at the bank across the street.”
He stands up and walks out. Not so smart anymore, am I?
That’s when I realized I’d been spending way too much time caring about things that didn’t matter.
I know this will rattle a few cages, but I don’t think anything in the news should matter to long-term investors. Not a single thing. Not politics, bear markets, bull markets, central banks and interest rates, conflicts, crises, or the behaviour of CEOs. None of it matters. The only thing that does is what I mentioned earlier: so long as envy and ingenuity exist, the stock market will remain the best place to put your long-term savings.
