Wednesday, April 27, 2016

Thrifty Thinking: We're Not Wired to Be Good Investors

By Matt Hall


There is not a single brain on Earth that is naturally wired for making smart financial decisions.
We have spent countless generations figuring out how to survive, relying on things like instinct, quick reactions, and fight or flight reactions. If you’re fighting against a bear in the wilderness, that’s a good thing. But when you’re wrestling with a turbulent Wall Street market on a computer screen? Not so good.
Did you know that when you lose money on the stock market, it feels to your brain the same way you would feel a snakebite?
It’s a simple story of the how world around us is changing faster than our brains. Investing well takes a long-term strategy and a working understanding of market forces and fluctuations. We aren’t born knowing how to navigate things like mutual fund fee structures.
Want to outsmart your brain? Put 95% of your money in an index fund and sit back while it beats most mutual funds. Create hurdles to keep you from reacting emotionally. And get someone to keep you accountable. We get trainers to help us work out, and it turns out our brain needs a trainer too to invest well.
Matt Hall is the President and Co-Founder of Hill Investment Group with offices in St. Louis, MO and Houston, TX. He is the lead on all strategic matters — crafting the firm’s vision, establishing its exceptional standards, and managing key relationships. Hall is forever a student of his craft and has attended the highest level of training and education tied to investment theory and practice. What's more, Hall has led many training programs for top advisors, and founded a peer group of hundreds of advisors, called Evidence-Based Advisors, from the U.S., UK, New Zealand, Australia, Belgium, and Canada. 
Hall graduated from the University of Missouri, Columbia with a bachelor’s degree in English literature. He and his wife, Lisa, have a young daughter who is the star of their lives. 
Learn more about Hall at matthallbook.com and connect with him on LinkedIn and Twitter.
 Odds On is currently available on 800 CEO ReadAmazon and other fine booksellers.

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