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Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!
See, you know I'm a big fan of investing. And sports.
The two often go well together, especially grabbing business metaphors from the field of play.
What I don't tend to do a lot of is bring the arts into my writing.
Not on purpose – they're just usually not easy and/or widely recognised metaphors.
Which is a shame.
Because there is a lot of truth and beauty in the arts, and much we can learn about ourselves and others.
It was in reading a Twitter thread, of all things, that I was (re?-)introduced to this wonderful line this morning:
"Our doubts are traitors, And make us lose the good we oft might win, By fearing to attempt."
True, it's not a brand new revelation. The modern 'Whether you think you can, or think you can't; You're right' is along the same lines. Though, as always, Shakespeare wrote it better.
And it's relevant right now, I think, for investors.
There are, as is so often the case, breathless reports of what the market might (or might not) do next.
What the next few months might hold.
What bad might come, before the following good.
And so, many people – perhaps some of you reading this – are wondering whether or not you should invest.
I don't blame you.
There's a very real chance that your shares might fall, after you buy them.
But – spoiler alert – that's always possible.
And yet?
And yet, over 30 years to June 30 this year, $10,000 would have risen 13-fold to $130,000 if just invested in a market-matching ASX index fund and left alone.
How traitorous would those same doubts have been in 1993?
What wins would we have foregone over the following three decades?
Those, dear reader, aren't hypothetical questions, because we actually know the answer – it's the $120,000 profit we would have missed out on.
Elsewhere in his canon, the Bard tells us:
"Expectation is the root of all heartache."
And it belongs with the first quote, because it can often bring us undone, even when we've overcome those initial doubts.
You finally invest, but the shares fall.
Maybe for a day, or a month, or a year.
So what do you do next?
It probably depends on your expectations.
Did you expect to get rich before sunset?
This month?
This year?
That expectation will lead to disappointment. Worse, it might lead to a change of course – selling shares in one company and buying shares in another, hoping the next one will work out. And another. And another.
If, instead, you 'expected' that great companies will, more often than not (but not always), deliver very good results over the course of 5-plus years, you'll probably still be disappointed, but you won't be tempted to chop and change.
And I'll finish with this:
"But I must go and meet with danger there, Or it will seek me in another place, And find me worse provided."
More prosaically, the future is coming, for all of us.
We will have future goals and dreams; when we get there, we'll have wants and needs.
They will come, whether we have prepared for them, or not.
Me? I was a Cub and a Scout when I was a kid. Also, the son of a Vietnam Veteran. "Be prepared" is in my DNA.
Perhaps, it's why I've been drawn to investing.
But I am determined to not be 'worse provided'.
I don't do predictions. They're a parlour game, because the future is unknowable.
Nor can I control the future.
But I can prepare for it.
There's more to that than just investing, of course.
But for me – and I hope for you – making financial provision, now (by saving methodically and investing regularly) is part of that preparedness.
I will not be scared off by doubt. I will have reasonably-formed expectations. And I will be as ready as I can be for what the future brings.
I hope Shakespeare will help you do the same.
Fool on!
