My Worst Investment Ever July 2023
Ep717: Folarin Daniel Adeboye – Business and Friendship Can Never Mix
BIO: Folarin Daniel Adeboye was a CEO and Co-Founder at F&K Savings. In 5 years of operations, F&K Savings was able to onboard over 35,000 users while processing over 4 million dollars in transaction volume.
STORY: Daniel and his partner’s desire to grow F&K Savings fast made them lose substantial money to an investment they blindly entered. This, and other managerial mistakes, caused the business to go under.
LEARNING: Don’t mix pleasure or family with business. Never forget why you got started.
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Ep716: Dana Anspach – Loving a Product Is Different From Running a Business
BIO: Dana Anspach is the founder and CEO of Sensible Money, LLC, a firm specializing in retirement income planning. In 2022, Sensible Money ranked on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing privately owned companies in the U.S.
STORY: Dana loved a fitness product so much that she decided to open her own franchise. Soon enough, she discovered running a business is so much different from loving its product. She sold the company at a loss.
LEARNING: Just because a product is great doesn’t mean the business will succeed. Instead of opening a second business, create a new revenue stream in your existing one.
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Blog post – Swedroe & Stotz Discuss 15 Common Investment Mistakes
Even the most experienced investors screw up. The most important thing is that you learn from your mistakes and ensure they’re not fatal. Managing money is about managing your behavior.
Larry Swedroe and Andrew Stotz have recorded a number of episodes discussing Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make and How to Avoid Them from the book with the same title that Larry co-authored with RC Balaban.
This blog post and the podcast episodes cover 15 out of the 77 investment mistakes even smart investors make mentioned in the book. These 15 common investment mistakes show how understanding and controlling human behavior is an important determinant of investment performance.
ISMS 27: Larry Swedroe – Familiar Doesn’t Make It Safe and You’re Not Playing With the House’s Money
In this episode of Investment Strategy Made Simple (ISMS), Andrew and Larry discuss three chapters of Larry’s book Investment Mistakes Even Smart Investors Make and How to Avoid Them. In this eighth episode, they discuss mistake number 13: Do you confuse the familiar with the safe? Mistake number 14: Do you believe you’re playing with the house’s money? And mistake number 15: Do you let friendship influence your choice of investment advisors?
LEARNING: Just because you’re familiar with something doesn’t make it less risky. Diversify globally to get the real benefits of diversification. Your financial advisor is not your friend; it’s a business. Value and protect your investment gains as much as you value and protect the principle.
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Ep715: Manisha Thakor – Invest in Your Financial Health and Emotional Wealth
BIO: Manisha Thakor has worked in financial services for over 30 years, focusing on women’s economic empowerment.
STORY: From a very young age, Manisha equated her self-worth to her achievements. This led her to overwork herself almost to death—twice.
LEARNING: Don’t underestimate the incredible power of the net present value of your future earnings. Invest concurrently in your financial health and your emotional wealth.
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Ep714: Richard Smith – Anything Valuable Is Hard
BIO: Dr. Richard Smith – Berkeley Mathematician and Ph.D. in System Science – is a fintech entrepreneur, the CEO of The Foundation for the Study of Cycles, and cofounder of the investment tool Finiac.
STORY: Richard invested his entire live savings ($10,000), and in 18 months, it had grown to $40,000. Then suddenly, the investment went down to $30,000. He believed it would go up again, so he held on. Then it went further down to $20,000. Richard kept waiting. Eventually, it went to $10,000, and that’s when he panicked and took out all his money.
LEARNING: Integrate trailing stops. It’s hard to do the right thing in the markets.
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Ep713: David Perry – Bet on the Person, Not the Idea
BIO: David Perry was in the video game industry for over 30 years, making hits like The Matrix, Aladdin, The Terminator, and Earthworm Jim. He sold his last company to Sony PlayStation and the one before that to Atari. He’s now building a startup in e-Commerce called Carro.
STORY: One of David’s top former employees started a VR company and invited him to invest. Though David believed in this employee, experiencing motion sickness while trying out the VR games made him not invest in what became a multi-billion dollar company.
LEARNING: When you really believe in somebody, go ahead and support them. Bet on the person, not the idea.
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Ep712: Tom Wall – If You Make Some Money, at Least Take Half off the Table
BIO: Tom Wall holds a Ph.D. in Retirement Income Planning, with original research on Whole Life as a Fixed Income Alternative under the advisement of industry thought leaders: Wade Pfau, Michael Finke, and Stephen Parrish.
STORY: Tom got pulled into the Bitcoin frenzy in 2018 and made huge gains. He had also invested in an NFT performing really well and made 15X his investment. Tom took his investment from the NFT and invested the money in Bitcoin. Then Bitcoin’s value dropped, and Tom lost almost half of his investment.
LEARNING: If you make some money, sell, or at least take half off the table. Have a piece of your portfolio that is continually growing but also accessible.
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Ep711: Rick Warner – Be Careful When Investing in Banks
BIO: Rick Warner is a personal development coach, mentor, and highly respected real estate broker based in California. Rick’s story is one of triumph over adversity.
STORY: Rick took his money from well-performing stocks and decided to time the market. After much waiting, he came across the First Republic Bank’s stock, whose share price had fallen from $300 to $30. He bought 700 shares at $29 each. The price kept falling. Rick bought 700 more shares at $13, hoping the price would turn around, but it didn’t. The bank was bought out, and the shares went to zero.
LEARNING: Do a lot of research before investing. Banks are very volatile, so you must be careful when investing in them.
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Ep710: Mohit Tater – You Don’t Know What You’re Getting Into Until You Are in It
BIO: Mohit Tater is a serial entrepreneur, investor, and consultant. He founded BlackBook Investments and quickly became a recognized expert investor in online businesses and digital assets.
STORY: Mohit got enticed by the numbers his favorite pizza shop was turning and decided to start his own shop. Since he and his partner had no experience in the F&B industry, they were to receive full support from the franchise owner. Unfortunately, the owner went into a coma before the shop opened. The partners tried all they could, but the shop eventually failed.
LEARNING: Don’t venture into an industry you don’t understand and chase high returns. You don’t know what you’re getting into until you are in it.
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Ep709: Vorathep Srikuruwal – Walk That Property Before You Buy It
BIO: As the owner of Apollo Assets Co Ltd, Mr. Vorathep Srikuruwal is a prominent figure in the real estate industry of Thailand. He has established a track record and extensive experience as a visionary leader in this field.
STORY: Vorathep came across a bank property he thought would be a good investment. He bought it for half its value and even got the bank to give him a loan. His biggest mistake was never visiting the property in person before buying. If he had, he’d have seen its terrible state.
LEARNING: If you’re thinking of buying anything, whether cheap or expensive, first go there, and have a look. Just because it’s cheap doesn’t mean you have to buy it.
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Ep708: Phil Bak – Be Slow to Jump Onto Bandwagons
BIO: Phil Bak is the CEO of Armada ETFs, a REIT-specialty asset manager that delivers customized solutions to REIT investors through ETFs, SMAs, and proprietary AI and machine learning REIT valuation models.
STORY: Phil got into baseball cards when he was 14. Rookie Greg Jeffries became the hype one year and was poised to be the next big thing. Phil bought the hype, sold all his cards, and invested in Jeffries’ cards. He believed cards would be worth $40 to $50 a piece in just a few years. It never happened because Jeffries’ career didn’t pan out, and the entire baseball card bubble collapsed.
LEARNING: Be slow to jump onto bandwagons. Expect the unexpected, be prepared, and have a backup plan. Be diversified in as many different ways as possible.
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Ep707: Jack Schwager – Never Stay in a Position That Violates What You Believe In
BIO: Jack D. Schwager is a recognized industry expert on futures and hedge funds and the author of the iconic Market Wizards series, in which he interviewed about 70 trading legends of our time.
STORY: Jack stayed too long in a position where his short was the strongest and his long the weakest, even though he knew this wasn’t the way to invest.
LEARNING: Never stay in a position that violates something that you believe in. In every position, know where you’ll get out before you get in.
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Ep706: Sampark Sachdeva – Don’t Be Afraid to Take the Plunge
BIO: Sampark Sachdeva has 12 years of corporate experience across Asian Paints and other businesses.
STORY: Sampark let the security of his corporate job distract him from building a business out of his love for training. It wasn’t until COVID struck and he found himself without a job that he decided to work on the plan. The business turned out to be a huge success.
LEARNING: Nothing good comes easy. Don’t let job security restrict you from pursuing your entrepreneurial dreams.
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DISCLAIMER: This content is for information purposes only. It is not intended to be investment advice. Readers should not consider statements made by the author(s) as formal recommendations and should consult their financial advisor before making any investment decisions. While the information provided is believed to be accurate, it may include errors or inaccuracies. The author(s) cannot be held liable for any actions taken as a result of reading this article.