Got a phone call on the way to the gym the other day. Some dude who wanted me to take some political survey. I couldn’t actually make out what organization he was calling on behalf of. After mumbling something for a few seconds and telling me he wanted to ask me a few questions, he started firing them off.
No pause. Nuthin’
So, I stopped him.
Me: “Aren’t you going to ask me if I want to take this survey?”
After a loooooooong pause, he asks:
“Do you have time to take this survey?”
Me: “Nope” *click*
I guess I should say I just pressed the “end call” button thingie. Phones don’t click anymore, do they?
Point is, this guy just launched into an unsolicited sales pitch for this survey thing. No he wasn’t asking me for money, but he was asking for time, which is even more valuable.
Now, maybe a 5 minute survey doesn’t seem that long. Maybe 5 minutes isn’t all that valuable. But that’s the point. 5 minutes here and 5 minutes there end up being a lot of time.
And when you’re talking about a bad investment, that 5 minute sales pitch turns into 30 years of mistakes… and, that’s the real negative aspect of a bad investment. It chews through your most precious and irreplaceable resource: time.
Here’s why I say that:
Many moons ago, I took on a client who had spent years and years and years investing in the stock market… with absolutely no life insurance to fall back on if things went sideways. And, if you looked at her investment portfolio, you wouldn’t think twice about it. Some money was allocated to stocks. Some money was allocated to bonds. She had a lot of money saved up, and she was a diligent saver.
In other words, she wasn’t a loser who bought a stock market lottery ticket. She was actually trying to do the right thing. But…
It was 2007.
You know what happened next.
Poof! Savings. Gone. Even her bond funds didn’t help her.
I guess the True Believers could argue “stocks for the long run, lol! Just hang in there!”
But, this lady was already getting pretty close to retirement. She couldn’t afford to hang on forever.
And… that’s kind of the point. You can’t hold on to a losing investment forever and wait for it to recover. There comes a point when you run out of time.
Anyway, something to think about. Or not… that’s up to you.
But if you do happen to value your time and don’t want to waste it, join my email list and I’ll send you my free special report Why Successful Businesses Fail. I’ll also bring you up to speed on what smart and savvy business owners are doing these days to ensure their continued success… regardless of what happens to the economy in the future.