Zooming out is helpful. Your financial future is not built in a few months. That is short-term thinking that will make you go broke. You invest for the long-term and you earn money over the same time period. It’s okay to make a few mistakes as long as you don’t bet all your money on one thing and diversify your portfolio.This period in history is only a blip on a much bigger graph — remember that.

Zooming Out

Sometimes knowing lots about money can be a disadvantage. You can start to hypothesize and overthink the entire world of finance and do your head in, in the process. That’s what Tim describes it felt like recently.

Knowing How to Invest Can Be a Disadvantage

You can bet the market is going to go down because of something like a pandemic by shorting stocks (betting stocks will go down). During uncertain times, the situation can change rapidly.The markets can be extremely volatile and that can cause unexpected losses. Unless you are a professional trader and do it for a living, it’s often best not to play the game and keep your face and finances intact.

Betting on Whether It Will Go up or down Can Hurt

If you are in a hurry, then that is a sign of desperation. Does desperation sound like a good state of mind to invest your life savings? Probably not.<blockquote>If I feel rushed to make a decision…the likelihood of me making a bad decision is very high. And the cost of undoing that bad decision can be very high.</blockquote><blockquote></blockquote>It is “we” that hit the “execute trade” button to financial ruin. Slow down.

Rushed Decisions Are a Bad Sign

You can act like a sucker when you think you’re smarter at investing than Warren Buffett. There are other ways to make money outside of investing.

Your Field Of Expertise

<ul><li>&nbsp;It’s okay to be afraid.</li><li>Make a decision and move on.</li><li>Nothing is too big to fail.</li><li>Don’t be afraid of doing nothing.</li><li>Remember why you first invested.</li></ul>

A Simple Guide to Money in These Uncertain Times

There are opportunities everywhere. There are endless chances to make money. Tim recommends going after the ones that exploit your core competencies and are the most appealing to you.He argues you can miss plenty of opportunities and only take advantage of a small few and net-net still do very well. “I try to keep that in mind and zoom out. Not look at this as an anomaly of a few weeks,” says Tim.

Opportunities

None of us are immune to our own psychology when it comes to money. Any of us can make a bad decision about our finances if we don’t prepare in advance for what is to come.Here is what Tim’s story can teach you about the psychology of money and how to manage yours, so you don’t lose everything you’ve worked hard for (not financial advice).

The Psychology Of Money

Think about what it’s going to feel like when your investments take a hit. Preparing for major events like a recession can help you <a href="https://medium.com/mind-cafe/write-a-list-of-all-your-desired-future-experiences-c285f42e9b5a" target="_self">handle them in the future</a>. Looking at previous recessions can show you that <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/mikepatton/2020/03/30/how-stocks-performed-during-the-past-6-recessions/#52fa5790339d" target="_self">30%-50% drops are not uncommon.</a>How are you going to feel if that happens? What could you do to prepare so you don’t freak out and sell your investments at rock bottom prices?

Prepare Your Mind

There is a cost to everything you do. Investing your money and worrying about it all the time has a psychological cost. It’s all fun and games until you play and it’s your own money. Then, stress takes away some of your brainpower that you can use to be creative.That is a huge cost that can stop you from profiting from the hard-earned skills you love deploying. It’s worth thinking about this trade-off before becoming obsessed with the markets and your ability to invest in them.

The Markets Hurt Psychologically, Not Just Financially

When you think of someone like Tim Ferriss, who has spent much of his life in Silicon Valley and is surrounded by intelligent investors, you would assume during a financial crisis that he’d be the…

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