Sense on Cents

The markets, the economy, and life itself are all marathons. As such, everyday we have to put on our shoes and do our roadwork. Without the discipline of that process, how can we ever expect to achieve our long term goals?

Promoting discipline and its practice is not exactly an approach that sells easily, but I know of no other approach for achieving real progress.

In my opinion, America in general and Wall Street specifically have long been far too focused on the short term, that is, one quarter’s earnings, one month’s sales figures, one week’s data, or one day’s stock returns. If we manage our businesses and our lives to achieve those short term results, are we laying the foundation to withstand challenges and hurdles for long term success?

The reason I broach this topic is the ebullience I view from the overwhelming numbers of financial commentators on up days in the market relative to their mood on down days.

I know they are in the ‘sales’ business, but if we are going to adapt to a new economy, then I think we need to adapt a new approach to trading, investing, and business – if not life itself.

I have exposure to different sectors of the market and obviously like to see investments increase in value just like anybody else. I always respect the market and the price action even if I have different opinions about values. However, if my mood is changing appreciably based upon daily market swings then my investments are controlling me rather than vice versa.

I will allow others to lead the cheers. I merely want to make slow and steady progress everyday, and hopefully help others do the same via Sense on Cents.

Do not mean to be overly philosophical, so . . . it’s time for me to go get back on that elliptical.

LD

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 23rd, 2009 at 5:29 PM and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.