Are your emotions costing you money?

For most investors the answer to this question is probably yes as too many individual investors allow fear and greed to rule the day. If you are like many investors who left the equity markets after the 37% decline in 2008 you would have missed out on a 13.1% average return from 2009 through 2018 or about 3.5% more than the average for a ten-year holding period. Coincidentally costing you almost 3.5 times your initial investment over the ten-year period!

Even if you had waited for five years to jump back in the market, you would have missed out on an average return of almost 18% from 2009 through 2013 or about 7% more than the average for a 5-year holding period. That bad decision would have cost you about 2.5 times your initial investment over the 5-year period!

Don’t let fear and greed lead you to bad decision making, it could cost you an opportunity to reach your goals. How is your confidence?