Investing is Not Entertainment

Carl Richards is a certified financial planner and the founder of Clearwater Asset Management. He answered questions from Bucks readers in November.

One of the biggest mistakes we make is confusing investing with entertainment.

Somewhere along the line, investing became America’s favorite spectator sport. Everywhere you went people were talking about finding the next hot stock, mutual fund or alternative investment. Magazine covers like “10 Hot Funds You Have to Own Now” and “Five Stocks that Sizzle” made investing sound fun, and you couldn’t go anywhere without seeing Jim Cramer screaming “Buy! Buy! Buy!”

All this reinforced the idea that investing is all about action and that taking bold, swift action is fun. But the idea that investing is fun and entertaining can lead us to make costly mistakes.

Read the complete article here: 

http://bucks.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/08/investing-is-not-entertainment/