Stay Focused on What You Can Control

April 1, 2022 5 Minute Read

Carl Richards, CFP, a well-known author in investor education, created the graphic above. Many of you have heard me say this and may have seen this illustration.  I first saw it in a paper put out by Vanguard, the mutual fund, and investment management company.  The article was developed to highlight the value a good advisor can bring by helping clients focus on what is essential and what they control.  You can read the Vanguard article here.

With everything that’s going on in the world, maybe it’s a good time to remember to focus on what we can control.

We can control how we invest.  We do this with how we allocate our savings and investments.  It may be tempting to sell it all, go to cash, and wait for this to blow over ~ but since we don’t know what the market returns will be, we don’t know if going to cash is the right decision.  And if you do go to cash, you create a second problem of when to go back into the market.  We will mostly time both badly.

We can control how we spend our money.  Many of us are eating at home and fixing our meals, which saves money and improves our health.  And we can look at our other spending and question what we really need.  We sold one of our cars because we are now both working from home, and it is infrequent that we both need to go somewhere at the same time.  Sure, this will change, but I am not sure we will ever return to driving as many miles as we used to.

We can control how well we take care of ourselves.  Eating right, sleeping enough, and getting exercise may help build our immune system and ward off not only viruses but other health issues.  Studies are coming out that certain supplements like Vitamin D may help strengthen our immune system as well, and as many as two-thirds of us may be deficient. (Some studies are here and here.)

 

I encourage you to think about what is important to you and go from there.   Control what you can and worry less about the rest.

Worry won’t help anyway.

How have the past two years have challenged you?  And how have you stayed focused in these crazy times?  Reach out and give me an update.

I promise to listen more than I talk.

David

https://calendly.com/david-hicok/investment-review-call

https://calendly.com/david-hicok/investment-review-zoom

Need inspiration ?

Discover Your Purpose, Rhys Thomas

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Tapping into Wealth, Margaret Lynch

Information provided here is for educational purposes only.