Gyroscopic Investing

This is my first post.  I have been reading this forum for about 6 months now, and I think that I have read every post on here.  I also have read most of the PP bogleheads forum.  I started investing with the PP 4 ETFs in a taxable account about 3 months ago, and I truly feel like this is what I have been looking for the last 12 years (12 years ago is when I finished school and started working).  It has been a long road that has involved a lot of reading and self teaching.  While it has been fun to learn about personal investing,  it has been very expensive.  It took me about 9 of those 12 years to realize that I was just not a good investor (too emotional).  I consistently bought high and sold low.  I really do believe that it is very hard to predict the future for the average investor.  This is also true for the incredibly well informed below average investor, like myself.  The PP greatest strength may be the fact that it will help protect me from myself.

I really wanted to thank the forum members.  This is an incredible forum, and you all have been very helpful.  This is the friendliest financially related forum I have visited, which is so refreshing.  I hope it stays that way.  I really want to thank craigr and MediumTex.  I love how craigr keeps the forum grounded, and I am not sure I have ever read a forum poster that is funnier than MediumTex.  In fact I think I look at the forum now to mainly see if MediumTex has posted anything.

There have been some, let's call it, side effects.  I am now "wet shaving" with a DE safety razor with at least 4 different soaps and/or creams.  I am most likely going to buy a new $800 office chair.  And..  I even tried to watch Evil Dead.  My wife thinks I have lost it.  This has been part of the fun of this incredible forum.

I hear you on the side effects. This forum got me hooked on Breaking Bad. I am on Season 3 episode 3. No spoilers please!

The PP can make one feel like somewhat of an outsider in the investment community, so it is great for us to have our own watering hole. It's especially nice to have a place where we can safely brag about our smooth returns while everyone is losing their shirts without being rude 

You are welcome, I.O.


May peace be with us.

You're welcome...


Did I miss the office chair discussion? I didn't know that had come up.

Re: Funnier

The financial industry has sucked the humor out of me. It would be hilarious if it wasn't so sad. But now it's time for me to admit that MediumTex and I are the same person. I just log in as Tex after having a few drinks (which explains why you mainly see those posts in the morning).

The Steelcase Amia

http://store.steelcase.com/brochures/amia/

Thanks for the kind words.  Part of what I love about what we do here is that we are able to have the discussions I always wanted to have on other forums, but it always seemed like there were too many people trying to talk over one another to actually move the discussion forward.  We don't have that problem here, and it's very refreshing.

It has been said many times, but I will say it again: for the right kind of person with the right temperament, the PP can provide an enormous sense of relief and peace of mind.  It's a deeply disappointing realization to find that much of what passes for investing is just sophisticated market participants taking money from less sophisticated market participants.

The analogy of the markets being like a casino is far more accurate than many people imagine.  Finding a way of investing successfully without becoming a gambler is, IMHO, what the average investor should strive for.  Instead, many investors think that becoming a successful investor requires that they become successful gamblers, which the investment industry actively encourages.

In the OP, there is a reference to not being a good investor because the poster is too emotional.  I think there is a deep insight here, and it is that people are not bad investors because they are too emotional, it is that people are bad investors because they are people.  People are emotional.  We get excited, we get scared, we get mad, we fall in love...our passions inform much of the way in which we perceive the world.  The financial industry is just very skilled in turning our "people-ness" against us by telling us stories about easy wealth and investment success that simply aren't true.  People buy it for the same reason that they buy a lot things--it tickles their imaginations and gives them a sense of belief in future scenarios that make them feel good when they think about them.  The fact that the stories they are told are basically false is not as important as one might think.

The PP is a quiet noise in a loud world.  I have noticed, however, that there is that small sliver of the population that keeps searching in the investment wilderness for something that makes sense to them that actually works in all market conditions, and it's a lot of fun to help connect such people with the PP, because for the right kind of person it really is a great tool.

Well said.  I think that the PP will be permanent for me.  It has already cut down the noise, and that has been only in a six month period of time.  I only wish I would have found this investment philosophy earlier.  Now on to other hobbies.

I think if I want the chance to have incredible returns, I will just buy a lotto ticket once a year.  I had a friend say once that the $5 you pay is worth the dream every once in a while.  I always thought that was funny.

craigr wrote: But now it's time for me to admit that MediumTex and I are the same person. I just log in as Tex after having a few drinks (which explains why you mainly see those posts in the morning).

  Funny, but I know this isn't true because I heard MT speaking in one of your podcasts!

Storm wrote:

craigr wrote: But now it's time for me to admit that MediumTex and I are the same person. I just log in as Tex after having a few drinks (which explains why you mainly see those posts in the morning).

  Funny, but I know this isn't true because I heard MT speaking in one of your podcasts!

That may have just been him having one of those "Psycho" style discussions with himself.

Voice modulator.  If you listen closely, you'll notice that they never talk over each-other.