From the stand point of the stock market, this is a lesson that so many folks needed to learn. Your investment advisors are simply people with vulnerabilities like the rest of us. The buy and hold mantra has cost you money. You must put attention on your own investments and you must actively manage your portfolio with input from financial people who know more than you. You must be the torch bearer of your own financial destiny. You must be in a mode of “continuous learning”. What about locked in accounts and government pensions you ask. Well, you are at the mercy of portfolio managers but you still have access to your accounts with a right to know what you own.

So….how do I find the time to manage my own investments? You fit it in. You stop succumbing to the bosses request for overtime. You put boundaries around your schedule. You stop being a pushover when it comes to your calendar. This might mean helping your spouse understand that that second vacation within a calendar year goes bye bye.  Boo hoo! What would you rather have  – an earlier with compounded accelerated rate of return and an earlier retirement or that second vacation just because your kids get a spring break?

Now that I’m on a roll ‘cause I put this together having just returned from an empty gym ‘cause of the psychology behind avoiding sweat boxes now that we’re dealing with this corona virus, I expound further.  Have you seen the chart on the Dow 30? The thing has been going straight up for years. Did you not think that it was overdue for a major correction in response to some kind of Black Swan event? Hell….I simply took a look at the incompetence of governments in running budgets given deficits and debts and on that basis alone considered the market over heated. Have you not perceived the weakness currently in our North American political leaders??  There’s another factor right there in and of itself worthy of shorting the market or running for the hills.