I enjoy using lines from movies when talking to clients about investing and financial planning. For example there is the classic line by Jack Nicolson’s character from “A few good men” when he is on the witness stand and being asked about the truth of an investigation to which he replies…”You want the truth? You cant handle the truth”. Sadly we get to use this when telling clients the truth about being able to retire or about their budgetting and the reasons that they are always in debt.
But one of my favourite lines that we often get to use is from the movie “Mickey Blue Eyes” which stars Hugh Grant as the boyfriend whose prospective father-in-law is a gangster boss. Hugh Grant’s character is very proper and speaks with a real hot potato in his mouth. The father wants to introduce him to his gangster friends but cant have him speak with that accent and so he tries to teach him to speak like a mobster…about the only thing he gets right is the line “forget about it” which sounds more like “fur ged abowd did”…and so it is with investments – clients need to learn to do the Mickey Blue Eyes and “forget about it”.
We’ve recently had a few calls from clients about their investment values – this is largely a function of quarterly or half-yearly statements just having gone out combined with the current volatility that is being experienced. Research shows that the more often you look at your investments, the less likely you are to stick to your long term plan/goals as it becomes too easy to focus on the short term volatility.
Unfortunately legislation requires that companies report frequently (how that happened is the subject of another post) and as a result clients are getting statements too often (in my opinion). Combine this with the ability to access the values online and the absolute glut of information by so-called experts it becomes too easy for investors to be distracted from their plans and to make decisions based on the short-term “noise”.
I am not advocating a reckless negligence of your finances but I recommending that if you are an investor (that implies that you are in it for the long haul) and you have an investment plan/strategy in place then you need to learn to do the “Micky Blue Eyes” with your investments and “fur ged abowd did”. Give them time and they will come right!
