Some people are better with money than others. Is it nature or nurture?
What I mean is: can investing be taught, or does it come naturally?
I’m going to make a very controversial statement. Financial acumen is almost entirely nature. You are born with it.
You were born with your tolerance for risk. It is in your DNA. I would not be surprised if 23andMe found a gene for it someday.
Let me explain.
The Mush
Everyone has heard of ‘the mush.’ This is a person who is wrong about everything. This person bought the highs in Internet stocks in 2000, bought the highs of homebuilders in 2006, bought the highs in gold in 2011, and perhaps is buying the highs in bitcoin now.
This person is very useful. The person who is wrong all the time is just as useful as the person who is right all the time! You simply do the opposite of what he is doing. I know people who subscribe to bad newsletter writers just because they are reliably wrong.
A brief interlude here: to get the opposite of bad newsletter writers, you should think about becoming a Mauldin VIP. The VIP service – which only opens twice a year – gives you seven Mauldin newsletters at one low price. And yes, Street Freak and ETF 20/20 are included. If you want to save thousands of dollars and get access to some of the best newsletters around, you should check it out before the offer closes on December 13.
Anyway, back to the mush. Funny thing about them – they are present in every walk of life, including Chicago MBAs and derivatives traders. Just because you have the credentials, doesn’t mean you are good with money. I have seen my share of traders who are wrong all the time. They do manage to stick around. Wall Street can be a lot more forgiving than you think.
This post was published at Mauldin Economics on DECEMBER 7, 2017.