Matt Hall: The Price is Right (Season 3, Episode 7)

Welcome to Take the Long View with Matt Hall. This is a podcast to reframe the way you think about your money, emotion, and time. The goal? Helping you put the odds of long-term success on your side. Welcome to a mini episode with a mighty punch of value. I'm talking with you today solo and providing a glimpse into why I'm doing this podcast. Oh, but wait, not just any old podcast, but one that is now award-winning. Thank you very much. So why do this? And then why did we win an award? Well, 30+ episodes in, I think you deserve to know what my secret mission is and why. I want to make patience and discipline appealing and attractive. I'll say it again. I want to make patience and discipline appealing and attractive. If you go back and listen to many of the episodes, you'll see these themes underlying every conversation, whether it's with someone who writes a book about fly fishing or tennis or investing, Patience and discipline as attractive traits are baked into almost every conversation. Remember the old story of the tortoise beating the hare? Let's go back just in case you don't remember or aren't familiar. A hare was making fun of the tortoise one day for being slow. "Do you ever get anywhere?" he asked with a mocking laugh. "Yess," replied the Tortoise, "and I get there sooner than you think. I'll run you a race and prove it." The Hare was much amused at the idea of running a race with the Tortoise, but for the fun of the thing he agreed. So the Fox, who had consented to act as judge, marked the distance and started the runners off. The Hare was soon far out of sight, and to make the Tortoise feel very deeply how ridiculous it was for him to try a race with a hare, he lay down beside the course to take a nap until the tortoise should catch up. The tortoise, meanwhile, kept going slowly but steadily, and after a time passed the place where the hare was sleeping. But the hare slept on very peacefully, and when at last he did wake up, the tortoise was near the goal. The hare now ran his swiftest, but he could not overtake the tortoise in time. The race is not always to the swift. The same is true in successful investing, but we as humans are wired differently. That and the modern times have us set up for giving our attention often to the apocalypse du jour. As Jason Gay, sports columnist for the Wall Street Journal and future podcast guest of this show, said recently, "Nobody gets clicks and famous for taking a long view. Hell has to be served in a handbasket, preferably with a clever baiting headline. If you haven't freaked out about at least 3 things you've read by 9:00 AM, you're not doing it correctly." That's often how it feels to live in the modern era. And my mission is to be the voice in your ear that counters what is out there, to widen the gaze and help you take a longer and maybe more relaxing view. So the Take the Long View podcast has won an award and we are honored. It's called the Luminary Award for thought leadership. And it was given to us by an organization called Think Advisor. This is a legitimate award in our industry. We're honored to receive it. The judges who are involved, many of them are heroes of mine. But why are we getting it? I think because it's very rare to have someone focusing on patience and discipline, to going away from that sort of apocalypse du jour mentality and favoring a more patient, disciplined perspective. My book and this podcast both have the same mission in mind. And why? Because in my industry, those are the ingredients that matter most. Consider this story. I was visiting recently with some friends, and the topic turned to buying individual stocks with the hopes of getting rich. My pals know me well enough to know that I prefer the idea of buying the haystack instead of searching for the needles. But they went on anyway, and I enjoyed listening to the dialogue, not because it made sense to me, but because it shows how much work we still need to do. Why is picking individual stocks doomed to fail? Here's the reason: you're too late. The price knows what you think you know. The price, meaning the price of the stock. So if you like Costco, I've never been to one myself, but people, some of my friends, they really like Costco, cool. But analysts and fund managers and other people, they know it. And so does the price. Your knowledge is already baked in. It's not novel or new, it's in there. Here's another example, Peloton. Yep, sweet, I get it, I own one, love it. But that doesn't mean it's cheap to buy shares of the company. The price knows that it's an elegant exercise platform. The stock market is an information processing machine. And the machine works very well. Not perfectly, but close enough that it's really hard to know something, legally, that the market doesn't already know. Another line that came up during the conversation: buy what you know. Buy stocks or companies that you know. That's not really investing, and it's not dumb. It's just what Peter Lynch said years ago, and it's what others repeat. You don't know anything that the price doesn't already know, even if you're familiar with the company. And I think it's wonderful to have people interested in investing. It's just tough to hear people talk about it like it's easy. It's not, and the stakes are huge. So here's what to do. Bet or invest on the unknown benefits that are yet to come from not just one company, but global capitalism. Call yourself a true investor and throw away the popular and childish speculation trends. If you can't resist the temptation, if you must speculate, use 5% or less of your savings and pretend it's gone when you spin the wheel. You're neither a genius if you hit nor a bozo if you miss on your company of the day. You just benefited from something that was unknown or hurt by the same, because the price knows. The price knows. The price knows. But if you can own it all and just be patient, I think you'll be pleased with the results. And that is why this podcast is all about making patience and discipline attractive. These are the ingredients that truly matter most. Respect. Matt. If you could win an award for something, what would you want it to be for? Please note, the information shared in this podcast is not intended as advice. The intent is to share meaningful experiences. I am likely not your advisor, nor wealth manager, nor financial planner, and my opinions are my own and not necessarily shared by Hill Investment Group. Investing involves risk. Consult a professional before implementing an investment strategy. Thank you.