Always give Luck & Risk their proper respect

Today, I think I found the true meaning of risk that I will never forget. It probably means the same thing but I never truly understood it until today.
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You see when they say we are taking risks, you are risking it all, I must have been shallow-minded to always define this thing in the most complicated way possible. The simplest answer is this, luck and risks are two sides of the coin.

If your business or your investment portfolio succeeds and yields the necessary profits respectively, that's luck but the moment your business folds up and the market tanks your portfolio, that's risk.

So every time you go all in on something hoping to make a fortune and it goes sideways, that's a risk. You are risking it all at this point. There's every tendency that it might be successful and there's also every tendency that it will fall apart.

None of this has anything to do with what you know, and how good you are with numbers, it's just part of the cycle of making money and hoping to get rich. It's one of those things that you can't control no matter how you try. It's probably why we are often advised to invest an amount we can afford to lose and to never try to time the market.

Timing the market - Dead end

Speaking of timing the market, I have something for you. I recently tried to complete the movie, Dynasty, so I slowly went into the next episode where Michael found out that one of his players is deliberately losing his shot at scoring and blaming it on a broken leg. He doesn't have any injury and he's in perfect condition to score during a game.

But Michael has a feeling he's in bed with bad people and he probably owes them a lot of money. This means deliberately losing games so that the opposition will win. I am guessing the opposition may have placed a bet on the game and made sure that particular Michael's player makes them rich by ditching the score every time.

It's almost like how Thomas Shelby always makes a public display of his horse right before a race. He will go to a certain town and call an Asian woman to bless the horse and predict that it will win. The onlookers would see that and bet on him.

Thomas Shelby made sure he did consistently for a few years and the next year, he turned the tables around. The horse won consecutively for those years making sure that the people placed their faith in him until that year, he pulled the rug on them.

In that instant, no one will say Thomas Shelby defrauded them after all it's just that one time.. it has been winning every other year, except this one..and that's life. Uncertainties are an integral part of it.

Be wary of your opponent

The two instances above prove that timing the market and investing an amount you can't afford to lose would lead to terrible outcomes when you don't know what games your opponents are playing. To be on the safe side, you will always need to take cover by doing the necessary research and knowing at the back of your mind that anything can happen.

There are two men mentioned in the book, The Psychology of Money, each one faced different phases of financial comparisons but both of them ended up the same way. They go by the names, Jess Livermore and Abraham Germansky. While one celebrated being able to short the market and getting rich with his family, the other took his life because he was busy betting heavily on the same stock. One became rich and the other committed suicide.

Fast forward four years later, Jess Livermore had become too confident in his ability to bet on a declining stock market and make a fortune but this year was different. He lost everything, and because he was broke and ashamed, he disappeared for a few days and even though he returned home afterward, he took his life regardless.

Accept Luck & Risk

Risk - The other siblings of luck can mess up all of your entire financial dreams in just a stroke, what better way to be prepared than to cultivate a better attitude towards money and learn when to stop? You'll be better off understanding and accepting that uncertainties are a part of life and when you play the game of wealth-building, do not forget to make sure that if anything happens, your last resort will not be to take your own life.

Invest in Yourself

As much as you invest in assets and profit-yielding portfolios remember to invest in yourself too because when it all sours, the one thing that you'll be able to use and get back on your feet will be all the knowledge you accumulated over the years.

Gold & HBD

But... If you think you might not be able to get back on your feet because you'll probably be old and can't do as much as you could when you were much younger, then, do the one thing that we all can control....*Save.

Learn about those asset classes that allow you to beat inflation as you go that way your money doesn't depreciate and save in them.

One of them according to all accounts that I have read is Gold. I am yet to do thorough research on that but I have seen a lot of people on Hive banking in that direction and it could be something worth looking into. Of course, we also have HBD, with the 20% interest rate that is given for saving a portion, you should be rest assured that inflation has nothing on you.