Ignore the Hype

Chapter 11FYI, the Media Doesn't Care If You Make Money

And now we reach the crux of this book. Remember, your objective is to ignore all the mayhem that surrounds you so that you can focus on time-tested principles designed to pave the way to long-term financial freedom. This is difficult because even once you've identified your emotional biases you still need to accept that they will never be completely eliminated. You are human after all. The best you can hope for is to reduce the impact of emotions and set up systems and processes to allow the logical, rational part of your brain to win out.

As you've hopefully gathered by now, one of the most important things you can do when it comes to managing your emotions is to have a written plan in place. This plan should be constructed at a time when you are thinking clearly. This is the best environment to lay out reasonable steps to meet your financial goals. The written plan then becomes the template you refer back to when your emotions urge you to do something that may not be in your long-term best interests.

But Then There's the Media …

Having a written plan in place becomes even more important when you consider the constant barrage of media headlines you're subjected to, as well as the fact that those media headlines are specifically designed to exacerbate your behavioral biases. You are more likely to be deeply engaged when your emotions, rather than your intellect, are stimulated. The media knows this and so, in addition ...