Invested Poorly: Sad Tales of FInancial Fails

S1 E13 : Season 1 is now over, and Jeff Harrell reflects on what he hopes you’ve gained from the series. He highlights each of the investing lessons covered in the first season’s 12 episodes, which were designed to help you make wiser investment decisions for a smoother path to financial independence (FI) . Remember:  Focus on the long-term, control your emotions, simplify your investments, and al...

S1 E12 : Every investor at some point will experience FOMO (fear of missing out). Friends, family, and “experts” influence our investment decisions due to this feeling of FOMO which is rooted in our feelings of fear or greed. Arm yourself with stories of failure and actual data points to help keep you from succumbing to this common investor trap . Jeff Harrell recalls one of his favorite investor...

S1 E11 : Investing headlines are designed to get you to click. The more extreme the claim, the more likely we are to do what we all know we shouldn’t. What could happen to you when you push that button? Jeff Harrell tells a story about what one investor experienced after “taking the bait” and clicking on a doomsday investing headline. A second story in this episode illustrates one of several creat...

S1 E10 : Nothing is more important than trust when it comes to financial advice. Unfortunately, the complicated nature of investing results in everyday investors having a difficult time identifying misleading tactics. Jeff Harrell shares two true stories—that infuriate him to this day—about deceptive information he discovered on real client investment reports. Do you fully understand how to interp...

S1 E9 : Perception is often extremely different than reality. Financial news channels may be the posterchild for this. A deep understanding of global economics, business management, politics, financial accounting, etc., still isn’t enough to make you able to truly predict the future. Jeff Harrell presents the evidence to support this, with shocking data from a research report available on Standard...

S1 E8 : Are you sure you understand the "Cost Basis" and “Gain/Loss” columns on your investment statements? Cost basis and gain/loss calculations are two commonly misunderstood investment terms. Learn what these calculations actually represent. Jeff Harrell uses several examples to illustrate how cost basis can be misleading and breaks down this technical concept to help you get a better...

S1 E7 : Timing the stock market is something we’re all told not to do, yet all of us are guilty of it at some point. This episode may have the “smoking gun” illustration to help you avoid this poor decision going forward. Jeff Harrell explains two hypothetical (and impossible) scenarios of the luckiest and unluckiest investors in history—the former buying into the stock market at the very bottom e...

S1 E6 : Even though everyone knows past performance is no guarantee of future results, the allure of buying what you wished you’d owned tempts us all. This episode will help drive this point home further with examples of why heeding this advice is so important to successful investing . Jeff Harrell also shares what three types of investment returns most people typically want to achieve and how mos...

S1 E5 : Perception is often not reality. Everyday investors would do well to keep this in mind while reviewing their investment accounts. Unfortunately, many investors’ lack of understanding about performance has cost them dearly over the years. Gaining a better understanding of this will better equip you to compare your results to relevant benchmarks, thereby improving your ability to evaluate yo...

S1 E4 : We’ve all heard the term, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” When it comes to the stock market, I’d simply change “beauty” to “risk” in this expression. How you define risk plays a huge role in your perception of stock market investing. A look at one set of data points may change all of that. Jeff Harrell breaks down the fascinating results of a research report that analyzed stock mar...

S1 E3 : Saving is where the path to financial independence (FI) begins, but if “ saving ” is all you ever do with your money, then your path might be longer than necessary. Implementing the next step— investing —accelerates your journey. Failure to understand from the outset about the inevitable ups and downs along a path to FI could cost you dearly in terms of extra years wasted unnecessarily. Je...

S1 E2 : A day has hardly gone by without someone in the media predicting doom and gloom for the stock market. Buying in to this feeling has the potential not only to be devastating to your financial well-being , but also to your sanity. Jeff Harrell tells a true tale about a “doomsday prepper” who perpetually rooted for the stock market to fail because he started investing in a way to try and prof...

S1 E1 : Will the next presidential election be the “ most important election ever ”? You might think so when following popular media outlets where every four years we have the “most important election ever!” Recognizing how this may be true in some ways—since elections, especially presidential elections, are a big deal—host Jeff Harrell reveals that when it comes to investing…it’s just another yea...

Have you ever thought of investing in the stock market as though it were like a great action movie? Host Jeff Harrell unveils their similarities (and a key difference!) and sets the stage for this seasonal podcast about how to simplify your investment strategy to help you reach financial independence . Jeff, with over 20 years of experience as a former portfolio manager and financial advisor, brie...

When it comes to navigating the twists and turns of stock market investing, do you choose poorly? Or wisely? Experience suggests most of us are bad investors, although you may not hear this from speaking with friends and family. Sadly, the compounding effect of poor investment decisions can add up to a lot of money lost and time wasted. On Invested Poorly: Sad Tales of FInancial Fails , host Jeff...