The other day, a topic was shared with me on a forum where Rask was mentioned. It doesn’t really matter that Rask was mentioned at all, it could have been anyone, as it is something I’ve heard often.
“Why would anyone pay someone to invest in ETFs for them?“
By their very nature, these forums are filled with enthusiasts. They’ve chosen to find the topic, create a username, and take time out of the day to say their two cents worth. If you are chatting about ETFs or investing on the internet with others, you’re into it. To you the idea of someone else buying into ETFs on your behalf is laughable.
But, have a think about how much time it has taken you to get to the point where you are confident to post on the internet for everyone to see your views on investing. And if you enjoy it, that’s fantastic. Finding something that you love to do, and is rewarding as an adult is amazing, so keep doing it. Investing is a wonderful activity. I’ve been doing this professionally for over 15 years and often feel like I’ve still barely scratched the surface.
Investing is all about opportunity cost. When you elect to put your money into something you are – knowingly or unknowingly – saying no to a whole stack of other choices. Other opportunities where you could have invested. It’s the same with your time.
Return on time
When you listen to hours of podcasts, read product disclosure statements, spend days summarising the differences between bog standard index tracking ETFs there’s opportunity cost with your time. You’ve chosen to do this over anything else you could have done.
What could the return on your time have been if you played with your child? Went to work drinks with clients or managers from other businesses and developed relationships with them? Would that be meaningful?
And what if you’re just not that interested? You went down the rabbit hole of investing, now understand it is important but just don’t care enough to put in the time?
My toilet wouldn’t stop running once. I spent a few hours watching Youtube videos and pondering the cistern. Mine didn’t look anything like the ones on Youtube. I could have gone down to Bunnings, asked a few mates, and I reckon I would have eventually solved the problem and then wonder if I had done it right or if I’d wake up to water all over the floor. Instead, I just got a plumber. Something I couldn’t even see was broken and he fixed it in ten minutes and off he went.
That was a good return on my time.
Our investors at Rask Invest are incredibly smart and hard working. They’re ambitious too, for themselves and their families. That’s why they’ve sought us out. Inherently lazy people aren’t finding us, doing investing courses and then investing tens of thousands they’ve saved.
Our investors are business owners, doctors, people in the armed forces, landscapers, hairdressers, and even people in the finance industry. They are all damn smart and I have no doubt are capable of figuring out this whole investment caper if they invested the time. Instead, they’ve made a decision that their energy is better spent on other activities and they will use professionals they know and trust.
There’s a part two to this rant which I’ll have for you tomorrow. Stay tuned for, “why do all these investing podcast guys talk about active stock picking?”
Markets overnight
The US markets have experienced modest gains overnight. The main data point to come out was the US jobs figures which appear to be holding steady, despite the tariff turmoil. We’re anticipating a positive day here on the ASX.
- S&P 500 = +0.58%
- Nasdaq = +0.81%
- Aussie dollar down -0.5% to 64.66 US cents
- Iron down 0.9% to $94.40 US a tonne
In the meantime, if you’d like to get in touch with me you can use the chat in the bottom right, jump across to the Rask Community or jump across to the Rask Invest site too. Catch you tomorrow.
