Golf & Investment Academy #6

Schwab Investing Tip

To be a successful investor you need to focus on the long term, and that means being able to live through the short term. Whether you're looking at markets or particular investments, they definitely go and up and down, which can trigger all kinds of emotions. There is a quote from that famous banker JP Morgan which applies here: when asked what the stock market is going to do, he replied, "It is going to fluctuate." That is absolutely true.

So when markets fluctuate that can cause the investments you hold to fluctuate. You have to expect that. Don't react emotionally just because prices have gone down. What you want to do is look at these investments: are they consistent with your plan and are the reasons you bought these securities still in place. If the answer is yes then don't focus on short term price changes.

Stick with your plan through thick and thin over the long term and your strategy will hopefully reward you.

Haney Golf Tip

The best players in the world lose more tournaments than they win. The great Ben Hogan once said that he might only hit two or three perfect shots in a round. In golf you're judged by your bad shots, often by your bad rounds. There are always up and downs – you just have to be able to ride it out.

If you get too emotionally high or low over a shot, a hole or a particular situation it's not going to end up benefitting your game. The hardest thing to do in golf, and the most important thing to do, is to learn to play one shot at a time. Give it your best for that one shot and when that shot is over you move on to the next one. You have to focus your attention on what's happening next, not what has happened because that's already in the past. Sure, you want to enjoy the great shots – allow them to penetrate a little deeper in to your conscious because they give you confidence. But it's still only one shot, and one shot doesn't make a round and it doesn't make a tournament.

Success is about being able to put a collection of shots together in order to achieve the desired result.