It’s Your Fault

You’re not going to like this article today. Because today I’m going to give you some tough love that you probably don’t want to hear.

It’s something you need to hear though – as an individual investor. And it’s exactly the kind of insight I would want to hear if you were writing a commodity investment newsletter to me.

All of your wins, all of your losses, all of the good, bad and indifferent things that happened to you – they’re all your fault.

Yes – before you ask – even the schemes and scams that have cost you money. They’re your fault too. Even the huge chunks of money you’ve lost in your retirement accounts – money that you were assured was safely invested with a competent mutual fund manager in your 401(k) that got wiped out by the tech bubble popping, or the global meltdown of 2008.

Those losses too are your fault. (By the way, hat tip to James Altucher for this topic idea. His excellent blog is worth a look.)

My point: you can never, ever transfer responsibility for your financial success or failure to someone else. That responsibility is yours alone. Never make the mistake of thinking you can ever give up that responsibility.

We’re adults. We have a responsibility to ourselves and our money. We can pretend that the mutual fund industry has our best interests in mind first and foremost, but it’s a fantasy. It’s simply not true. We can pretend that the U.S. Government has our best interests in mind – but we know it’s not the case.

Absolving yourself of your own financial responsibility is like trying to explain to a State Trooper that it’s your car’s cruise control that’s to blame for your excessive speed.

It’s always your fault. You’re in the driver’s seat, literally and figuratively.

And the sooner you come to the conclusion that you and you alone stand between financial success and failure, the sooner you will start making the kinds of decisions that will skew your portfolio in the right direction.

If we pick a bad mutual fund, and we lose money – we have to face the fact that it was we who picked the mutual fund.

And honestly, I wouldn’t have it any other way. People tend to want a big brother savior to come in and guarantee their life, liberty and pursuit of happiness – and ironically they’re willing to give up pieces of their life, large swaths of their liberty and even their own happiness to anyone who tells them that he is that big brother savior.

Don’t forfeit your own personal responsibility. Don’t blame anyone but yourself for your failures.

Yes – my advice might seem backwards to you. You’d think that I would be happy to tell you that my facts are the right ones, and that you can rest easy just by reading and purchasing my research.

I’m doing the best job I can, but ultimately, no matter how many winning (or losing) investments I recommend – no matter how often and forcefully I pound the table for my favorite commodity investments – it’s your responsibility.

There’s no knight in shining armor out there. It’s you vs. an entire world full of pit-vipers. Keep your eyes open.

Good investing,

Kevin McElroy
Editor
Resource Prospector