2025 Investing Lessons – Common Sense Wealth
Financial content is seasonal.
Spring tax items.
Earnings are deposited once a quarter.
Someone is contractually obligated to write a Sell in May blog post for that month every year.
Right now it is a combination of looking back and looking forward.
Next year’s watch season — major risks, opportunities, price targets, etc. of 2026. Now is the best time to make predictions about the coming year because no one will hold you accountable for your prediction skills. So many predictions are made that everything comes together.
But the end of the year is also a time to reflect on what has just happened. Writing a piece about 2025 investment lessons is a slam dunk right now.
I know because I have done that years ago.
Investment studies are more useful than investment forecasts although forecasts require more attention.
But here’s a little secret I’ve learned over time about investing lessons – they don’t really change.
You can write these lessons ahead of time and simply pick and choose the ones that work depending on the environment.
Market volatility is an opportunity, not a reason to abandon your investment plan.
Don’t let fear or greed rule your investing situation.
Don’t confuse your investment time with someone else’s.
Don’t give in to FOMO.
Don’t allow recency bias, survival bias, bias, or short-term performance to guide your actions.
Don’t panic.
Never go too high in a bull market or too low in a bear market. You are not smart when the market goes up or dumber when it goes down.
Markets are always changing. Human nature is not like that. The narrative is price driven and price movements are volatile.
It’s always the same lessons!
We just have to learn them over and over again. That’s why I write about the same things over and over again on this blog.
As Jason Zweig once wrote: “That’s because good advice rarely changes, while markets always do. The temptation to wander is almost irresistible. And while people need good advice, what they want is advice that sounds good.”
I don’t know what will happen in 2026. No one else either.
Either way, the course will expire.
They always are.
Michael and I talked about 2025 investment lessons, 2026 market outlook and much more in this week’s Animal Spirits video:
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Further reading:
20 Lessons From 20 Years of Money Management
Now here’s what I’ve been reading lately:
Books:
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