Never forget these two axioms:
Money frees us, but its pursuit may enslave us.
It’s not about how much you have at the end; it’s how much you could have made.
The next few posts will highlight physician archetypes we all know and often dread, especially the next guy who we all have to deal with in the hospital…
Dr. Know It All
I’m always amazed at what is tracked, especially in the US.
Did you know federal regulatory agencies track small plane crashes by pilot occupation?
They do.
What a great country.
And physicians are number one.
Congratulations, doctors!
When researched, it was thought that doctors are so confident of their skills that they would assume things rather than go through the checklist that all pilots are trained to do. They were found to be over confident in their skills as well, particularly in bad weather. (Sadly, this is precisely killed JFK Jr, his wife, and sister-in-law when he flew as a non-instrument tested pilot in weather that should have grounded him otherwise.)
Unfortunately, we all know physicians that are so supremely confident in their skills that they have become blindly arrogant and assume that they are now great at everything they do.
Of course, I am. I’m one of the smartest people I know and I know a lot of really smart people.
No one can convince them they are wrong…ever…about anything.
They also rarely have an opinion left unspoken.
Why would you when you’re that smart?
Their greatest fear is dying with an opinion left unsaid and not shared with the world.
And that comes to investing as well.
Regardless of what type of investing they are in (spoiler alert: it’s never a mutual fund), that’s THE ONE to be in…and anyone who isn’t in it is a fool…which most people are in their perspective anyway. This is just further evidence confirming their suspicions.
{RLE #4: A physician I barely knew struck me up in conversation once and claimed—declared actually—that there was no money to be made in the stock market any longer (apparently we had all missed this halcyon era of easy riches) and the “real money” was only to be found in real estate. As he noted, “If you’re not in, you’re out. I’m warning you, boyo. Don’t ever be out.” Boy-o? What bad action movie did he learn his syntax from? Probably the same one that he learned his investing philosophy from. That absurd one where Arnold Schwarzenegger is a firefighter who somehow winds up fighting terrorism. Remember that one?*}
They aren’t always obnoxious or inflammatory. They may be popular, influential, or hold positions of authority in their respective groups, divisions, departments, or hospitals. And that’s the whole problem.
Even those of us skeptical of them as human beings gravitate towards their opinions as physicians. It naturally happens in the hospital, so it follows that it would in other spheres as well.
{RLE # 5: A well known braggart at a hospital I used to work at proclaimed how he sold all of his stocks and mutual funds and was pouring it all into real estate after holding it all in cash for 2 years, all because he didn’t “like how things look”…whatever that meant. He repeated multiple times how he sold all his stocks and mutual funds. He bragged loudly (it’s never softly, is it?) how proud he was that he owned not one share of one stock or one sliver of a mutual fund.
Forget the massive capital gains tax that would have to be paid for such a brash move.
Forget that real estate may have a much larger downside than the stock market.
Realize when all of this happened.
If you were to believe this narcissist, he sold out of the stock market in the summer of 2006 when it was high (but not nearly at its peak), held on for two years, and plunged “all in” into the residential real estate market in the summer of 2008… just before the crash months later.
But trust him, he’s a genius. Even he believes he is. And who can argue with him?
After all, he’s a genius.}
But think back to that physician pilot…
When you don’t do your job—a thorough evaluation—you’re risking your hard earned money to the whims and wishes of someone else who only remembers his successes.
Just because someone else doesn’t run through their checklist before a surgery, procedure, or flight doesn’t mean you should follow suit. In fact, that’s the point of time outs by OR teams. It eliminates all short circuiting by the physician. The thorough evaluation will be done no matter what.
In no way, shape, or form is money more valuable than a life. But there’s a lesson to be learned here.
Dr. Know It All is often arrogant and loud, not because he is great, but because he is insecure. He loves money not for the financial security like most of us, but for the perceived power, influence, and stature it provides him. Therefore, he doesn’t panic when things go sideways; he just amps up the volume on his braggadocio.
The only thing worse than not being rich for Dr. Know It All is having people know it.
Go ahead and feel free to listen to whoever you like or trust, even the idle chatter in Satan’s locus—i.e., the physician’s lounge in your local hospital.
Just evaluate what you’re being told. Don’t just blindly follow what others are doing.
No matter how smart, amazing, or trusted they are, do your job before any money is put at risk (and that’s exactly how you should think of it).
Invest smartly because you did your job, not just because someone told you to do so. They won’t reimburse you when you lose your money. They’re too busy trying to get out of their metaphorical plane crash to do so.
Remember RULE # 1: No one cares about your money more than you do.
I’d love to hear from any and all of you about your thoughts, so we can all learn from one another.
Talk to you soon.
*Collateral Damage, 2002. (The film was actually delayed in its release from 10/2001 to 2002 because of the events of 9/11/01. Never forget.)
Give yourself a gold star for the day if you knew this without looking it up.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Collateral_Damage_(film)