| Essential Action To Becoming A Successful Investor |
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| Written by Greg Matthews |
| Monday, 14 June 2010 13:06 |
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It could have been often said that the 1st step to becoming a better investor is an easy one -- put off the Television.
It could have been often said that the 1st step to becoming a better investor is an easy one -- put off the Television. CNBC -- as well as its competitors -- will only make you dumber as well as poorer. This comes like a surprise to many. After all, financial channels offer a gentle stream of well-credentialed professionals, men and women with extraordinary titles from major companies. The majority have PhDs, years of experience, or manage huge sums of money. They look good. They look sharp. They have insightful thoughts plus reams of arcane investment data tripping off their tongues. How can following to them perhaps make you a poorer investor? Since the unstated premise behind these programs -- that exist, of course, on the way to sell advertising -- is that people must be in a near-constant position of reaction: "The market is striking a new high today. What must traders do at this time?" "The Fed has left rates of interest unchanged. What should investors do now? "GNP was up an unexpectedly strong 3.8 percentage most recent quarter. What must traders perform at present?" They make on an analyst with a bullish view as well as another with a bearish one -- on shares, bonds, currencies, commodities, interest rates, or the economy -- allow them to square off for a few minutes, then cut to commercials. After sometime later, they come back and perform it some more. This goes on day after day, every week, year after year. Why do so many brilliant, talented, educated people spend countless hours staring blankly at the tube? The quick answer, certainly, is we like it. But do we, really? Is watching TV more fulfilling than what you would be doing if you were not? If you get particular about it, you might feel slightly ridiculous. As an example, have you ever told yourself something like: Gee, I actually need to find more exercise, but Dancing With the Stars is on in ten minutes. I promised my daughter I'd educate her how to play chess, but these Seinfeld re-runs are very funny. It is long past time I stopped in to visit my getting old grandmother, but I can not miss the playoffs! I promised myself I'd figure out how to play the piano this time, but this week is the finals of American Idol. I really do wish to plant that garden. However I can't miss my soaps. If we're challenged, certainly, we have lots of rationalizations. Let a TV critic inform you that most of the programming is mindless scrap and you will point to the educational stuff on The History Channel, Discovery, or National Geographic, even if that's only a part of what you watch. If he replies that you are still being subjected to hours of commercials each week, you tell him you tape the shows and fast-forward through them. If he counters that taping only enables you to use more TV, you'll for all time play your trump card: "Mind your own business." After all, you're an adult. It is your life to survive. You can still spend it any way you want. However, between South Park and Grey's Anatomy, do you ever reflect on how you're spending it? No matter how nice the programming is -- and let's face it, some of it is great -- or else how rapidly you fast-forward from your commercials, the time you use before the tube is time you have not spent pursuing your objectives, living out your goals, or just interacting with another human being. If you're aged and companionless -- or housebound for some other cause -- that is different. But that doesn't describe the majority of us. Twenty-five years before, Neil Postman warned of our consuming love affair with TV in Amusing Ourselves to Death. In the book -- a jeremiad about the danger of turning serious conversations about politics, business, religion, and science into entertainment packages -- he argues that TV is generating not the dystopia of George Orwell's 1984 but rather of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World: "Spiritual devastation is more likely to appear from an enemy that has a smiling face than from one whose countenance exudes suspicion and hate. In Huxleyan prophecy, Big Brother will not observe us, by his choice. We tend to watch him, by ours. There is no require for wardens or gates or Ministries of Truth. When a population gets distracted by trivia, while cultural life is redefined like a perpetual round of entertainments, when serious public talk gets a form of baby-talk, when, in short, a people become an audience and their public business a vaudeville act, then a nation finds itself at risk." He concludes that we'd all be better off if television got worse, not better. As per A.C. Nielsen, 99 percent of American households have television set. Two-thirds have more than three. These sets are on an average of six hours and 47 minutes per day. 49 percentage of Americans polled say they spend excessive time before the Television. It isn't hard to see why. The average viewer watches over 4 hours of Television each day. That is 2 months of non-stop TV-watching per year. Within a 65-year life, any person will have spent nine years glued to the tube. You already understand how little you'll gain by watching so much TV. But have you as well considered what it's costing you? DISCLAIMER: This article is provided as information only and is not to be taken as financial advice. Subscribe to the free Weekly Wealth Letter to learn the most powerful and valuable information about best performing stocks, funds and ETFs. Weekly Wealth Letter is loaded with unique insights and powerful resources for wealth building through smart investing. Click here to download your copy now. |