Changing the Way People Feel about Investing

People get very emotional very naturally when it comes to their money. Managing behavior is probably the biggest challenge of investing. People underestimate the anxiety that comes with investing and the stress that it brings. So I always was afraid of what could go wrong in the future. And of course that included investing. Think about all the things that are happening in the world and how can they affect the markets. That there's gonna be an Asian financial crisis and there's gonna be 0809 and there's gonna be a pandemic. And there's so many different people and articles telling you what to do, that it very quickly becomes paralyzing. And it's built on the premise of looking outward into the future, and none of us can predict the future. We want people to feel like they're gonna be okay. And if I can get you to a point where you feel like you are okay, the psychological benefit of that is massive. We have a point of view, a philosophy. You don't have to out guess the market in order to have a good experience. You can get the market to work for you. And the beauty of it is, it truly helps people. What I think is important for investors so that you can relax and enjoy whatever it is that you do that you enjoy outside of investing, is to set expectations correctly. It's an approach that is about making sure folks are informed and understand that markets are volatile, unexpected things will happen, but we can plan for them. The temptation to do something in the face of a situation that seems scary, where there's a lot of uncertainty, we're all susceptible to that. Investing, I think should be actually quite boring. It's a long-term view. You shouldn't touch your portfolio too much, is what the academic financial science would say about it. But that's not what you hear about. That's not what you read about when it comes to the financial media. We spend a lot of time and put a lot of energy into how do we best communicate and translate and connect the brain trust to what people are worried about, or thinking about, care about, to help them keep things in perspective. If we do our job well, I think people are more comfortable for sure. I think they're more than comfortable, actually. I think they're confident. I think they're empowered. The effect of it is pretty amazing and transformational for lots of people. This can really change people's lives. Not just in the future, it can change right now. It can change how you feel. Dimensional sees its purpose as making people's lives better. It's kind of an ethos that says every trade has a face and every account has a family, and never forget that. And to me, that's the kind of conscientiousness that I think makes Dimensional what it is.