It is ski holiday week in Finland, so the office is a little quieter than normal, as quite a few people have taken the time. This was my going to be my first ever ski break, but I chose not to take the week away and will instead have it in the spring or summer, as I don't see the point in taking it at the moment, as I don't have anything special to do at home, but have plenty of things to do at work. Like normal these days, I talked with colleagues about life, employment and investing.
One of the things that enriches my working experience, is the ability to talk to domain subject matter experts about things outside of their domain. It is valuable to have a strong group to converse with and reference, as they can become influencers of direction, or be influenced.
The reference group is an important aspect of our lives, as peers are highly influential in our own view of the world and will affect our behavior - for better or worse. Having a good reference group can empower us, a poor one can hold us back from reaching more of our potential.
Talking about this in relation to investing, I was saying to my colleague how I do not come from an investment mindset and my parents definitely didn't encourage or demonstrate good financial literacy or hygiene. If anything, they were the antithesis of a good start into the world of finance and economic responsibility. As a result, I didn't take much responsibility myself, which got me off to quite a slow start as I didn't understand much and therefore, my "intuition" was not attuned to investing.
It was only once I joined Hive that I really started educating myself and once I did, aspects of finance, economy and life in general started to become far more apparent - rather than things happening to me blindly, I began to understand what they were and my role in the outcome. It really is easy to blame others for a lack of opportunity, but that is the intuition speaking - an untrained intuition.
Intuition is not something mystical, it is our experience pattern detecting and informing us through feeling. The better our experience, the more sensitive our intuition becomes, giving more precise directions, faster. It is like someone who has practiced something a lot like a sport, where the moves get into position and act "automatically" without conscious thought having to drive them. I think this is similar when it comes to the mindset of investing, as people develop habits that support their ability to invest themselves.
As I was saying to my colleague, I had two major problems when investing.
- Not having the capital to invest when I spotted an opportunity
- Not being willing to pull the trigger when I spotted an opportunity and did have the capital
Not having the capital is part of the financial hygiene, as it relates to spending and saving habits. Not taking the opportunity is about my aversity to risk, as I never felt I "had enough" to invest. This is part of an incorrect intuition, where I thought I would need a lump sum to get into the investment pool, which I never had because of bad financial hygiene. It was a negative cycle of not being able to save enough in order to be able to have enough to invest.
What broke it was finally getting the understanding that "lump sum" wasn't necessary, small amounts were enough. This allowed me to find ways to make changes to my behaviors that gave a small amount of disposable income often enough that I could put it into investments of some kind. The aversity to loss was still there, but because it was small amounts that I was putting away often, it was easier to part with and lock up.
As said, we were talking about reference groups and the reference group that affected my behavior was on Hive, where pretty much everyone is interested in investing to some degree, even if it is simply their time. I count myself lucky.
The problem is that most of the world do not have a reference group like this and much of the world are surrounded by people who are continually reinforcing a scarcity mindset, as well as poor financial hygiene. Economic role models in many communities are largely non-existent, making a lot of the behavior generational, where ownership and responsibility of experience are not the norm.
What I have found, is that while a lot of this stuff is obvious for some people, many do not have the intuition for it, yet feel that they are making the right moves. For example, one of my colleagues always believed like me, he needed a lump sum to invest and it wasn't until a few years ago that he realized this wasn't the case. Unlike me, Hive wasn't his driver, it was his colleagues, the friends he made in the company that he influenced his thinking as they built social relationships. This didn't happen right away, it took a couple years before he made the shift and then another year or so of me discussing things with him before he started diversify into crypto.
I have always maintained that "we are what we eat" in the way that we are affected by our surroundings, making what we choose to surround ourselves with, vital to our behavior. While we can't control everything in our environment, we do have some control over the information we choose to eat, including that which comes through our peer groups. Birds of a feather might stick together, but it is important to work out whether that is a chicken or the egg scenario. Do like minds gather, or because they gather they become like minds?
Personally for me, this journey into the world of investment has been life-changing, even though from the outside looking in, my life hasn't changed much at all. We tend to compare ourselves to each other, but I think it is far more valuable to reference each other instead, so we can onboard the useful, dispose of the harmful and help each other grow.
Taraz
[ Gen1: Hive ]
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I have to admit that sounds very familiar with me in some ways. Pulling the trigger is not something that has come naturally and I suppose if the first one you do does well then you could become trigger happy. Hive has taught me loads and realise that stake/savings is really powerful and creates far more opportunities. I am hoping this will be a springboard into many other things that arise and suddenly the portfolio will start to bloom.
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I fit is, I hope that many people will support similar kinds of activities locally to build up a large, global population of stake owners who increasingly support the network of the new economy.
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That would be something if we could get that working on here. I am not saying this because we are on Hive but think many will be fairly wealthy on here at some point that could support projects helping others help themselves.
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I think we would have failed if Hive makes people wealthy and they choose not to build with it.
Almost a mindset of playing the game not building it, most are not taught this yet somehow we stumble onto it later. Take a young child and teach them to code, question the programing not just enjoy gaming.
Somehow money slips through the fingers if you not disciplined, rather than squander on unnecessary items save for holidays, this is where it all started for me personally.
Eventually you realize money invested grows, if taking care of where you invest (research).
Another false belief we grew up with was only certified investors could invest on your behalf, crypto is changing all this which truly makes me happy!
Precisely. We have built a society of endusers.
My colleague actually brought this up - "I never really felt how compound interest works" - He understood the concept of course, just didn't have the intuition.
This frustrates me no end. What would be great is if they level the playing field, hedgefund profits should be taxed as earnings - not at 15% in the US
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Taxman will put his grubby little paws out wherever they can, losing to scammers does not interest them, time spent learning does not concern them.
Short term trading becomes Gross Profit, long term holding is Capital Gains Tax either way you will pay tax once you bring crypto into fiat to make use of it locally.
Depending on what your financial standing is, profit will be deduced on sliding scale.
Summed up here: Source
Seems about right
From what I've heard (hearsay, not fact), the mafia does not want its soldiers to save and invest. That's for the higher-ups. Instead, the mafia encourages its soldiers to blow their money away and lead an extravagant lifestyle to the extent they can. I guess that's one of the ways to keep them in line.
There is an interesting parallel to mainstream society. The rubes are under constant bombardment by advertisers.
Insecurity is probably one of the reason why minorities such as immigrants are more susceptible to poor financial discipline. Advertisers know how to appeal to that and convey the message that if they drive this or that car or dress well etc., they will become respectable.
Makes sense, doesn't it? Debt can always be used as leverage.
It is one part for sure, the other is often that they find it hard to get jobs where they feel there is enough to invest. It is a type of catch-22. Once they do dig in though, they tend to do okay after a generation or two.
The consumer lifestyle seems to be all most want these days. Thoughtless eating.
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Wait, so the whole country just gets a week off so they can go skiing? That is crazy! My parents were/are really good with their money and I do feel that has carried over to me. I remember them doing the budget every week when my dad would get paid. I tried to take that with me into adulthood, but as you know life happens and through a series of unfortunate circumstances I found myself in a situation that really didn't lend itself to saving money. Luckily I am past that now and back on track!
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After two years of work, this is a bonus week. Finland has about 5 weeks of paid holiday a year + public holidays. It is crazy!! :D
I think some parents did a great job of balancing the books, grandparents did an even better job. Different times though of course, as money in the bank earned significant interest on it.
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Yeah it did. Interest is a myth these days. On savings anyway.
In fact, it is much easier here than actually investing and starting projects.
Investing here does not cost you much study, the matter is clear to everyone in general, as well as there is no competition here, unlike reality. When you open a specific project or shop, you find many competitors.
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Competition is healthy, if what is being competed for is actually value-adding. Unfortunately, a lot of what has the highest ROI, is nonsense.
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Spot on! this really speaks to the strength of our networks and the power your sphere of influence can have, positive or negative. I too had a somewhat late start to the world of finance, and I don't remember family ever giving me lessons or exposure to the subject which is too bad.
But hey, growth mind set here, situations can change, where there's a will there's a way. This is one the reasons I love being around LeoFinance, lots of different knowledge, opinions, and experience here to learn from and grow with.
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At some point, at least some of us realize we are responsible for our own experiences.
It is nicer investing with friends, growing with friends, gaining with friends.
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I grew up in a 'lump sum' environment, and almost NEVER had the lump sum. My Grandfather had a cousin that was an investment broker and fund manager who he invested with exclusively. Turned out, when the cousin died, that it was essentially a 40 year ponzi that allowed him to live the REALLY good life and for his 'debentures' to be essentially worthless.
I got this from one of my news gatherers today:
That really is playing the long game....
The future of finance is going to get interesting to watch and be a part of, especially as the legislation fireworks start - going in both directions. Tax law is going to have to align and the definition of what investing and business is will have to change to factor in 7 billion investors all running their own business.
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Even after all this time I still have little understanding about Hive, crypto or chains. I pulled the trigger only because after all this time people like you, Eve or your brother are still here. Still investing your effort, time and money. Familiar faces staying here during good and bad times makes me believe that this ship is not going to sink. Definitely not soon.
The fact that lithuanian art groups on facebook are not posting some of my pieces because ,,maybe you can post something less scary?''also affected my decision. At least Hive is less like kindergarten and I can post what I want.We are heavily influenced by our peers/surroundings. A lot of our parents had no financial education. They did what they knew best.
much of the world are surrounded by people who are continually reinforcing a scarcity mindset, as well as poor financial hygiene
This is a very good reason to cut the bad influences and protect your mind. Throughout the day one can notice how the virus of bad thinking corrupts other minds. I think that many don't even realize how badly influenced they are because they have been sitting in that environment for too long. And that can include negative family members, friends, coworkers, partners. I wish more people would have the courage and determination to see beyond the bubble