When a Giant Gain Causes Pain

This is such an interesting article at the Wall Street Journal. read here.

I have no way of knowing how many of you who read this blog are male or female. And I can totally see how most men reading this article, would've been like, "Lady. Sell the stock and move on." This is not to say that the men who lose spouses are heartless, I just think that men and women have been raised to deal with things so differently that a man would see the loss of his wife as the loss of his wife and a gain in the stock market as a gain in the stock market.

I for one have a huge tolerance for risk. I have money in the market. I watch the market go up and down and I watch the price of my stocks go up (and a little down). Yeah, I'm one of those boring "buy and hold" investors. And I only invest what I can stand to lose. Thus far this strategy has worked for me.

In some ways I think that women could benefit from learning to compartmentalize when it comes to money. It's this simple: money is money. Don't attach any emotional significance to it.

For me, money gives me the ability to pay my bills, buy food and clothes, and support a few business ventures (until such time as they support me).

In general I think that women do themselves a huge disservice when it comes to managing money. And sadly, they have no one to blame but themselves. They don't pay attention and then they make really stupid choices. Here's a true story: I know a widow who inherited everything once her husband died. This included a woodlot with a temporary conservation restriction. A guy shows up and offers to buy the timber on the land. She says (without consulting anyone), "Okay." She pays the back taxes and sells the timber and does so at a loss.

People. Don't end up like that widow. If she'd maybe waited a bit, no longer been grieving, and then asked a couple of reputable foresters what they thought and made a wise decision. (If she were feeling adventurous, she could've started a cord wood business). At the very least she could've just done nothing and come out ahead. That's right. By doing NOTHING she would've benefited. Instead she made an ill-informed choice and lost the money and her trees. (Don't even get me started on carbon sequestration.)

I suppose if you were one of my clients (yeah I have a life coaching business on the side) the homework I would assign would be this: take a week (or as long as you like) and identify where in your life you would make the most gains by doing nothing.

How's that grab you?