It’s how you’re travelling…Not (per)cents that matter

By Chris Castles

How often have you looked at your investments and wondered about the return that you’re getting or the dollars that you have? If you’re positive that’s a start, if you’re in negative territory that’s bad – isn’t it? If you’re like most of us you’ve probably made the same comparisons, especially recently.

But what does that really mean, and does it matter?

How we look at things has a lot to do with the frame we attach to the information. For example, if we own a share and it goes up by 10% we might feel good. We feel good because our initial frame is the price we bought the share for.

Now, imagine over the same period of time, the share market goes up by 15% and our share has only returned 10%. In this instance our frame is what similar investments have done. We’re behind, so we don’t feel so happy. This same phenomenon occurs with property and other investments as well.

The way we feel affects all of our decisions and so having the correct frame is really important when we’re making smart decisions with our money.

Everyone’s different.

Everyone has different things that are important to them.

Things may look the same on the outside but be very different on the inside.

For these reasons, and many others, it’s how were travelling towards our own goals and what’s important to us that matters. It’s our own personal frame that’s important, not someone else’s.

So when you start to get hung up on your investment returns and keeping up with the Jones’, change your frame. You’ll be happier and make better decisions.

Want someone to help you through? Contact us on 1800 283 895.