I messed up... 5 investing lessons I learned the hard way

Welcome to The Profit Zone, where 12,500+ millionaires, CEO’s and high-performing entrepreneurs read the #1 financial newsletter on Substack, providing you with weekly insights on the stock market and tips you can’t find anywhere else.

Happy Monday!

Let’s start the week off strong.

The agenda for today:

👉 Tweet/Quote of the week

👉 5 mistakes I made that you should avoid

👉 Upgrade to premium to get access to the meat and potatoes of The Profit Zone

Tweet of the Week

Quote of the Week

I started investing at 18 years old

But it came with a lot of trial and error.

The great part about starting young is that you’re playing with small money, so your mistakes aren’t as costly.

What better time to make mistakes and use them as lessons to better yourself as an investor.

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to be covering 5 of the biggest financial mistakes I made with my investment portfolio.

These 5 mistakes resulted in thousands of dollars lost, which was devastating at the time…

But in the long run, it was worth the the cost of admission.

Make a mistake once, it becomes a lesson.

Make the same mistake twice, it becomes a choice.

I’m going to teach you the lesson without you (hopefully) having to make the mistake yourself.

Not having clear investment goalsIf you don’t know where you’re going, you will probably end up somewhere else.

Too many investors have no idea WHY they’re investing and WHAT the end goal is.

Make sure you paint a clear picture of what you want to achieve from your investments, because your strategy has to reflect the direction you want to go.

Focusing on the wrong type of performanceAre you a long term investor?

If your answer is yes…

Why are you worried about short term news?

Too many investors concern themselves with how the market is performing today and fail to look at the bigger picture.

If your time horizon is 20+ years, stop putting so much emphasis on short term market fluctuations.

In fact, use them as an opportunity to lower your average cost.

That’s how wealth is built.

Buying high, selling lowFear and Greed: two emotions that can steer investors in the wrong direction.

When the market is rising, investors will tend to jump in and buy out of fear of missing out, A.K.A. FOMO.

A focus on near-term returns leads to investing in assets or using strategies that were likely only effective in the near-past.

When everyone’s talking about a stock, it’s probably too late for you to jump in.

Want to learn more about controlling your emotions? I wrote an entire post on it. Click below.

Thinking you can time the marketDo you have a crystal ball? No.

Nobody knows the perfect time to enter the market, and stop believing people who tell you they do.

Missing the top 10 trading days in the stock market has a massive opportunity cost.

The following table compares the total returns of a $10,000 investment in the S&P 500 between January 1, 2003 to December 30, 2022 and the impact of missing the best trading days.

Moral of the story: Get in and stay in.

Use dollar cost averaging to your advantage.

Failing to control what you can controlYou can’t control if your stocks will rise or fall.

You can’t control if management will cut a dividend.

You can’t control inflation.

And you certaintly can’t control economics.

What you can control is how much you invest every month.

Focus on saving money, cutting costs where possible, and investing as much as you can.

It’s the surest way to increase the probability of reaching your financial goals.

Final notes…

Investing isn’t difficult, but people like to make it harder than it should be.

The blueprint is simple:

• Understand your investor profile (risk tolerance, time horizon and end goal)

• Buy stocks/ETFs that fit within that criteria

• Set up a budget and save as much as you

• Invest what you save and increase your contributions over time

• Ignore short term news and the stocks your friend Jimmy is telling you to buy

• Stick to the same strategy for as long as you can

• Retire earlier than all your friends while they ask how you did it

If you want to learn more about how I’m investing, what my strategy is, what stocks I’m looking at as well as deep dives into market leaders, then consider joining premium.

I send out a biweekly email to my premium subscribers who get access to tips and tricks I don’t share with anyone else.

Click here to upgrade for less than a Big Mac meal.

See you in the next one!

Alex (The Dividend Dominator)Founder and CEO of Dividend Domination Inc.

Follow me on Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn

Advertise with Us

Do you have a business that needs some more exposure?

Want to get more eyes on your products?

Advertise to 12,000+ investors with this newsletter who are hungry for financial content.

Or advertise on our Twitter and Instagram.

Click here to book with us.

Some resources to help you make more money:

• My Website - a one-stop shop for all things dividend investing.

• Financial Domination - learn how to set up an effective budget, choose the right broker, figure out your investing strategy, use stock screeners to filter out the garbage and more. Everything I wish I knew when I first started investing.

• The Complete Investors Accelerator Pack - everything you need to build a dividend portfolio that grows on itself. Learn more about dividend investing, how to analyze dividend stocks, what to do with your dividends and how to build a stream of passive income through the stock market.

• Ca$hing in on Twitter - start building a following on Twitter and learn how to monetize it. Turn Twitter into your own personal cash-flowing asset that will pay you while you sleep.

• My Full Stock Portfolio - get access to all of my positions and get updates every time I buy or sell.

• Money Mastermind - the “Money Bible”. Myself and 29 other expert creators teamed up to create the most all-inclusive 280-page finance book on the market. Over 100 topics about money including real estate, crypto, budgeting, dividend stocks, online business, and more.

• TweetHunter - let the software do the tweeting for you. The only scheduler you’ll ever need. This tool makes me money in my sleep. Give it a try for free.

• Hipster Budget Guide - having trouble saving money? Learning how to budget is your solution. This book will show you ways to save money you never even thought of. Worth every penny.

Disclaimer: The publisher does not guarantee the accuracy or completeness of the information provided in this page. All statements and expressions herein are the sole opinion of the author or paid advertiser.

Dividend Domination Inc. is a publisher of financial information, not an investment advisor. We do not provide personalized or individualized investment advice or information that is tailored to the needs of any particular recipient.  

THE INFORMATION CONTAINED ON THIS WEBSITE IS NOT AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS INVESTMENT ADVICE, AND DOES NOT PURPORT TO BE AND DOES NOT EXPRESS ANY OPINION AS TO THE PRICE AT WHICH THE SECURITIES OF ANY COMPANY MAY TRADE AT ANY TIME.  THE INFORMATION AND OPINIONS PROVIDED HEREIN SHOULD NOT BE TAKEN AS SPECIFIC ADVICE ON THE MERITS OF ANY INVESTMENT DECISION.  INVESTORS SHOULD MAKE THEIR OWN INVESTIGATION AND DECISIONS REGARDING THE PROSPECTS OF ANY COMPANY DISCUSSED HEREIN BASED ON SUCH INVESTORS’ OWN REVIEW OF PUBLICLY AVAILABLE INFORMATION AND SHOULD NOT RELY ON THE INFORMATION CONTAINED HEREIN.

Any projections, market outlooks, or estimates herein are forward-looking statements and are inherently unreliable.  They are based upon certain assumptions and should not be construed to be indicative of the actual events that will occur. Other events that were not taken into account may occur and may significantly affect the returns or performance of the securities discussed herein. The information provided herein is based on matters as they exist as of the date of preparation and not as of any future date, and the publisher undertakes no obligation to correct, update or revise the information in this document or to otherwise provide any additional material.

The publisher, its affiliates, and clients of the publisher or its affiliates may currently have long or short positions in the securities of the companies mentioned herein or may have such a position in the future (and therefore may profit from fluctuations in the trading price of the securities). To the extent such persons do have such positions, there is no guarantee that such persons will maintain such positions.

Neither the publisher nor any of its affiliates accept any liability whatsoever for any direct or consequential loss howsoever arising, directly or indirectly, from any use of the information contained herein.

By using the Site or any affiliated social media account, you are indicating your consent and agreement to this disclaimer and our terms of use. Unauthorized reproduction of this newsletter or its contents by photocopy, facsimile or any other means is illegal and punishable by law.

Some of the content included in this post is paid advertising and will be labeled as such. The publisher has received compensation for these promotions. Neither the publisher nor the promoter holds any liability for financial losses that may occur from the use of the products or services mentioned in this publication.

If you have any questions, please contact us at [email protected].