Investing In What Matters

As most of our members already know, I lost my Mom a little over a month ago. It was a freak accident, one of those things that only happens “to other people”. My family and I are at peace with it. When it comes to loss it’s really up to you whether you fill that void with something positive or negative. You can fill it with anger, despair, depression, sadness, and blame everyone and anything. It’s always a good time to pick up an addiction or two. Or you can fill that void with understanding, courage, passion, and make it a rallying cry to live everyday like it could be your last.

Most often when you hear people talking about living their life like everyday is their last day, they normally mean focusing on themselves. “I need to focus on me now” and/or “I’m going to buy xyz, I deserve it”.  There is nothing wrong with this to a certain point. Everything around you including the media preaches to do what feels right, right now, but that is exactly what a fulfilling life isn’t about.

When I was in my mid-20’s and single I had my first material big win in the microcap space, a 10 bagger in nine months. I immediately paid off debt and went out and bought myself a new BMW. Life was good. In fact, I started dating my soon to be wife a couple weeks later. No she didn’t date me because of my car 😉 Up to this point, I don’t think it was wrong to spend a little bit, but I got totally engrossed in the “it’s all about me” phase. A month later I went out and bought a Rolex. Two months later wearing jeans, golf shirt un-tucked, and sneakers I walked into a local Porsche dealer and bought a brand new black/black Porsche 911 4S. I laugh thinking about it now because they really didn’t see me coming. The salesman who wasn’t paying attention when I was telling him how I wanted the car ordered, finally stops and asks, how will you be paying for this young man in a condescending tone. I answer, “how about cash, and how about I pay for it right now”. Needless to say I had his attention. This 6-month period of time was all about me, and there were dire consequences.

Your friends and even family look at you differently and not in a good way. You basically just turned yourself into “that guy”. It only took a few months for these purchases to become unfulfilling. I’ve never been a “look at me!” type person, so I ended up never really driving the Porsche. I put around 1,000 miles on it in 16 months and got rid of it. My wife often brings this period of my life up and laughs and calls it my pre mid life crisis. During this time my portfolio took a big hit as well. I was down 50% over the following year. Everything and anything I was invested in seemed to be cursed. It was almost God’s way of saying; I didn’t give you this wealth to spend it all on yourself you douchebag and now I’m going to take it from you.

“Whoever can be trusted with very little can also be trusted with much, and whoever is dishonest with very little will also be dishonest with much.” Luke 16:10

Over the last few years I’ve found giving money away to be much more satisfying. I’ve set financial goals, not for how much wealth I want to accumulate but how much I want to give away, every year. Your heart does follow your money. So the more you pour your time, energy, and resources into a cause whether it’s a charity, church, or family(s) in need, your heart will follow. It changes you for the better. It is true that you should live everyday like it’s your last, not for yourself, but for others. The people that are impressed with the car you drive are likely not the people you care about anyway. The one thing losing someone close to you does is it focuses you on what is important and that is really making a difference in the here and now.

As it relates to investing, I have the most fun meeting other microcap investors. Even though MicroCapClub is an investment club of sorts, it’s really about the investors, not the companies. There are over 9,000 microcaps trading in the US. Most companies won’t succeed. Companies come and go. Even most of the ones that end up being winners will ultimately end up going right back down. The only constant are the few of us real investors left that invest in these whacky stocks. At conferences or club events, I get so excited about just seeing other investors, sharing experiences, and getting to know the person. I enjoy that so much more than even seeing the companies. 2013 was a great year for most of us financially, and even with the death of my Mom it was a great year personally due to the new lifelong friendships that were started with a lot of new investors. Every minute is precious. Invest in great microcaps and then invest your winnings in what really matters.

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MicroCapClub is an exclusive forum for experienced microcap investors focused on microcap companies (sub $500m market cap) trading on United States, Canadian, European, and Australian markets. MicroCapClub was created to be a platform for experienced microcap investors to share and discuss stock ideas. Since 2011, our members have profiled 1000+ microcap companies. Investors can join our community by applying to become a member or subscribing to gain instant view only access. MicroCapClub’s mission is to foster the highest quality microcap investor Community, produce Educational content for investors, and promote better Leadership in the microcap arena. For more information, visit http://microcapclub.com and https://microcapclub.com/summit/