The end of summer or any change of season is a natural time to look back and reflect; I know I made plenty of happy memories this summer with family and friends – and I hope you did, too.
As rewarding as that can be, we should take care that "looking back" doesn't become the almost permanent condition of "focusing on the past."
Millions of investors are focused on the past right now, for a number of reasons: They're thinking about past earnings or past performance, or they might be apprehensive about the future, say, with the feeling that things were "just simpler back then."
Especially when it comes to how they view current headlines.
I don't blame 'em, though.
It may feel comforting, but that focus puts those investors at a huge disadvantage – because it's the future that matters, both in terms of how we live our lives and how we make our money.
These investors have essentially been conditioned to believe that life moves because of what's already happened. So they see the financial markets the same way and, not surprisingly, get stuck in a rut – an expensive one, at that.
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