Big idea:
Investing isn’t just numbers — it’s emotional. Understanding your feelings helps you stay calm and committed.
You’ll likely feel:
- excitement during market rises
- fear during dips
- impatience when progress feels slow
- doubt when comparing yourself to others
All of this is normal.
Our brains are wired with biases — like
loss aversion
(losses feeling worse than gains feel good),
recency bias
(believing today’s market mood = forever), and
FOMO
.
Knowing this helps you notice when fear or hype is speaking louder than your long-term plan.
Why emotions matter
Because emotional decisions often lead to:
- panic selling
- chasing trends
- abandoning your plan
These are the behaviours that typically hurt long-term returns far more than any market dip.
A quick reminder: volatility is normal
Markets move. They rise, fall, wobble, and recover — and this pattern has existed for decades.
Feeling uneasy during dips doesn’t mean you’re a bad investor.
It means you’re a
human
investor.
Tools for staying calm
- zoom out to long-term charts
- remember your why
- automate your investing
- check your portfolio less often
- use an investing checklist
- pre-commit to your plan before emotions show up (e.g. “If the market drops 10%, I will not sell.”)
Pre-commitment reduces stress because you’ve already decided how you want to act before emotions kick in.
Why should I care?
Because emotional resilience is part of your investing strategy.
Your behaviour — not the market — often determines your long-term results.
Staying calm helps you stay invested, and staying invested helps your money grow.
Try this today
Write three questions for yourself to check during emotional moments:
- Has my goal changed?
- Has my timeline changed?
-
What would my calm self do?
