3 Money Hugs For Investments Gone Bad
I’ve seen things go bad before in my life. I’m not just talking about the vegetables in my fridge, the rotting food I found under my daughter’s bed (which finally explains that smell!), Rhianna & Beyoncé having to actually tell their fans to put down the Pokemon at their concerts, or watching Pokemon people walk right into oncoming traffic to catch Pikachu. That’s bad and I don’t mean Michael Jackson bad either.
Things go bad sometimes. This is life. Or as my Opa would say, “Wie stinken die Tomaten!” Which loosely translates to something about stinking tomatoes. Although my German is bad at best, I got the just of it every time he said it!
I will also admit that sometimes I feel bad for psychologists and pastors. Every time they meet someone new, people tend to verbally spew out all their problems, and vomit all their tales of woe to them. It’s like asking for a free counselling session right there in the middle of the cocktail party or cafe.
And poor doctors and nurses….I’m sure I’ve even been at fault for this at parties, as I throw my foot up on the table, “Does this look like a wart to you?” (It wasn’t a wart…just to clarify!)
However, I did not realize when I became a financial coach years ago that I would come upon a similar plague or occupational hazard when I meet new people and tell them what I do for a living.
Instead of hearing about gout in your big toe, your crazy Aunt Martha leaving your Uncle Dexter, or how you can’t sleep at night because you fear for spiders crawling into your mouth, I get stuck with hearing about every bad investment that you or your family or friends have EVER MADE!
I’ve actually started keeping a mental journal of all the stories I hear from people I’ve just met!
These last few months alone, I’ve heard these from random strangers where our conversations lasted under 3.5 minutes:
- lost entire retirement savings when given to brother to invest
- lost house to fire years ago and didn’t have insurance
- re-mortgaged house and lost it on a single investment
- lost money in a land deal gone bad from “irregular accounting”
- sorry, got no money – lent it all to family members and will never see a dime of it again
- spent all my money on PokeCoins
Why is it we feel comfortable telling total strangers all our deep dark secrets? Clearly, that’s a topic for another day.
3 Money Hugs
Today, I want to offer 3 money hugs to those who have ever lost money on a bad investment.
Money Hug #1 – You had faith. You took action.
Having lost money on something means that you were willing to invest or try something new and you had faith and believed in an idea so much that you put your money where your mouth is. Even though it didn’t work out, you learned something.
This investment taught you something, whether it was how not to do something in the future, or to research more next time you put your money into an investment, or for the simple fact that you were willing to be the “wind beneath the wings” – to allow a project or idea to grow, fly and see it take off.
Losing money means that you tried something, and you were right to try. True, you didn’t get your desired outcome, but you did your half of the equation, which you MUST do if you want anything in life.
Your half is the try. The part that you control is the try. It is the effort put forth; the action taken. If you didn’t try, you wouldn’t be anywhere right now. One day an investment will go right and you will be glad you did invest and you did your part of the equation.
Don’t feel bad about your failed investment either. Take that guilt and shove it where the sun don’t shine. It’s not helpful to you in any way.
Money Hug #2 – You helped someone.
Even if you didn’t help someone, you helped society/humanity in some way.
All money goes toward our collective increase as a society. Think about it for a second. All investments or businesses need capital to run. You are investing in something that provides jobs for others, and even if that company goes bankrupt, or that land deal goes bad; that money did go somewhere, it fed someone.
You can make up whatever good or bad story about where that money went in your head, but do yourself a favour, and just trust what you sent out into the world went to work toward a good intention. You contributed to something bigger than yourself. It had to create value in some way, otherwise you probably wouldn’t have invested in the first place. Remember, money isn’t good or bad, it just is. Money needs to circulate to do its job.
Money Hug #3 – It was a bad investment, not a life sentence.
You can and will be able to make money as long as you are of sound mind. (Okay, I see you want to plead the 5th here on your mental competency, but if you are reading this, you probably have a sound mind and aren’t reading this from your rubber room.)
You can rebuild. You can create. You can have the life you desire. But you can’t do that with all your negative extra baggage you carry around with you from your bad experience. I have clients that were in bad investments in their past and they haven’t let it go. I have other clients that have moved on, cut their losses, and didn’t let the bad investment get to them. Blame will not serve you as you try to rebuild. Try forgiveness instead.
Remember, if you are really putting yourself out there and going after your dreams or have a desire to make money, you will most likely at some point in time stumble upon failure.
I have had many investments go bad over the years, and I’ve learned from every one of them. I wouldn’t be where I am today without them, and I wouldn’t be able to understand what it’s like to lose a lot of money without having gone through it first-hand. I also know that as I continue to build my business and invest, I realize that I will again at some point in the future come across one or more investment failures.
Investing in life is part of the game of life, and I refuse to be on the sidelines!
(On that note, I’ve also considered telling people that I work as an undertaker at my next party, I wonder what stories I will hear then! 😉 )
BOTTOM LINE: Bad investments happen to good people. Bad investments don’t make you bad or a failure. Bad investments mean you tried, you took action, and you also helped someone or created value for someone. Bad investments are not a life sentence, and you can, and you will recover from them! There is also one investment that never goes bad, you will never lose any money and you get back only happiness in return: FREE HUGS! Call me today for yours! 🙂
