Invested Poorly: Sad Tales of FInancial Fails

Have you ever thought of investing in the stock market as though it were like a great action movie? Host Jeff Harrell unveils their similarities (and a key difference!) and sets the stage for this seasonal podcast about how to simplify your investment strategy to help you reach financial independence.

Jeff, with over 20 years of experience as a former portfolio manager and financial advisor, briefly highlights the concept ...

S1 E1: Will the next presidential election be the “most important election ever”? You might think so when following popular media outlets where every four years we have the “most important election ever!”

Recognizing how this may be true in some ways—since elections, especially presidential elections, are a big deal—host Jeff Harrell reveals that when it comes to investing…it’s just another year. Failure to recognize this ...

S1 E2: A day has hardly gone by without someone in the media predicting doom and gloom for the stock market. Buying in to this feeling has the potential not only to be devastating to your financial well-being, but also to your sanity.

Jeff Harrell tells a true tale about a “doomsday prepper” who perpetually rooted for the stock market to fail because he started investing in a way to try and profit from a down market.

How d...

S1 E3: Saving is where the path to financial independence (FI) begins, but if “saving” is all you ever do with your money, then your path might be longer than necessary. Implementing the next step—investing—accelerates your journey.

Failure to understand from the outset about the inevitable ups and downs along a path to FI could cost you dearly in terms of extra years wasted unnecessarily.

Jeff Harrell shares a story about...

S1 E4: We’ve all heard the term, “beauty is in the eye of the beholder.” When it comes to the stock market, I’d simply change “beauty” to “risk” in this expression. How you define risk plays a huge role in your perception of stock market investing. A look at one set of data points may change all of that.

Jeff Harrell breaks down the fascinating results of a research report that analyzed stock market returns over various ti...

S1 E5: Perception is often not reality. Everyday investors would do well to keep this in mind while reviewing their investment accounts. Unfortunately, many investors’ lack of understanding about performance has cost them dearly over the years.

Gaining a better understanding of this will better equip you to compare your results to relevant benchmarks, thereby improving your ability to evaluate your returns.

With a short ma...

S1 E6: Even though everyone knows past performance is no guarantee of future results, the allure of buying what you wished you’d owned tempts us all. This episode will help drive this point home further with examples of why heeding this advice is so important to successful investing.

Jeff Harrell also shares what three types of investment returns most people typically want to achieve and how most investors hold completely ...

S1 E7: Timing the stock market is something we’re all told not to do, yet all of us are guilty of it at some point. This episode may have the “smoking gun” illustration to help you avoid this poor decision going forward.

Jeff Harrell explains two hypothetical (and impossible) scenarios of the luckiest and unluckiest investors in history—the former buying into the stock market at the very bottom every year and the latter bu...

S1 E8: Are you sure you understand the "Cost Basis" and “Gain/Loss” columns on your investment statements? Cost basis and gain/loss calculations are two commonly misunderstood investment terms. Learn what these calculations actually represent.

Jeff Harrell uses several examples to illustrate how cost basis can be misleading and breaks down this technical concept to help you get a better handle on understanding your investm...

S1 E9: Perception is often extremely different than reality. Financial news channels may be the posterchild for this. A deep understanding of global economics, business management, politics, financial accounting, etc., still isn’t enough to make you able to truly predict the future.

Jeff Harrell presents the evidence to support this, with shocking data from a research report available on Standard & Poor’s website. It’s...

S1 E10: Nothing is more important than trust when it comes to financial advice. Unfortunately, the complicated nature of investing results in everyday investors having a difficult time identifying misleading tactics.

Jeff Harrell shares two true stories—that infuriate him to this day—about deceptive information he discovered on real client investment reports.

Do you fully understand how to interpret your returns in your pe...

S1 E11: Investing headlines are designed to get you to click. The more extreme the claim, the more likely we are to do what we all know we shouldn’t. What could happen to you when you push that button? Jeff Harrell tells a story about what one investor experienced after “taking the bait” and clicking on a doomsday investing headline.

A second story in this episode illustrates one of several creative schemes unscrupulous sc...

S1 E12: Every investor at some point will experience FOMO (fear of missing out). Friends, family, and “experts” influence our investment decisions due to this feeling of FOMO which is rooted in our feelings of fear or greed. Arm yourself with stories of failure and actual data points to help keep you from succumbing to this common investor trap.

Jeff Harrell recalls one of his favorite investor FOMO examples that many list...

S1 E13: Season 1 is now over, and Jeff Harrell reflects on what he hopes you’ve gained from the series. He highlights each of the investing lessons covered in the first season’s 12 episodes, which were designed to help you make wiser investment decisions for a smoother path to financial independence (FI).

Remember:  Focus on the long-term, control your emotions, simplify your investments, and always... "ignore the noise."

Je...

Host Jeff Harrell announces the return of Invested Poorly: Sad Tales of FInancial Fails for a second season. New, real-life stories of greed, fear, hubris, and negligence that ensnared other investors will help you learn how to avoid the same investing mistakes.

Season 2 introduces lessons on security selection and investment execution, as well as touches on the key topics from Season 1 of behavioral finance, investment pe...

S2 E1: Obviously, more experienced investors who know a lot about investing and the financial markets must do better than those with limited investing knowledge; right? The empirical evidence is very compelling when it comes to answering this question with a loud and resounding, NO.

Jeff Harell provides research to support why simpler is often better than sophisticated when it comes to investment strategy, as well as a sho...

S2 E2: Having a well-diversified portfolio is one of the main goals of most investment strategies. Although few would argue with this, the reality is that many investors eventually lose sight of why diversification was implemented in the first place.

This episode illustrates, with vivid examples, how investors might say they want something, but what they actually do completely contradicts their stated desire. 

Jeff Harrell...

S2 E3: Quarterly earnings reports announcements are one of the most highly anticipated events in the investing world, so much so that financial news channels even coined the term “earnings season” for when the bulk of companies release their reports.

Although it would seem consequential for investors to follow “earnings season” closely for making well-informed investment decisions, evidence suggests otherwise. Earnings rep...

S2 E4: Having a basic understanding of your finances and your overall investment strategy is the first step on the path to FI. The problem is, as time goes on, many investors feel obligated to make adjustments to, or “tinker” with, their plan—often unnecessarily.

The stories Jeff Harrell recounts in this episode may be some of the most relatable because it’s human nature to want to “scratch that itch” now and then by chang...