Top Investing Mistakes to Avoid in 2026

Are you ready for 2026? In this Market Mondays clip, Rashad Bilal, Ian Dunlap, and Troy Millings dive deep into the biggest mistakes investors might make in the upcoming year—and how to avoid them. Whether you’re just starting your investment journey or looking to refine your strategy, this discussion delivers blunt, practical advice to help you prepare for seismic changes ahead. Ian Dunlap emphasizes the importance of accumulating shares, knowing your “freedom number,” and tuning out distracting online noise. He highlights how top entrepreneurs—like Magic Johnson and Gary Vee—are doubling down because the financial landscape is about to shift. Ian’s no-nonsense approach: find a way to acquire at least 2,000–3,000 shares and stay focused! Troy Millings warns against “gossip trading”—making investment decisions based on hearsay or hype, rather than solid research. He stresses the danger of treating your brokerage account like a gambling app, and why discipline, education, and conviction matter more than ever. Troy recommends starting small, truly understanding the businesses you invest in, and building knowledge for long-term success. Rashad Bilal brings a practical blueprint, sharing 10 essential steps every investor should follow in 2026:

• Create a budget using popular apps like YNAB, Monarch Money, or Rocket Money
• Set up systematic monthly investing (dollar cost averaging)
• Maximize retirement contributions for tax benefits
• Regularly review and update all beneficiaries
• Commit to continuous education by watching one documentary a week and reading one book every 60 days
• Map out actionable, accountable goals based on the “12 Week Year” strategy

The crew agrees: the biggest investor mistake is not having a clear plan and the discipline to stick to it. If you want to set yourself up for real financial success in 2026, this conversation is your actionable guide! 👇 Drop your freedom number for 2026 in the comments and let us know what steps you’re taking to lock in your future. *Be sure to subscribe for more Market Mondays insights on wealth-building and financial mastery!* #MarketMondays #Investing2026 #MoneyMistakes #FinancialFreedom #RashadBilal #IanDunlap #TroyMillings #WealthBuilding #PersonalFinance #StockMarket #InvestmentTips #FinancialPlanning

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
What if some of the biggest mistakes investors can make
in twenty twenty six.

Speaker 2 (00:05):
I wanna be very honest and get back to the
old style of how I used to be things and
super blunt about it. Number one is not making the
decision next year to acquire two or three thousand shares
for yourself personally. I know some people are gonna say,
I don't have the capital to do it, But find

(00:26):
a way, cause I think next year is probably gonna
be the most interesting year in investing that we've had,
probably since twenty twenty. Number two, double down on what
your freedom number is and put a lot of cash
into making that a reality. They just told you they're
working like crazy. Shout to the interviews y'all got coming out.

(00:47):
I won't say nothing, but they're working hard. Magic Johnson
told you that invest fest, Gary Ve working hard.

Speaker 3 (00:54):
Peter two.

Speaker 2 (00:55):
Every top entrepreneur is busting ass right now, and that's
because there's gonna be a seismic change that comes in
twenty six and twenty seven. Now's not the time to
play or get comfortable with ever success you have accumulated
from twenty twenty through now, because you're going to need
more than twenty six and twenty seven. Lastly, I will

(01:17):
say you gotta block out all the noise. All that
noise is online. I would say this, and Rashada and
I talked about it on Blackout. Troy does an amazing
job of it of staying off social You probably need
to spend sixty percent less time on social media. In
twenty twenty six, Jake Paul ran up one hundred million

(01:39):
and Anthony Joshua ran up ninety but he gotta pay
forty five in taxes. These big numbers are being thrown
around for a reason. So I'm begging you right now
lock in for twenty twenty six, and I want everyone
to put in chat. What is your freedom number for
twenty twenty six? What do you guys think biggest mistakes are?

(02:00):
It's yeah, biggest mistakes.

Speaker 4 (02:04):
I think trading off a hairsay like it's like that
memes stop craze, but a little bit more elevated than that.

Speaker 3 (02:12):
It's like, yo, I saw this company.

Speaker 4 (02:13):
I heard them say this company, and let me just
invest in it, not really knowing anything from a technical
stud like just I'm just doing it. I think a
lot of times when people get early success, they think
that that short term success can lead into long term
wealth strategy, and they start doing things like overtrading, start
taking you know, same day options trades, not having any idea,

(02:36):
just trying to replicate the feeling of what they had
in that short term win. And that's when people lose money.
And we're seeing that more and more. And I think
if we don't get it right, if we're not disciplined,
if we don't have a proper approach, if we don't
have a plan, it's only going to get worse. Because
and even when talking to Vlad and we're talking about

(02:57):
predictive markets, people are treating their brokers account like it's
fan duel or it's DraftKings, and it's not. And so
you've got to you gotta be disciplined about this, but
you actually have to to know.

Speaker 3 (03:12):
Knowing is important.

Speaker 4 (03:14):
Like we can overstate it and we can, it's important
to know what you're invested in. Yes, get to a
thousand shares, let's start with getting to five and understanding
what the company you just invested in does, right, Because
the more understanding you have, the more education you have
around it, the more conviction you have.

Speaker 3 (03:30):
When people start to doubt what you're saying.

Speaker 4 (03:32):
I'm only speaking from experience, right, Like literally, you've seen
this over the past six year. As we say something,
I'm not budgeting on that because I believe in what
I'm saying. If it's a great company that doesn't have
a great year, fun but a lot of times these
are great companies that are having great years because there's
conviction education behind that.

Speaker 3 (03:51):
So be disciplined in it.

Speaker 4 (03:53):
Don't gossip trade right, really understand what you're doing and why.

Speaker 2 (03:57):
You're doing it shoddy. What your top mistakes that people
can make in twenty twenty.

Speaker 1 (04:02):
Six, Well, I'm wanting to do something. I actually put
together a list of things that people should do.

Speaker 3 (04:10):
Okay, I love it.

Speaker 1 (04:12):
Yeah, because I think that that's important to kind of
have some level of a blueprint. The biggest mistake I
think is not having a plan. So with that being said,
I put together ten things I think everybody should do
in twenty twenty six. And that's the first thing is
put together a budget and a few budgeting apps for
you if you're interested. Why inab you need a budget

(04:34):
Monarch Money, Rocket Money, Capital Money, every Dollar, pocket Guard,
good budget and simplify by Quicken so I mean you
could what I used to do is just pin and paper.

Speaker 3 (04:47):
Yeah right, I think that that's the best way.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
But if you actually want some level of like digital
help in it, those are all sites that you can
use or apps that you can use for budgeting.

Speaker 3 (04:59):
That's the first thing.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
The second thing is to set up a systematic dollar
cost averaging plan to invest every single month, especially if
you're first starting out, So whether that's the fifteenth traditional
usually it should be around the time you get paid,
So if you get paid on the twelfth, then try
to do it on the fifteenth. Set up a retirement

(05:21):
account if you don't have one, and if you do
have one, try to contribute more so you can benefit
from the tax savings from that. Review all your beneficiaries,
that's important. That's a good one, or not just life insurance,
but also even like your bank account and broke Wis
account and anything that you have that's going to get

(05:41):
passed on to somebody. Review the beneficiaries, keep the beneficiaries
updated because you never know. Commit to one. Commit to
your education. I recommend one documentary a week and one
book every sixty days, so that would be that. I
don't think that that's too hard to accomplish, especially you
could listen to an audiobook. But the average person, they said,

(06:05):
doesn't read any books a year, and I think the
average CEO reads like two books a month. So if
you start to really dedicate to one book every sixty days,
that's six books a year.

Speaker 3 (06:18):
You're off to a good start.

Speaker 1 (06:19):
And like I said, the documentary, I think the documentaries
they just expand your horizon and have you think a
little differently. And there's so many great documentaries that you
can just find on YouTube and Netflix. So one documentary
a week, one book every sixty days, map out your
goal for the next twelve months, but do it in
a week. I think everybody should read the book twelve

(06:42):
week Year.

Speaker 3 (06:42):
Yeah, it's a really good book.

Speaker 1 (06:44):
You don't just map out your goal and just say
I want to make one hundred thousand dollars. I want
to make five hundred thousand dollars. That's not really a goal,
that's a wish. There's actually a systematic way to actually
go about that. We've broke this down at EU University,
but that book actually explains it how. The purpose of
the book is that you break the year into micro
years and you have like goals, like weekly goals, bi

(07:05):
weekly goals. That helps you get to the goal quicker.
And then you actually have to list the action steps
of how you're actually going to accomplish the goal, because,
like I said, you make I'm gonna make five hundred
thousand dollars a year. What does that really mean? That
doesn't that that's not a goal, Like I said, that's
a wish. You got to actually list out the actionable
steps that you need to take to make five hundred

(07:27):
thousand dollars a year. Then you got to hold yourself
accountable on a short term basis, preferably weekly to see
if you're actually hitting those numbers or not. So everybody
should should commit to that.

Speaker 3 (07:36):
We won't have accountability partners in that. Yeah, for sure,