What are the NON-FINANCIAL standards that overrule, overpower and even overshadow every other consideration in your investment decision making? We all have them… and to know them gives you great power. I’ll tell you one of mine RIGHT NOW. I’m Bryan Ellis. This is Episode #176.

----

Hello, SDI Nation! Welcome to the podcast of record for savvy self-directed investors like you!

There I was, laying in a lump. I was at a mommy-and-me gymnastics class with my then 18-month-old daughter because… let’s face it… daddy is more fun in a gym than mommy. Hehehehehe. But I was having no fun at all this day.

You see, I’d taken on several affluent clients to manage their money. My oldest daughter is about to go off to college, so this incident was well over a decade ago. Anyway, I was laying there on the mat, not being any fun at all because… I was STRESSED OUT. I was worried and it had caught up to me. I was worried about one thing: losing my client’s money. There wasn’t an ounce of peace in my body.

Now here’s the thing… I’d just had one of the best days of my trading life. At the time, I was trading stocks and options. And you know what? I was good at it. This was during the time when tech stocks were absolutely going crazy – back when Microsoft and Dell and Juniper Networks and Cisco and Oracle were the headline makers – and you know, I’d played the market like a Stradivarius. In fact, in one single day where the market made a massive, massive downward swing and then returned to basically even in the very same day, the report on my trading that day looked like I had the day’s newspaper in advance. I covered shorts at the very bottom of the market… I sold out longs at the top… I was firing on all cylinders. I recall a client watching my trading as it was happening and he called me – actually complaining – because one of the option spread trades that I’d put on for him had reached maximum profitability and there was no way it could improve further… even though we’d made nearly 400% on that trade in a matter of weeks… yet somehow, he was upset.

So there I lay on the matt in my daughter’s gym… and I was a mess. I was successful… I had plenty of prospects for additional money management clients, and I had a track record under way that would have impressed anyone. But I was stressed out to the max. Life was still happening outside of my work, but I wasn’t participating in it.

So I gave it all up. I told my clients I’d manage their existing trades to completion and would release all of their capital back to them. The stress was killing me, and it simply wasn’t worth it to me any longer.

I didn’t make that decision lightly. It was then, and remains now, a dream of mine – a dream which, gratefully, I’m achieving – to use my skills to bring strong investment results to my clients and their families. And on the surface, I had everything I needed: The skill to create that result, suitable markets in which to deploy capital, and clients with plenty of money.

But there was one other thing I needed that I didn’t know at the time that I needed: The right kind of clients. I didn’t know what “the right kind” of client was… to me, at the time, it was anybody who had at least $250,000 in cash that I could trade.

By the way, this isn’t a criticism of the clients from back then. It’s a criticism of me, of my lack of awareness at the time about things of greater consequence than money and financial success.

So for me, one of those NON-FINANCIAL ISSUES that overrules every other consideration is PEACE. I just won’t purposefully put myself – or my clients – into a situation that won’t let me sleep well at night, or that causes me to lose the use of my waking hours, and thereby causes me NOT to be present with my beautiful wife Carole or an of my four kids. I just won’t do it anymore… and I want clients who value the same thing.

I’d like to tell you another story about that in just a moment that’s far more recent – within the past week, actually – but first, let’s talk about how this relates to YOU.

What are your NON-FINANCIAL standards that overrule every other consideration? You might be tempted to think that only financial considerations should determine financial decisions, but that’s not a particularly wholistic understanding of human decision making.

Here are some other big considerations:

CLARITY of thought is a huge issue… and it’s reasonable to demand that you are of clear mind when making financial decisions. But how and when does CLARITY happen for you? Does MENTAL clarity require that you take care of yourself PHYSICALLY? What about your spiritual life? Can you be totally mentally clear when you’re spiritually off-kilter?

What about time of day? I do my best thinking, without a doubt, early in the morning when it’s still dark outside and no phones are ringing. Maybe clarity for you comes best at a certain time of day.

Or maybe there’s a question of PRIORITIES. What are your PRIORITIES for building your portfolio? Clarity about your PRIORITIES is an excellent way to establish a GUIDE RAIL by which you are able to quickly reject or accept investment opportunities as being worthy of further consideration.

All of this is on my mind because recently, a client in our passive flipping program experienced a net profit of over 20% in about 5 months – an awesome result by any standard, and in excess of what we had guided him to expect – and yet, his first instinct was to complain because it wasn’t MORE profitable because it didn’t happen even faster. This particular guy is a nice guy at heart, but frankly, this profile – the person who finds something about which to complain no matter how clearly success has been achieved – well, that type of person doesn’t contribute to peace in my life… and for me, my CLIENTS are my investments as much as any particular asset… and I only want those who are compatible with my priority of PEACE.

My friends, what are YOUR “BIG ISSUES” that are not financial, but deeply impact your financial decision making? If you don’t know the answer, the time is now to look inside yourself and find out… to make your investing an extension of yourself, your personality and your greater life purpose.

Because at the end of the day, what we’re all after is more abundant LIFE… not just a more abundant portfolio!

Hey, ever heard of Malcolm Gladwell? He’s an extraordinary writer and thinker. And tomorrow, you’re going to hear the wisdom of Gladwell applied to investing strategy, SDI Style! So don’t miss that… be sure to text the word SDIRADIO with no spaces or periods to 33444 in order to subscribe and hear the next special episode!

And may I ask a simple favor of you? If you enjoy this show, would you tell your friends about it? Just think of one person right now who you think would enjoy this show, and drop them an email today and direct them to SDIRadio.com… I’d really, really be grateful for your vote of confidence.

And as always, my friends: Invest wisely today, and live well forever!

See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.