The relativity of values causes us to use money irrationally. I go to the supermarket to buy a $15 pen, and the clerk smiles and says, “You can buy this pen for $7 if you walk 5 minutes from here.” Then, most people walk five minutes and buy a $15 pen for $7. But if you want to buy a $1,000 jacket and the clerk smiles and says, “You can get a $992 jacket in five minutes from here,” most people simply buy the $1,000 jacket. Reasonably, walking for 5 minutes equals the effort, and the profit of $8 is the same. However, people might go to a store that sells pens cheaper, but not for the jacket, because the discount rate is too low. In other words, the relativity of comparing values makes us act irrationally. The pen’s discount rate is 55%, and the jacket’s is only 0.8%. Yet, the total amount is the same for all $8, and the effort to gain that profit is identical. Attitudes and misconceptions about consumption influence how we build wealth. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”
The most important aspect of investing is managing risk. However, in most cases, risk management is interpreted and assessed in relation to past patterns. When asset prices fall, the perceived risk appears significant. That doesn’t imply there weren’t risks; investors simply didn’t recognize the risks that originally existed. The level of risk is almost identical whether the price of an asset goes up or down, but when prices decline, they tend to drop further because fear prevents us from purchasing more assets, leading us to retreat. It’s not that the risk has escalated. It is unwise to link risk with past patterns. There have been numerous exceptions in the world, and many beings on this planet have disappeared because they could not adapt. Did dinosaurs not become extinct on Earth ? Exceptions are exceptions because they are unpredictable. - Joseph’s “just my thoughts”