Monday, March 26, 2007

What goes up, comes down, and goes up and down again

The market had a terrific week last week. Now, of course, the question on everybody's mind is, will it keep going up this week.

Is that on your mind? I hope now. You have better things to do. Your job. Your business. Have fun with friends and family. Continue your education. Exercise. Watch a good movie.

Is this heresy? To some people, yes. I advocate that you just not care much what the market does unless it plunges so far that the overall economy is affected a la 1929. If it causes another Great Depression, then of course you should be concerned.

But these daily/weekly/monthly ups and downs just aren't worth the effort people put into tracking them. Even day traders. Last week the market went up big time, but I'm sure that most day traders lost money. And when it goes down, some day traders make money. What matters to all short term traders is how well they guess (or, to be nice, predict) the trends of the stocks or market they trade.

For you and me, we should just be buying up income-producing assets and focus the rest of our minds on living our lives. This of course should include doing well on our jobs, in our careers and in our businesses to increase our incomes so we have more money to invest.

But it doesn't include caring about the short term noise of the market. It goes up, it goes down. Care about your dividend and interest checks.