5 Reasons To Avoid Financial News If You Want Financial Freedom
In this blog post I’m going to share with you 5 Reasons To Avoid Financial News If You Want Financial Freedom. It actually seems counter intuitive at first. Isn’t it better to stay up to date in financial news if you want to be financially free?
Well, I decided to delve into the news this morning to see if I could find a good blog post and I found instead these reasons that reading financial news is actually harmful to you if you want to be financially free.
#1 Fake News Can Waste Your Time
A lot of news may not even be real. This article from Marubeni talks about a fake tweet that led to a an incident at a mall. How many times have reporters gotten facts wrong, and then they report their mistakes later, after you’ve already read and believed their news?
It’s important to always check if what you read is true, but how many people actually fact check what they are reading?
I’m not saying all news if fake, but to give credence to the news you have to fact check. So if you’re going to read the news it’s better to search for a specific topic that you are actually researching and can fact check.
#2 Real News Can Also Waste Your Time
I was checking trending news this morning and found an article on cnbc.com published yesterday titled “Costco is selling gold bars and they are selling out within a few hours” (https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/27/costco-is-selling-gold-bars-and-they-are-selling-out-within-a-few-hours.html). I then went to look up these gold bars and they are not available.
That was a waste of time and though the news might have been real yesterday it’s already not relevant today.
A lot of financial news is like that, it’s relevant when it happens but by the time the news finally comes out, it’s out dated to act on it.
Even at times when it’s relevant, is it really making you money?
#3 Passive Investing Strategies Already Incorporate the Effects of The News
According to the Efficient Market Hypothesis, financial news are already incorporated into the prices of stocks and into market activity. As soon as earnings are posted or a CEO quits, traders act and the stock prices adjust accordingly.
Ordinary people who are investing in index funds of the S&P and so on already have the effects of the news in our portfolios.
So what’s the point of reading the news?
#4 Focus On What You Want
Why are you reading financial news anyways? Is it your dream life to spend your days reading financial news? Focus on what you want.
Maybe you want to grow a garden, write a song, get fit, run a marathon, invent something, spend time with your kids, plan great dates, become a movie star…you get what I’m saying?
What’s the point of your life if you spend it on the means and not on the what. Follow your dream.
#5 Take Actions to Minimize Money Management and Maximize Freedom and Enjoyment of Life
I spend about 3 hours a week on learning about investing, financial freedom and so on. I spend another 5 hours a week doing our finances, bookkeeping, paying bills, and managing our investments.
I only work on the mornings Monday through Friday when Jordan is in school.
Figure out a way to manage your time so you only focus on financial freedom at certain hours.
That way when I’m with Jordan or anyone else, I focus on them.