Morgan Housel

I'm talking about money and investing and whatnot.

And it is inevitable every single time without exception that these very smart, very intelligent high schoolers, somebody will raise their hand and ask some version of the question, what penny stock should I buy to double my money tomorrow?

And I have to remind myself that like I can't criticize that because I think that is the natural intuition for some people.

If they might think they're a long term investor and their definition of long term is a month.

And maybe that's not they think that's that's not a bad thing.

There are other things in life where a month is a long time.

I don't know what the example would be.

If you're cleaning your kitchen, a month is a long time to get it done in.

So there are some things where you just need to understand what we say when we mean long-term.

And historically, when we talk about the stock market, a good definition of long-term, of really putting the odds of success in your favor, is probably 10 years.

putting like earning a real rate of return after inflation even within the cyclicality of the economy you should be investing for at least minimum 10 years if not 20 30 40. and so a lot of people that's like that it would never cross their mind that that's what we're talking about when we say long term and particularly for young people with no experience they're like i'm a long-term investor i'm going to hold for the next three months and they really think that that's a rational statement and so part of this is just understanding the historical context of what patience means in investing

I did this in fifth grade, too.

We had the same thing.

It was pick stocks and then we'll track it.

And it was like, who makes the most money in the next week?

This is gambling.

And then there is a truth that like nothing can be more damaging to your investing psychology than getting rich very quick when you're young.

I think it just ruins you.

It gives you this expectation.

I remember in 2021, which was kind of like the peak of the meme stock mania, the market was just going vertical.