Investment values keep moving up and down. During depressions values fall drastically and remain so for a long time. Many of us feel sad and unhappy. The question is should we become sad and feel unhappy? Out of fear of losing more money and emotional turbulence we sell our investments. We don’t have the patience to wait for the markets to bounce back. Ofcourse no one can predict when this will happen. It can happen in 6 months or 6 years. The prudent investor is prepared for this and waits for the economy to start growing. When investing we have to have a long term goal and not look for short term gains. We look for short term gains and that is what leads us to unhappiness. If we are able to manage our income and expenditure judiciously then we can avoid the need for short term gains and allow our investments to grow at their own pace. This will also not make us sad or unhappy and our emotions will also be under our control.
Our basic needs are very limited – food, clothing and shelter. These needs can be met easily with little income. It is our greed to acquire luxury articles that will need more money.
During times when our investments value is falling our incomes too fall and we are unable to afford these luxuries. This makes us unhappy. Avoiding consumerism and greed to acquire things that we don’t need can only make us happy.