Grit and Investing

韌性和投資

 

by Charles Cheng, CFA

 

“Grit” has become a popular buzzword in recent years pertaining to personal development and life success. This is due to research and a popular book authored by Dr. Angela Duckworth titled “Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance.” Her studies showed that long term success was much more correlated with character traits of resilience and perseverance rather than with innate talents like IQ. While success in life and success in money management are two different things, it is pretty easy to see how the same can apply to investing.

近年來，“韌性”已成為有關個人發展和成功人生的流行詞彙。而該詞彙的流行是因為各種研究以及安吉拉·達克沃思（Angela Duckworth）博士撰寫的一本受歡迎的書，標題為“韌性：激情和毅力的力量”所帶來的。她的研究表明，長期的成功更多地與毅力和堅毅的性格正相關，而不是與先天的才華如高智商相關。生活中的成功和金錢管理上的成功是兩件不同的事，但我們能很容易地看出堅毅的品質在投資中的應用。

 

Successful investing is all about consistently getting good returns over long periods of time. The power of compounding magnifies returns where small differences in starting capital and time invested can cause huge variations in the future. It takes discipline and resilience to consistently save money to invest and to stay invested in the markets through ups and downs, losses and missed opportunities. If one stays out of the market for too long after taking a large drawdown or missing a big rally, the difference in their wealth at future point of time would be much greater than whatever they missed in the short term. But if one persists in staying with their investment plan, the rewards are significant.

成功的投資是指長期穩定地獲得良好回報。複利的力量會放大收益，而啟動時資金和投入時間的微小差異會導致未來資本的巨大變化。這需要自律和堅持持續地省下資金以進行投資，並且無論市場的跌宕起伏、虧損以及在錯失良好投資機會的情況下都保持對市場的投資。如果一個人在投資資產大幅縮水或錯過一次暴漲機會後就長時間退出市場的話，那麼他們在未來某個時間點與那些持續投資者的財富差異將遠大於他們彼此在短期內的財富差別。然而，如果人們堅持自己的投資計劃並持之以恆，那麼最終的回報將是巨大的。

 

So, what are the lessons from building grit in real life that we can apply as an investor? Here are some actions that investors of any level can take to increase their resilience:

那麼，作為投資者，我們如何能將現實生活中建立韌性的課題應用到投資中呢？以下是任何水準的投資者都可以採取的一些增強其投資韌性的方法：

 

Define a long-term goal for your investing such as a level of wealth before retirement, that you can always keep in mind in any situation,

Define smaller goals and habits that will help you reach your long-term goal,

On a regular schedule, evaluate whether your current actions are helping you get closer to your goals or not,

Try your best to ignore your feelings regarding the performance of your investments if they are not relevant to the achievement of your goals going forward,

If you are implementing an investment plan, don’t leave it unfinished. Either follow through completely or come up with another robust plan that fits your needs,

When you achieve anything that takes you closer to your goals, no matter how small, celebrate your actions that lead to those successes!

1）為您的投資設定長期目標，例如退休前的財富水準，以便在任何情況下都可以牢記，

2）先確定較小的目標和習慣，這將幫助您實現長期目標，

3）定期評估您當前的行動是否正在幫助您更接近您的投資目，

4）如果您此刻的某個投資業績在今後與實現你的投資目標無關的話請盡力忽略它正帶給你的感受，

5）如果您正在執行一項投資計劃，請不要虎頭蛇尾。要麼完全遵循你的計劃行事，要麼提出另一個適合您需求的強大計劃，

6）當您達成任何使自己更接近目標的事情時，無論多渺小，都要慶祝一下這個將使你成功的事件!

 

 

 

Mr. Cheng is a managing partner at a Hong Kong based independent private investment office. This article reflects his personal views and not his firm’s and should not be viewed as an investment recommendation.

鄭先生為可承資本，一家總部設於香港的獨立投資辦公室之董事合夥人。　這篇文章反映了他的個人而非公司觀點。　該文章不應被視為投資建議。

 

 

 

 

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