71. To thrive, always be better than your best!

 

Usain St. Leo Bolt, OJ, CD, OLY is a retired Jamaican sprinter, widely considered to be the greatest sprinter of all time. He is the world record holder in the 100 metres, 200 metres, and 4 × 100 metres relay.

http://usainbolt.com/

 Usain Bolt has shattered the world record for the 100 meter dash in May of 2008, considered to be the fastest man alive at that time, he could have "retired" and bask in the glory of this astounding achievement

The "be better than your best" mindset is very relevant to our career as financial advisors for three reasons:

• First is that we need to constantly learn new things to keep up with our rising client's expectations, as markets become more complicated and complex, clients will appreciate our ability to synthesize oftentimes conflicting news reports into actionable insights
• second is our competitors, we have to be able to continuously provide better value as clients can easily move to another financial advisor
• Last would be to improve our overall skillsets, without constant improvement, we may become irrelevant, the skills that brought you to your current level may not be enough to bring you to the next

We might never become the best, but we can always be better than our best and it counts a lot

All the best my friends!

70. Does the stock market follow the economy?

There are a lot of debate as to whether the stock market is reflective of economic developments, some says it does, while others say it don't

In the last two years of the pandemic, the stock market as measured by the PHISIX seems to show a direct correlation between the general economy and stock market levels

A lockdown, quarantine or any restrictions on mobility has an adverse impact on businesses in general, it lowers the volume of business transactions leading to tighter margins for listed companies, GDP for the second quarter of 2020 dropped by more than 16% as a result

The slowing down of the transmission of the virus, vaccination programs of the government or any policy decisions leading to more relaxed restrictions is seen as positive for businesses hence the market reacted positively

while the debate goes on, it helps to keep an open mind and continue learning

all the best my friends!

#acgadvice

69. Will the year of the water tiger bring you good fortune?

 Disclaimer : I am not an investment guru, nor am I a fortune teller! ha ha ha

A quick browse around the web would have resulted in forecasts and expectations for the year of the water tiger (2022), based on the Chinese lunar calendar and according to popular myths, every year would be affected by one of the 12 animal zodiac signs that represents the first 12 animals that headed the call of the Jade Emperor (leader of Chinese Gods), these are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, goat, monkey, rooster, dog and pig

The idea is know which year you are born (in my case I was born in 1963) - the year of the rabbit and see how the current year (tiger) will affect my fortune based on how my sign will interact with the characteristics of the current year (tiger)

woe to those born in the year of the rat, snake, monkey, pig and dog, because according to astrologers, you may have to work extra hard just to make it

but how should we really treat forecasts like this? knowing that the next 12 months is already pre-ordained may discouraged some of us even just to try..

one word of advice..

all the best my friends!

#acgadvice