I'm 46 years old. I'm a natural saver, always lived within my means, avoided debt etc. But I've never had much interest in money beyond that.
A bit over a month ago, I decided that I really had to do something more productive with my money than have it sitting in the bank. So I finally looked into investing. That lead me to FIRE, this forum etc. I read a few recommended books. Bogles "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" left a big impression on me.
So then I invested my money in ETFs. Made some changes to my retirement investments. I'm kinda done. No need to think about this stuff anymore. Other than continuing to pump money into my investments over time.
The trouble is, I'm a naturally obsessive person. When I engage in a new hobby, I go deep. Over the years my obsessions have included: Chess, Guitar, Rowing, Martial Arts at different times. Every time it takes over my life. I spend every spare moment practising or reading about it. Just walking around I think about it all the time. Obsessing over my hobbies is something I greatly enjoy, its one of my defining personality traits.
So I'm finding it difficult to "switch off" my brain with this whole investing thing. Everything I've read convinces me that the best thing to do now is just to forget about it and let my investments compound over decades. Any temptation to "tweak" is just going to introduce additional risk and cost.
But it's really hard to do. I tried downloading FIRE podcasts, but there's really only so many ways they can repeat the same principles before it becomes tedious. I could keep reading, but that just makes me want to DO something.
Even writing this post feels like "methadone" for actual investment activity.
To buy my ETFs without paying expensive brokerage fees, I signed up for an online trading account. That worked great. Except now, every day it tempts me with graphs showing the performance of my investments, sends me emails, invites me to compare my portfolio with other users. It's really not helping me disengage.
Anyway, not really sure what I'm asking for, other than sympathy. Sometimes its hard to just do nothing and keep hands off.
A bit over a month ago, I decided that I really had to do something more productive with my money than have it sitting in the bank. So I finally looked into investing. That lead me to FIRE, this forum etc. I read a few recommended books. Bogles "The Little Book of Common Sense Investing" left a big impression on me.
So then I invested my money in ETFs. Made some changes to my retirement investments. I'm kinda done. No need to think about this stuff anymore. Other than continuing to pump money into my investments over time.
The trouble is, I'm a naturally obsessive person. When I engage in a new hobby, I go deep. Over the years my obsessions have included: Chess, Guitar, Rowing, Martial Arts at different times. Every time it takes over my life. I spend every spare moment practising or reading about it. Just walking around I think about it all the time. Obsessing over my hobbies is something I greatly enjoy, its one of my defining personality traits.
So I'm finding it difficult to "switch off" my brain with this whole investing thing. Everything I've read convinces me that the best thing to do now is just to forget about it and let my investments compound over decades. Any temptation to "tweak" is just going to introduce additional risk and cost.
But it's really hard to do. I tried downloading FIRE podcasts, but there's really only so many ways they can repeat the same principles before it becomes tedious. I could keep reading, but that just makes me want to DO something.
Even writing this post feels like "methadone" for actual investment activity.
To buy my ETFs without paying expensive brokerage fees, I signed up for an online trading account. That worked great. Except now, every day it tempts me with graphs showing the performance of my investments, sends me emails, invites me to compare my portfolio with other users. It's really not helping me disengage.
Anyway, not really sure what I'm asking for, other than sympathy. Sometimes its hard to just do nothing and keep hands off.