Investing Landmines

Today's Newsletter:

• My Latest

• The Path To What Works

• Investing Landmines

• A Money Question

My Latest

A newsletter two weeks in a row!

Big change (for me at least) is I want to write more of these and I am committing to providing The Advisor’s Playbook weekly.

Frankly, I write a ton of stuff online but this is my favorite thing to write.

I don’t write it for views or impressions…half the time I write about concepts to remind myself of their value.

So let me just say, thanks for following along and supporting it…ok enough fluff.

Continuing with my tax series on YouTube, my latest is about…you guessed it, taxes.

This week I am talking all about Capital Gains taxes.

If your goal is to turn your ordinary income (and big tax bill) into investment income (and a lower tax bill) this video is for you.

You can check it out here ⬇️⬇️⬇️

The Path To What Works

I love numbers.

Yet numbers without context are well just numbers (and kind of meaningless).

So consider these numbers:

• 1100

• 1081

• 1081

• 1075

Do they mean anything to you?

No, we have no context.

Now what if I told you that those numbers are the number of first-pitch strikes thrown by four MLB pitchers who led the league in that category in 2024.

Ok great but still not enough context.

Now what if I told you that those four pitchers average north of $20,000,000 per season in salary.

You might deduce that those first-pitch strike numbers are a key metric to success as a pitcher.

Turns out getting ahead 0-1 in the count helps a pitcher reduce an opposing team’s batting average by nearly 20 points (a big deal).

I share these numbers to illustrate this point ~ If we knew nothing else about the situation other than one key metric we could deduce if a random pitcher is having success or not.

No scouting reports or further deep dives needed ~ just a few baseline numbers to know if we are on the right track.

Well turns out investing (and choosing investments) are much the same way.

There are thousands of factors that play into investment returns but choosing the right ones comes down to avoiding the landmines (getting behind 1-0 in the count).

In today’s episode, I am going to share four investing landmines to avoid.

Let’s dive in…

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Investing Landmines

My belief on investments is this ~ They are fuel for the outcomes you are trying to achieve.

Outcomes that are specific to you and your family.

Keep that in mind as you read these landmines.

The Detour

I tell every client I work with the same thing.

I can’t tell you what to invest in until we have a plan.

• Where are we today?

• Where are we trying to go?

• How long do we have to get there?

• What resources are we using to make it happen?

Yet inevitably what happens is once we have the roadmap a detour pops up.

An investment that looks so good it feels impossible to say no…even though it is nowhere on our roadmap.

Let me be clear ~ These can work but I would avoid them like the plague.

The Quick Hit

The longer your investment horizon ~ The greater your chance of success.

The question you need to ask yourself before any investment is this:

“How long am I committed to this investment?”

I fell into this trap last week looking at my investment account.

A depressed company stock I was considering buying had rebounded upward the week before.

My first thought ~ “Oh maybe I should wait or I missed it?” (a terrible but distantly human thought).

I then reminded myself that if I was going to buy the stock my commitment needed to be over years not random weekly fluctuations.

Quick hits are a speculation game, not an investment thesis.

The Wrong Game

Some of the richest people I know invest in things I don’t.

They do incredibly well in those investments, yet I have no interest in following their lead.

Why you might ask?

For the simple fact that it isn’t my game (ie what I know and can execute on).

Do not fall for the trap of chasing someone else’s skillset and list of wins.

They might be playing a far different game than you are playing.

• Steph Curry isn’t trying to hit a 95 MPH fastball

• Bryce Harper isn’t trying to make no-look 3-pointers

Know your game, stay in your lane, and watch your success follow.

The Price

Your investment returns do not matter.

What hits your bank account matters.

The difference between the two is the price you pay for the investment.

This is a combination of the internal investment costs plus the tax drag.

I tilt my investments toward opportunities that provide a cost-effective structure (not always the cheapest) and have an eye on my tax bill.

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My take is investors (me included) get lost in the sauce.

The pitch, the dream, the deck, the potential when we should just start with making sure we are avoiding any landmines.

Once we check those boxes then we can dive into the details of a potential investment.

Until next time my friends…

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A Money Question

What are two things that have to be true for you to make an investment?

Here are two for me:

I have to be committed to this investment over years (not days) and I have to understand how this investment works.

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3 Ways I Can Help You

💰 Schedule an introductory call with Moment. We help athletes, entrepreneurs, and key employees build and protect wealth.

📹 Check out my YouTube channel. A safe place to get smarter with your money.

📷 Interact with me on Instagram. Where I provide bite-sized daily content to level up your money game.

Moment Private Wealth, LLC is a Registered Investment Advisor, located in the State of Missouri. Moment Private Wealth provides investment advisory and related services for clients nationally. Moment Private Wealth will maintain all applicable registrations and licenses as required by the various states in which Moment Private Wealth conducts business, as applicable. Moment Private Wealth renders individualized responses to persons in a particular state only after complying with all regulatory requirements, or under an applicable state exemption or exclusion. Nothing in this content is intended to be, and you should not consider anything in this content to be, investment, accounting, tax, or legal advice.