Ignore The Headlines
What seems more likely to you, that you will die in a shark attack or that a falling coconut will kill you?
If you answered the falling coconuts, you would be right.
Every year around 5 humans per year die in shark attacks whereas 150 people get killed by falling coconuts. Are you reconsidering that trip to Fiji yet?
Click based advertising incentivises media content that grabs eyeballs and therefore revenue for the media company. News outlets know that fear sells and this is why you never hear about people being killed by falling coconuts, but you will hear about every shark attack that occurs in Australia each year.
Financial media is the same. Here are the top headlines from the finance section of news.com.au from the time of writing:
Price gouging’: Outrage at $188-per-day fee
Major retailer files for bankruptcy
Photo exposes grim extent of recycling collapse
Why one group could miss out in budget
Bosses fed up with ‘entitled’ Gen Z
Grim prediction for homeowners next week
‘Distressed’ sales reveal mortgage crisis
Shock collapse of popular delivery service
Outrage. Grim. Collapse. Miss out. Crisis. Have you started doomsday prepping yet?
Human beings feel loss three times greater than they feel gain. In my opinion that is three times the incentive to sell you negative news.
Do you think you would ever see the following graphs on news.com.au?
Source: Hartford Funds
Think about the events that have taken place in the last 100 years. The Great Depression, World War 2, the Cold War, the rise of Nuclear states, President Kennedy is assassinated, stagflation in the 70s, the Soviet Union falls, the Asian Financial Crisis, the Dot Com Bubble burst, the War on Terror, the Global Financial Crisis and the Covid-19 pandemic among many other events that have been forgotten about. Despite all of this. $1 invested in the S&P 500 in 1926 would be worth $11,535 today.
I think that is worth ignoring the news.
