Addiction can be a powerful thing. According to Wikipedia, addiction is a term used to describe a devotion, attachment, dedication, inclination, etc. Nowadays, however, the term addiction is used to describe a recurring compulsion by an individual to engage in some specific activity, despite harmful consequences to the individual's health, mental state or social life.
I think it is safe to say a lot of people are addicted to micro-managing their portfolio. It's not that they check the results each day, but they'll keep their portfolio open in a browser to monitor it throughout the day. In the short-term, markets can behave very irrationally. If you are constantly watching your portfolio, this can lead you to act out of emotion - e.g. sell a good security at a bad price or buy a good security at a bad price.
The cure? Do your homework and select solid companies with a proven track record. Watching every up and down tick of good companies like Aflac (AFL), General Electric (GE) and Johnson & Johnson (JNJ) will not help your portfolio's long term-performance.
One test of addiction is can you walk away from something without withdrawal? During my vacation last week I thought it would be an interesting test to see what I could and couldn't walk away from. On the positive side, I did not check my portfolio a single time. I did not even watch the news to see what the markets did.
Being an admitted workaholic, I did check emails and voicemails multiple times a day. This was no surprise. However, I have identified a new addiction - my blog. In spite of having a full weeks worth of posts scheduled ahead of time, I checked my blog as much as I checked my work emails and voice mails.
Hello, my name is D4L and I am a blogaholic...
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Best regards,
Carolus
D4L,
As usual you are right on the money. I check my blog very often.
I am a blogaholic as well..
My name is Brooke, and I also have a blogging problem...
I don't know what it is, but I must check it as often as possible.
It would probably help if I had more response to my blog? Maybe not. I would probably be just as obsessed if I were inundated with comments.
CRex: The key is to buy solid long-term investments and find other ways to entertain ourselves. For me it has been this blog - I just transferred my problem. :)
Dividend Growth Investor: and
Brooke@Dollarfrugal: I think there are quite a few of us blogaholics.
Best Wishes,
D4L
Heh, it is tough to stay away from checking on your blog isn't it?
I agree with you on the understanding that making stock or fund picks means long-term goals or patience.
I micromanage my finances. Even with things set on auto I still feel uncomfortable if I don't check my accounts online for two days.
I cannot imagine going a week without internet access and not checking to see if ING really sent out the payment. I know it is nuts because my systems all work but I just feel the need to check all the time.
Like DGI and Brooke....I am also a blogaholic. I check multiple times during the day. :-)