Mick Heyman is the author of the book Mellow Your Money: How to Surf the Market and Build Wealth Without Stressing Yourself Out. He is the founder of Heyman Investment Counseling, and he lives in San Diego.
Q: What inspired you to write Mellow Your Money?
A: I believe there is much that I have learned from my experiences and misadventures in the investment markets and in my life that have helped me reduce stress regarding investing and I wanted to pass these lessons on in hopefully a fun and interesting way.
Often, as we look back in our life we can see how our experiences weave together to have helped us grow and if we keep that growth mindset then even the most difficult experiences can eventually lead us to a better place.
My experience in the markets just happens to have been the fruitful ground for me to express the lessons I have learned and I hope to help others reduce stress regarding money and potentially in many other aspects of their lives.
I have also been often helped by learning, more through storytelling than a textbook, and so I decided to write this book using my personal stories to teach about money and the markets.
Q: How was the book’s title chosen?
A: I believe that despite all the daily noise that surrounds the markets and our lives, it is possible to find ways to ignore that noise and find more peace and less stress regarding our money. Hence, find ways to “Mellow your Money.”
And I also believe that that surfing became a nice metaphor, as despite potential fears of the unknown in the water and how nature can be unpredictable, that we can find that moment of calm while surfing, whether it be in the ocean or in the markets.
That moment of calm often happens in the ocean as we narrow our focus or similarly, in the markets as we narrow our focus on the long term. The result is that despite the energy of the ocean or in the markets, by focusing our energy in a productive way, we can reduce our stress and in the long term, build our wealth, hence the subtitle.
Q: How would you advise people to reduce their stress when managing their money?
A: Of course, reading this book and laughing along with my misadventures will be a great way to reduce stress! But a few of the valuable lessons that can also reduce stress that arise from some of my experiences are the following:
*Don’t try to do too much in your money management, remember that most long term success can be made from sitting, not from trading.
*Know your risk threshold because the thing about surprises is they come as a surprise!
*And the next time some horrible surprising news happens reflect back in history and take comfort that others lived through bleak moments and survived and you will too, finding hope in that phrase, “This too shall pass.”
*Often, many see the market as a competitive place but I urge most of us to not try to work out childhood traumas in the marketplace, leave them in the therapist’s office where they belong, or as the quote that is attributed to Adam Smith or George Goodman goes, “if you don’t know who you are, the market is an expensive place to find out…”
*Know your long term objective and have the courage to focus on that horizon and not be lured to “fly too close to the sun…”
Q: What do you hope people take away from the book?
A: With this book I hope to share my knowledge of the markets through the stories that shaped me and my investment philosophy.
I believe the best lessons are learned through human connection and in the trenches of experience and as readers will see from the anecdotes in the book, it’s my long-held interest in literature, psychology and philosophy that have helped me to understand the market in a uniquely human way.
I would like readers to come away with an understanding that money is just another expression of us, what we value, what our goals are, how we handle triumph and defeat, how we stumble and get back up--and what mark we want to leave on the world.
I have found that if we find greater balance in our finances we find better balance in our lives and vice versa. Though we all have different paths, the emotional highs and lows that they produce are common to us all.
I hope that reading the book is a fun adventure but importantly, hope to pass on the thought that if we focus on learning lessons from our experiences, in and out of the market, our lives can become enriched and so can our finances.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: I am enjoying doing these interviews and podcasts to both promote the book as well as pass on the message that drowning out the constant noise of social media and headlines is possible and so valuable in managing our money.
Though I won’t know for some time how well the book does, I have found much interest in this message from a vast number of people and so it feels gratifying that at least the message is getting out.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: One of my greatest lessons is that not only our challenges but our foibles, missteps, and even those most disagreeable people are all gifts to help us grow. They can be our greatest teachers and importantly, most of them can give us a good laugh, often at ourselves.
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
No comments:
Post a Comment