[Blog] Swinging for the Fences

In high school I was a short, scrappy baseball player. During hitting practice my freshman year, I saw just about every other teammate hit the ball farther than I did. Boy, did this bother me. I started hitting the gym A LOT. And while I certainly grew stronger and my power grew, my hitting overall actually got worse. As I swung harder, I struck out more.

About a quarter of the way through the season, my coach said, “James, we don’t need home runs from you. We need you to hit singles and doubles. That means more to the team than you may realize.” I stopped trying to be something I wasn’t, and I ended up hitting over .400 that year.

The temptation to “swing for the fences” is also true in investing. We tend to lift up the person who bought Apple stock 20 years ago or the one who got into Crypto early.

But by swinging for the fences – trying to pick the right stock, for example – we take on more risk than we should. When it comes to your finances, singles and doubles win the ultimate game – building your wealth.