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L Financial malpractice could torpedo your investment results Dollars & Sense Guest Contributor 15 | Thursday, July 30, 2015 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com ife is all about trying to avoid mistakes. Investing is no different. Financial mistakes can hurt your ability to achieve your nancial goals. Financial goals include reducing and eliminating personal debt, helping your children with the nancial burden of a postsecondary education, and preparing for retirement. Financial goals are why you invest. These are the things that are most important to you. Making mistakes does not just cost you money; it costs you the ability to achieve your life goals. Conducting your nancial business in a manner that is prone to mistakes can be considered nancial malpractice. Avoid mistakes and success will follow. If your investment adviser calls with a `hot tip', ask him to call back not with a `hot tip', but on a successful strategy to help avoid common mistakes. Hot tips come and go and have no history of consistently making a pro t. Avoiding mistakes is the key to success. There is enough risk in the investment world without adding to that risk by being prone to making mistakes. Your key to success is hinged on your ability to avoid these mistakes. Our recommendation is to learn how to recognize a potential mistake in order to Peter Watson avoid making it. That starts with attempting to avoid the human characteristics of investing because of fear and greed. Resist the temptation to chase a "hot" investment. Security selection and market timing have not proved to be successful strategies for individual or professional investors. We recommend you not attempt active trading in the blind ambition that you will be successful. The evidence of investing is not on your side and chances are you will not be successful. In other words, a strategy of buying and selling does not work. Don't do it, because in our opinion it is one of the most common mistakes investors make. Investment losses that often result from this type of strategy are a signi cant detour away from your end goal. These errors can be costly and very dif cult to recover from. The arithmetic of investing is very cruel when mistakes are made. If you invested $100, and that investment declined by 50 per cent, the end value of your investment would be $50. In order to recover that loss and have the value of your investment return to $100, you now have to have a 100-per-cent return to make up for your previous 50-per-cent loss. The numbers are against you, so try and avoid mistakes at all cost. Our recommendation is to have an investment portfolio that is well-diversi ed, tax- ef cient and cost-effective. Your nancial objectives should be something you can achieve. Be practical about how you establish those objectives and then monitor your progress towards reaching your goals, at least on an annual basis. Try and resist the temptation to invest in ways that have not been successful for others in the past. Making the simple and common mistakes that others have made is nothing more than nancial malpractice. -- Submitted by Peter Watson, MBA, CFP , R.F .P ., CIM, FCSI., Certi ed Financial Planner WIN A MEAL FOR 4 Fill in this coupon and bring in to Ben & Florentine 146 Lakeshore Rd.W. - Oakville · 905.338.6333 · Monday to Sunday · 7:00 am to 3:00 pm Name : Phone : Email : The draw will take place on August 16th at 4:00pm.The winner will be contacted by phone Comfort Friendly Spa-like l r. M ge aris n A ' aD Caring Compassionate g hiv ani Sag ar D Didyou know? ., The idea for Ribfest came from a cycling event in Ohio in the 90's commonly known as the Ribfest Race. Join us for our 20th Anniversary Celebration on Throwback Thursday. ., r. S Relaxing Visit our new dental office, conveniently located on the ground floor of the recently built Palermo Professional Centre (SE corner of Bronte Road and Dundas Street). We offer full Family Dental Services in our brand new, state-of-the-art office in a calm and relaxing environment. We are a paperless office and use digital x-rays. We welcome kids, teens, adults and seniors. NEW PATIENTS are welcome and we will accommodate your dental emergencies. We will directly bill your insurance company and offer convenient evening and weekend appointments. Call to book your appointment today 905-827-8700.Visit us at www.reflections-dental.ca A Fundraising Initiative of Burlington Lakeshore o 2525 Old Bronte Road, Suite #130 Palermo Professional Centre (ground floor) Old Bronte Rd. Bronte Rd. è www.reflections-dental.ca 3rd Line 905-827-8700 D #TBTribfest N Dundas St. W. Pine Glen Rd. 20th Anniversar y Labour Day Weekend, Sept., 3-7, Spencer Smith Park, Burlington CanadasLargestRibfest.com