Once you've attained enough to meet your investmentgoals, take a step back. This may entail leaving some money on thetable, and this is where the winners distinguish themselves fromthe losers. (Photo: Shutterstock)

Life is a series of negotiations. A gamble, in a sense. It's anever-ending sequence of persuasive exercises, constantly trying toget someone to concede. And while that concession may get youhired, you're taking a chance that industry, that company, thatmarket, will be around throughout your career to sustain yourretirement. That's the gamble.

Investing is a continuous negotiation. Each trade has yousearching for a willing counterpart who will accept your desiredprice. As before, you are taking a chance – a risk – with eachtransaction. But you're not gambling.

As a fiduciary, you'll find yourself having to manage life's risks, and it remains a challengeto insure you're not gambling (see “A Fiduciary Approach to Alternative Investments:Friend or Fad?” FiduciaryNews.com, June 18, 2019).

If last week's column could be said to have addressed fear, this week's addresses greed. Greed isn'tnecessarily premeditated maleficence. It can just as easily be theresult of inertia. The kind of inertia that feeds on itself andimpels you further.

Think of it as a hot streak. Each success emboldens you to takeanother swing. It gives you confidence, perhaps a far greaterconfidence than circumstances merit. After all, the odds willeventually catch up to us. Everyone – and everything – eventuallyregresses back to the mean. There's no escaping this.

The trouble is, those “one-in-a-million” shots get all theheadlines. They get us thinking, “I could do that, too.”

How silly is this? Imagine reading a headline about somethinggetting struck by lightning. No one immediately thinks, “I couldget struck, too.”

If we think of our retirement savings and the investmentportfolio it creates as merely a game, then we're more prone tofall into the trap of inertial greed. And, as they say, “greedkills.”

How do you best avoid this unfortunate outcome?

You can reduce the likelihood of sticking around too long bysetting precise goals and by knowing exactly what needs to be doneto accomplish those goals.

Once you've attained enough to meet those goals, take a stepback. This may entail leaving some money on the table, and this iswhere the winners distinguish themselves from the losers.

Winners possess the discipline to collect their money and moveon. Losers want to keep rolling the dice. They want to squeezeevery last once of available loot from the table. The law ofaverages says they'll eventually come up snake eyes and loseeverything. Just of the want of a few dollars more.

Thus is the lament of those chasing index returns. An indexrepresents the market. It's impossible to tame the market. It actslike a wild beast. It's a bucking bronco that will ultimately throwany rider that stays on too long. There's no way around it.

Unless you get off. No one lives for an epitaph that reads “HereLies John Doe. He Beat the S&P 500.”

Life is much more than simply a one-dimensional scorecard basedon any arbitrary benchmark. The goal is bigger than the game. It'sthe job of a fiduciary to make sure they keep people's eyes focusedon the goal, not a game.

And sometimes meeting the goal means it's OK to leavemoney on the table.

So leave it there.

READ MORE:

A 3-word fiduciary rule — Carosa

The 'Fiduciary Rule' versus the 'Rule of Fiduciary'— Carosa

Do you have the 'knows' to be a fiduciary? —Carosa