I did something this week that I haven’t done since before the pandemic — I got to see my mother.
I made the two-hour drive northeast from Baltimore to my hometown of Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. It was an overnight trip, and after spending most of the two days on business, I made it a point to have dinner with my mother.
I even got to have my favorite Philly cheesesteak at my favorite hometown restaurant.
I still haven’t seen the rest of my family since Christmas of 2019, but with my mother now vaccinated, I got to see her in person again.
It’s just another sign of the Great Grand Reopening — parents and grandparents seeing children and grandchildren, friends and relatives reconnecting, and families meeting together for vacations.
For smart investors, it goes even beyond reconnecting with loved ones.
I know you feel it, too … the desire to get back to those kinds of things. It’s in all of us, and it will fuel multiple Great Grand Reopening investing opportunities for the next one to two years — including two new stocks I just recommended in the new Investment Opportunities issue.
While I was back home, I spoke to a small group of investors. As I did so, I looked out at the smokestacks of Bethlehem Steel.
I was reminded of the hard times endured by many who worked there, including my father. That’s why investing became my passion — and why I work so hard at it.
Investors in Bethlehem are no different than investors anywhere else. They get concerned by market fluctuations and volatility, and they focus on what is directly in front of them.
It’s human nature. If you are driving to the beach and hit a construction delay, you are more frustrated about what’s right in front of you than you are excited about the vacation that awaits you.
Unfortunately, that can be a fatal flaw when investing. And I was struck again — as I usually am — by the short-term nature of the questions I was asked. Everyone wants to know what will happen tomorrow, or the next day or the next week.
That’s not investing … and it is where investors often take a wrong turn and fall off the path to financial freedom.
I tried my best to get through to those at the speech and even some family members what investing really is …
Investing is putting your money in a company you expect will grow, take market share, and be a leader in its field … and it’s in a trend that will keep growing no matter what.
We talk about them all the time, so if you are a regular reader, you can probably say them along with me. We have portfolios for these hypergrowth trends in Investment Opportunities — solid state batteries, 5G, electric vehicles, the future of healthcare, the new space race, clean power, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrencies and more. We added the two new recommendations to our Great Grand Reopening Portfolio.
Think of investing in a company as a process more so than a one-time decision. As these markets grow, there is more opportunity for the best companies to grab more share, increase sales, boost profitability and drive their share prices higher. It takes time.
It is exceedingly difficult to try to predict what will happen day to day, week to week, even month to month. But if you look further out, you can see where things are going with more certainty.
It’s kind of like the weather. If forecasters are calling for rain a week out, who knows if it will really rain or not? But we can be sure that the weather will be colder six months from now as we get closer to winter.
We have been reminded lately that stocks — especially growth stocks — go up and down. If this concerns you, I have two suggestions:
First, stay focused on the long term. If you are in the types of companies in the hypergrowth trends we talked about, I have every confidence you will be fine over the long term.
And second … diversify. We use a “basket” approach for this reason. We buy usually three to six of the best stocks in a megatrend to spread out our money.
I highly recommend it. Your portfolios will carry less risk. You will sleep better at night. And your returns will be bigger over time.
On the date of publication, neither Matt McCall nor the InvestorPlace Research Staff member primarily responsible for this article held (either directly or indirectly) any positions in the securities mentioned in this article.
Matthew McCall left Wall Street to actually help investors — by getting them into the world’s biggest, most revolutionary trends BEFORE anyone else. Click here to see what Matt has up his sleeve now.
