Hello First name / friend,
I don't know about you but the barrage of financial news lately has been a little exhausting. Part of us wants to look away but the other part of us knows we should try to stay informed.
It got me thinking back to a conversation I had years ago with one of the founders of a financial news channel.
I don't think this founder should have probably shared these secrets with me, but they did.
This founder told me that in “the old days” their reporters rarely got angry with their guests on the show. The reporters discussed complex topics that took time and they talked at a slow pace. In summation, the financial news was boring.
A news channel for money nerds.
But then the founders decided they would increase profits. To do this they needed to increase the number of viewers. And so they used the old saying from William Randolph Hearst. The one he coined in the 1890s about his newspaper reporting of the Spanish-American War, “If it bleeds it leads”.
They had a plan to bring more excitement to their news channel. Reporters started talking at a faster pace. Reporters became combative with guests on the show. They reduced any financialy complex topics to a 30 second soundbite. They knew excitement would attract viewers and more viewers meant more ad revenue and more profits.
They wrapped all this excitement in the falsely portrayed mission of, “keeping the viewer informed”.
And while excitement is great when watching sports, when it involves your
money then it can induce some hefty anxiety.
Here are some strategies to reduce the anxiety from financial news:
1-Read It Don't Watch It - When watching financial news, it's easier to get caught up in the fast paced voices, the loud volume, the flashy graphics. Reading helps take a lot of the glitz and glamour away.
2-Limit Your Intake - When you do read, limit your time to 10 minutes in the morning and 10 minutes in the evening maximum. Don't read ANY financial news until 1 hour after waking up and no financial news 2 hours before bed.
3-Watch for Adverbs and Adjectives - When reading articles look for the adjectives or adverbs that seem to overdramatize. Words like, “soar, skyrocket, free fall, plummets” are a few examples.
4- Lengthen your time horizon / Get Educated - Have charts of indexes available that show what are the true results if you have a long term time horizon. Working with a financial advisor in this area can really be helpful here.
5- Have a Reset period - After reading financial news; go for a walk, crank an upbeat favorite tune, and do some deep breathing.
6- Realize who Owns It ALL - Faith may not be your thing, but there is a verse that says, “The earth is the Lord's and everything in it”. Our possessions are a gift from God and we “rent” them for a short time while on this earth. Knowing this can help us not get caught up in the news drama.
The next time the “news” gets your money anxiety pumping.
Crank up this song: 𝗗𝗶𝗿𝘁𝘆 𝗟𝗮𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗿𝘆 𝗯𝘆 𝗗𝗼𝗻 𝗛𝗲𝗻𝗹𝗲𝘆
And thank you for investing in yourself!
If I can help you or a friend in your journey of money, grief & trauma. Reach out. We are all in this together.
