Shady Mccoy & Investors- Emotions Usually Win

Shady McCoy & Investors Emotions Usually Win, You Lose

by: Brendan Magee


One of the most entertaining aspects of last week's Eagles game was the drama surrounding Shady McCoy's return to Philadelphia and playing against the coach that traded him, Chip Kelly. Upon his trade, McCoy stated that his race played a role in being traded to the Buffalo Bills.  All week long speculation ran rampant about what would happen when these two men came face to face.


Even though professional athletes get traded all the time, clearly, McCoy did not expect to be traded and has voiced his upset publicly on many occasions. By his statements leading up to the game and behavior after it, he's still quite angry. Kelly has tried to defuse the situation. He owned up to the fact that McCoy's trade had not been handled in the best way. He said he should have contacted McCoy before the announcement by the media, and that McCoy deserved better. He said if the occasion arose he would shake McCoy's hand in an attempt to put the whole episode behind them.


Whether it's burying old wounds or investing, emotions can easily over power what you know to be the right thing to do and keep you stuck in a bad spot. You perceive someone to be embarrassing you, you get furious at them. They are done as far as you are concerned. Unfortunately, you may have only perceived an insult. Maybe your best friend/ tormentor was making a joke (perhaps it was a bad joke) with no intention of hurting your feelings, at all. A life long friendship maybe damaged forever, based on a simple misunderstanding and the emotions that take over. Anyone else and you would tell them to talk with their friend and work things out. Simple, but not when emotions are running so high.


Same thing with investing. The market drops by a few hundred points. Your portfolio is down 15% maybe 25%. You get scared. "This is all the money I have! I can't lose it! I can't go live with my kids! How humiliating would that be!"


Any one else's account and you would know what to do, calm as a cucumber. "Buy low
/sell high. This is a long-term investment. Let's turnoff the cable television shows and go get some ice cream or play some golf. There's no need to panic." None of this is easy when it is your money, but this is exactly what you know you should do.


The key for getting through life's challenges big or small and investing is recognizing and appreciating the enormous power that your emotions and instincts have. You also need to be able to recognize the areas of life and investing where they are going to be working against you. In other words, you need to be able to know where your emotions will have you engaged in self sabotage, and get help.


Last week in a radio interview, Ike Reese and Seth Joyner, two former Eagles' players, talked to McCoy about the time they were both traded from the Eagles. They were trying to give him the benefit of their experience. They both said how emotional and upsetting that had been for them. They felt as if they'd been slapped in the face by the Eagles. They spoke about how hard it was to separate personal feelings from what was purely a business decision.


McCoy having placed unwarranted racist accusations at the feet of Kelly, Joyner and Reese were trying their best to help McCoy take the high road and get beyond this incident. They told McCoy that it is ok and natural to let emotions get the better of your mouth. People could understand that. Everyone has been in that situation and could forgive all grievances if they were owned up to. McCoy refused the opportunity and left Lincoln Financial Field still stuck.


If as an investor, you are stuck. If you cannot say  that you have the peace of mind or experienced the success you were looking for with your money and investing, it's not because you do not know what to do. Own equities/stocks, diversify, buy low/sell high are rules are the time tested rules for ssuccess and I am sure you have heard them at some point in the past. Consider that your emotions and instincts at some point got the best of you. They had you say yes to something that you can look back on and say, perhaps grudgingly, was inappropriate to do with your money. Perhaps you can see where this has happened more times than you can count? That's ok. You are human and our humanity can be difficult to deal with.


Let's have our come to Jesus moment and own up to our fallibility. Let's own up to our inability to police our own instincts and emotions and, for a moment take a look at what would be possible if we stopped letting our emotions get the best of us. How different would our lives and investments look?
Then get help and take the coaching. You and Shady will be the better for it.


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail Brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

Guns, San Bernardino, & Investing- We Have The Power

Guns, San Bernardino &; Investing- We Have The Power

by: Brendan Magee

Finding the words to put San Bernardino in a proper and justifiable context is just about impossible. Since Friday a week ago, I have been scared, angry, frustrated, saddened. I can't imagine what would cause someone to pick up a gun and kill 14 of their neighbors, friends, and coworkers. I can't imagine the pain of your loved one not walking through the door at night all because they attended a Christmas party that turned into mass murder.

Like it was at 9/11, I am asking a lot of questions where there doesn't seem to be any answers that make sense. How or who do we need to turn to make sure things like this never happen again? At times like these it is easy to feel powerless. To gain perspective, I often turn to the experience of others who dealt directly with overwhelming circumstances.

I just got done reading a book, The Price of Courage, which documents the German invasion of France during World War II and how a French family dealt with the occupation of Paris. Two sisters and a brother risked everything to serve in the French Resistance. They endured the constant threat of being discovered as agents of the Resistance and the instant death sentence that would bring. The brother even endured and survived being thrown in Auschwitz Concentration Camp. Where most of the country wouldn't, this family took responsibility and said no to the loss of their country and liberty to Nazi Germany. Ordinary citizens who took responsibility for themselves and their country.

We tend to forget just how powerful we truly are. Some times it is easier not to assume responsibility. I do not know whether or not it falls on deaf ears or not, but when I begin to coach someone on their investments, I start out by telling them that what ever success they achieve or failure they suffer it will be a direct result of what it is they do or don't do, what they allow or do not allow to be done with their money.

Take some of the most sinister and devastating investment scandals of our time. Bernie Madoff could not have stolen $65 billion unless the people who invested with him said yes to what ever it was he was offering them. On a much less sinister scale, over the past 20 years investors would not have underperformed the stock market, by half, if they had not continually sold low bought high. If they would have maintained the discipline to stick to a prudent strategy they'd be doubling their money roughly every seven years according to the available statistics. No matter how complex or overwhelming the situation, it usually boils down to very simplistic decisions.

So as we grapple with the next few weeks of the tragedy in San Bernardino or , with what pales in comparison, our portfolios, pray for the victims, their families, the people who will be left to take care of them, our leaders, and yourself. Pray that you will have the courage to do what you know is the right thing to do, even when it seems as if you can't.

God Bless America!

Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments e-mail brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.

San Bernardino,

Chip Kelly & Investors-Impossible To Police Themselves

Chip Kelly & Investors-Impossible To Police Themselves

by: Brendan Magee

As painful as it is to come to grips with, it looks like the Eagle's season is going to go down in flames. I can't see the Eagles putting together a one game winning streak much less a six game winning streak. It's hard to believe we, the fans and head coach Chip Kelly, didn't see this coming. Kelly won twenty games in his first two seasons and seemed as though he was always a step ahead of the opposition. All he needed was to get his players on the roster and success seemed inevitable.

In hindsight, it seems as though this is where the Eagles problems started. In his first two seasons, Kelly worked under a general manager who evaluated the players Kelly would be given to coach. After last year, Kelly became the general manager and coach. He had complete authority to sign and keep the players that would be on the Eagles roster. Chip had all the power with no one to answer to or rebuke any of his decisions. By what we have seen on the field this year, it is pretty easy to see that Kelly's perspective was flawed. What he was seeing and said yes to when he signed free agents and drafted rookies hasn't translated to success on the field. It has been a disaster.

The coach needed a coach. He needed to entrust someone with the task of telling him that what he was seeing in a player, his scheme, or his vision for the roster was flawed. Without his permission what individual would have the gall to question the man in charge of their paycheck?

In order to give that individual the authority to question Chip's perspective, Chip would have needed an extraordinary amount of humility and wisdom. How many of us ever question our perspective? We are seeing things as they are, aren't we?

Whether it's a professional football team we are coaching or a retirement nest egg we are trying to grow, it is all driven by our perspective. Shady McCoy isn't hitting the hole fast enough, cut him. The market's going to crash, sell.

Think about all the noise there is in coaching a professional football team. You have 53 players, reporters, player's wives and girl friends, meetings, injuries, trades, your own life to deal with, etc. How easy would it be do get distracted, not hear something exactly as it was said or intended? How easy would it be to give into hidden biases that have been developed and hard wired over 30 to 40 years of your life? On top of that, you are Chip Kelly one of the best coaches in all of college football. You have never had a losing season in your life. You know football. It's your life.

Now think about investing. Think about all the noise investors have to deal with. The internet, cable television, your spouse, the guys at work, Google, etc. 24, 7, 365, investors are hit with news, information, and opinions as to what they should be doing with their money. Compound that with all the messages you heard about money and investing from parents, uncles, and friends. On top of that remember the 1990's. Your portfolio grew to over a million dollars. You know investing.

 "If I just read a little more, I can find the winning stocks or fund managers again. I know it." A bias can easily take over without an investor knowing it. The wrong decision can look like the right one. How does an investor, on their own, quiet down the noise in their head and focus on what is important?

The answer for Chip and investors is, you don't solve this problem on your own. You need help. Unfortunately, that help will not come until the coach or investor realizes they need help and can't do it on their own. As much as we would like to think we can, we cannot police our selves on our own. Instincts, emotions, perspectives, egos, etc. are just too powerful. A little humility will go a long way for the Eagles and Chip Kelly as it would for investors.


Brendan Magee is the founder and president of Inevitable Wealth Coaching. With questions or comments go to brendan@coachgee.com or call 610-446-4322.