Off Like a Herd of Turtles (or "Slow and Steady Wins the Race")

Believe it or not, there is nothing interesting happening today in my own financial realm. I am anxiously awaiting my tax refund, but that should take a few more days yet. So in the meantime I thought I would take the time to make a brief public service announcement about patience in investing.

Boredom in investing is a dangerous state of affairs. Boredom causes people to tinker with their portfolios needlessly, often causing them to make adjustments based on sentiment rather than reason. If you are confident that you have a sound long-term investment strategy, then you must have the faith and patience to see it through those times of inactivity. Today I have urge to play with my portfolio out of sheer curiosity and boredom, but it would be a bad decision for me to deviate from my own well-chosen long-term strategy.

There is an old expression that "slow and steady wins the race." This sage advice from The Tortoise and the Hare is true of just about any long-term project (including perhaps my Ph.D. dissertation), and it is certainly true of retirement investing. Remember that it was block by block that the ancient Egyptians built the great pyramids at Giza, and that the Grand Canyon was carved over time from a steady river.

Likewise, feel free to sit back, relax, and let your long-term investments do all the hard work for you. Grab a cup of coffee, read a book, or take up a new hobby. Tinkering with your portfolio unnecessarily will only create problems as long as you have a solid investment strategy in place (and if not, shame on you!), so you might as well do something more productive with your time.