Often, all you need to be an excellent investor is a healthy dose of common sense: A penny saved is a penny earned. Buy low, sell high. Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.

That said, the best way to achieve these simple goals isn’t always as obvious. In fact, many of our favorite investment insights may at first seem counterintuitive. Today, we cover a trio of weird, but wonderful “upside-down” investment ideas.

Investment Insight #1: Market volatility is the norm, not the exception.

How often have you thought something like this: “The markets seem so crazy right now. Maybe I should back away, or at least wait until things settle down before I make my next move.”

The problem is, the markets rarely “settle down.” And when they do, we only realize it in hindsight. There are just too many daily seeds of doubt, forever being sown by late-breaking news. We never know which ones might germinate – until they do, or don’t.

We suggest putting market volatility in proper context.

“Being surprised at equities’ ups and downs is like visiting Chicago in January and being shocked by 8 inches of snowfall.” — William Bernstein

In other words, it’s normal for markets to swing seasonally. It’s just part of the weather. For example, in Dimensional Fund Advisors’ commentary, “Recent Market Volatility,” we see U.S. stock markets ultimately delivered positive annual returns in 33 of the 40 years between 1979–2018. But during the same period, investors had to tolerate average intra-year declines of 14%.

Investment Insight #2: Market volatility is your frenemy.

What if markets weren’t volatile? What if all the days, in every market, were like November 12, 2019, when the Dow closed at the same 27,691.49 price as the day before?

If prices never changed, traders would become unwilling to trade; they’d have no incentive to do so. In this extreme, markets would no longer be able to serve as a place where buyers and sellers came together and agreed to price changes. Soon enough, markets would cease to exist.

What if there were just far less market volatility? You would probably soon discover how much you missed those same, downward price swings you ordinarily loathe. That’s because, long-standing evidence has informed us: By giving up extra volatility, you also must give up the extra returns you can expect to earn by tolerating the volatility risk to begin with.

“If you’re living in fear of the next downturn, consider shifting your thinking instead of your investments. Focus on controlling what you can control, such as how much you save, or finding the right stock/bond mix.” — David Booth

Investment Insight #3: You can win for losing.

Wouldn’t it be great to hold only top selections in your investment portfolio, with no disappointments to detract from your success?

Of course it would. It would also be nice to hold a $100 million winning lottery ticket. But just as the lottery is no place to invest your life’s savings, neither is speculating on the razor-thin odds that you can consistently handpick which stars are next in line to shine.

Instead, we suggest building a broadly diversified portfolio covering a range of asset classes … and sticking with it over time.

By always being already invested wherever the next big run is about to occur, you’re best positioned to earn market returns according to your risk tolerance. At the same time, spreading yourself across multiple asset classes also means you’ll always be invested somewhere that isn’t doing quite as well. This means you’re unlikely to ever “beat the market” in a big, splashy way.

Here’s a helpful way to think about committing to a mixed-bag (diversified) portfolio:

On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being abject misery, I’m willing to bet your unhappiness with a diversified portfolio comes in at about a 5, maybe a 6. But your unhappiness if you guess wrong on your one and only investment for the year? That goes to 11. — Carl Richards

Obvious in Hindsight?

We hope the insights we’ve shared now seem a little more obvious. We also hope you’ll be in touch if we can help you incorporate or sustain these three upside-down ideas within your own portfolio management. Because …

“‘[O]bvious’ is often a long way from ‘really believed and internalized’ and in the gap between those two fortunes are made and lost.” — Cliff Asness

Copyright © 2020 Wendy J. Cook Communications, All rights reserved.

Because personal finance is more personal than it is finance, just about every step we take in our personal development aids us in financial planning, and vice versa.

It is in better understanding ourselves that even the most confounding financial decisions are made simple. Therefore, it’s entirely possible for a seemingly non-financial book to have a meaningful impact on your financial life, while the reverse is also true.

Consider, then, this list of my choices for the top five (mostly) recent books that can improve your life, work and financial serenity in 2017:

5) The Whole 30: The Official 30-Day Guide To Total Health And Food Freedom is not your typical diet book. I don’t do those. But I am fascinated by various “life hacks,” small behavioral changes we can make in our diet, exercise and sleep patterns that make life more livable.

I enjoyed Tim Ferriss’ The 4-Hour Body diet in 2015, and I kicked off 2016 by diving into the Whole 30 for the month of January, holding onto several of its tenets for the remainder of the year. As Melissa and Dallas Hartwig, architects of the Whole 30, warn us, the first two weeks will likely be a lot of work with little reward. But if you can make it to days 15 through 30, I can’t imagine not benefiting from this exercise in discipline.

Most of us spend a few too many calories and dollars in the final weeks of the year, so why not undergo an intentionally healthy purge—physically and fiscally—to start the New Year? I’ll be doing it with you!

HINT: Increase your chances of completing the Whole 30 by doing it as a group. Last year, we had a dozen people doing it together, texting recipes and encouragements back and forth throughout the month. But if no one will do it with you, there is a vast and vibrant online community ready to support you.

4) Designing Your Life: How To Build A Well-Lived Joyful Life is an incredible bargain, as Bill Burnett and Dave Evans have translated the Stanford class (a long-time favorite) into book form.

Studies show that more than 80% of financial planning recommendations are not implemented, and I believe that is because clients’ “life plans” are either nonexistent or not incorporated into (and therefore supporting) the financial plan. Burnett and Evans help us by bringing their Silicon Valley design process to life architecture.

HINT: Designing Your Life is really a guidebook with exercises throughout. To make the most of it, I highly recommend doing the exercises as you read the book. Yes, it will increase the effort, but it will also drastically increase the effectiveness.

3) The Road Back To You: An Enneagram Journey To Self-Discovery, by Ian Morgan Cron and Suzanne Stabile, is my favorite Enneagram book yet. If you’re unfamiliar, the Enneagram is often lumped in as a personality typing system, but I believe it provides a great deal more than just a “light-bulb moment” (although it certainly does do that!).

As Cron suggests, its purpose “is to develop self-knowledge and learn how to recognize and dis-identify with the parts of our personalities that limit us so we can be reunited with our truest and best selves.”

And in my experience, it works. A true understanding of your Enneagram type will tell you more about your financial strengths and foibles than you can imagine. (I’m an 8 with a 7 wing, by the way.)

HINT: One of the things that makes the Enneagram especially interesting—but occasionally controversial—is that it is rooted more in ancient spirituality (Sufism, Judaism and Christianity) than science. This volume, like Richard Rohr’s, is written from a Christian worldview. If you’d prefer something more ecumenical, consider The Wisdom of the Enneagram, but I find The Road Back To You to be the most readable and applicable book I’ve read yet on the subject.

2) The Undoing Project: A Friendship That Changed Our Minds had little chance to live up to my high expectations. Michael Lewis is one of my favorite writers and Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky’s work is an occupational fascination of mine.

But it’s almost as if Lewis keeps trying to one-up himself. He’s continually finding topics that should be considered impossible to write stories about—like the birth of behavioral economics in this case—and making them interesting. He succeeds here. Again.

But what really surprised me was how fertile the soil of Kahneman and Tversky’s lives—individually and collectively—were for outright story-telling. A Holocaust survivor and war hero? Indeed, many who read this book are likely to find the personal struggles and successes of these men more inspiring than their scientific discoveries.

HINT: Lewis does, at times, delve into some pretty complex material—but never for too long. Just like that movie that loses you for a few minutes, I recommend you just keep going. It will eventually all make sense!

1) When Breath Becomes Air would likely be my number-one choice regardless of the year in which I read it. A good friend of mine, whose opinion on books and music I trust above most, handed me a copy of this book, almost struggling to release her grasp on it. Rightly so.

Paul Kalanithi’s writing is so fluid that I’m quite sure I could, as Abraham Verghese remarked in the foreword, enjoy reading his writing on any topic. But the subject matter—a brilliant, yet humble, idealist’s search to find meaning in life through a vocation consumed by death, only to face his own terminal diagnosis just as he was “arriving” in life, marriage and work—whew!

Far from morbid, though, Kalanithi shares his journey in a way that is undeniably life-giving. I recommend this book to anyone, whether they are seeking meaning in life or not, and plan to make it required reading for my sons. And I assure you that once you’ve plumbed the depths of soul searching on this level, personal finance decisions will start to look easy.

HINT: You may want to have some Kleenex nearby—but please don’t let that be a reason to avoid this book!

This commentary originally appeared December 30 on Forbes.com

By clicking on any of the links above, you acknowledge that they are solely for your convenience, and do not necessarily imply any affiliations, sponsorships, endorsements or representations whatsoever by us regarding third-party Web sites. We are not responsible for the content, availability or privacy policies of these sites, and shall not be responsible or liable for any information, opinions, advice, products or services available on or through them.

The opinions expressed by featured authors are their own and may not accurately reflect those of the BAM ALLIANCE. This article is for general information only and is not intended to serve as specific financial, accounting or tax advice.

© 2016, The BAM ALLIANCE

December is National Write a Business Plan Month. Whether you are thinking of starting a company or already have, do you have a business plan set in place? Did you say “no” or “kind of…”? Below, you can find a list of items imperative to making a plan for the success of you and your business.

1. Executive Summary. Your full business plan: the profile, mission, and steps to reach your goals.
2. Market Analysis. Research your industry.
3. Company Description. What does your company specialize in? How are you different? Who is your audience?
4. Managers and Employees. How many employees do you need? What are the processes and procedures?
5. Marketing / Sales. How will you market yourself? Do you have a logo? Business cards? Website?
6. What are you providing? What is the service or product you are selling? Go into detail to provide customers.
7. Funding.  Do you need funding to start your company? How much? Will you be able to afford the loan payments?
8. Projections. What are your 1 yr, 3yr, 5yr and 10yr goals? What do you plan to earn, spend and profit? Are your mark-ups in line? Do you need more or fewer employees?…

Estate planning is one of the most technical—and terrifying—topics in the broad practice of wealth management. It exists at the intersection of quantitative logic and qualitative feelings, and it evokes the types of emotions that we instinctively avoid. Anxiety, fear, loss, sadness, hopelessness.

“I don’t have the words. Praying. Anything at all, we’re here for you.”

What else do you text the father, a good friend, who I’d just learned had lost his 17-year-old son the previous night?

I’d spent the previous hour hearing the news, breaking down, sharing the news with my wife and then my sons, breaking down, calling other parents who’d want to get to their kids before they learned in the middle of class, breaking down.

No, a text won’t do. Not in this case, not in this moment. They only live a few blocks away. So began the most painful walk my wife and I have undertaken, to a front door that we didn’t want to open, to see the face of a father and mother still stunned by the worst news a parent can receive.

Thus, we were initiated into a holy cycle of hugging, crying, story-telling, laughing and loving that culminated with a service—the day before Mother’s Day—celebrating Logan Janik’s life, as over 800 family and friends graduated into a new, dimmer reality.

Throughout this cycle, as I grew to know Logan much better through the intersecting narratives, the pervasive thought that stuck was that this young man had left more of a legacy in 17 short years than most leave after a statistical lifetime.

And no, these are not the mere musings of a mourner struggling with recent loss. Logan lived his life embodying a few commonly known but uncommonly exhibited traits that, if emulated, would help all of us live a life worthy of a legacy:

First, he made a habit of sharing his self-confidence with those who might lack it. Logan was a six-foot-two, 210-pound athlete with an enviable head of hair and an inimitable smile—the first word that came to mind both as his most memorable feature and the expression he most often inspired.

When my son first stepped foot on the campus of what has now become his high school—attended by over 4,000 students—he was an unsure eighth grader attempting to make the JV lacrosse team. I have no doubt that his attempt was successful in part thanks to Logan, then a seasoned sophomore, who insisted on driving my son to and from practice.

This rhythm continued as my son began his freshman year—Logan’s junior year—causing my wife and I to wonder, “What 11^th-grader risks his popularity on an unrelated freshman?” But unlike most of us, even as adults, Logan didn’t see his personal confidence and credibility as an exhaustible resource. He spent it freely, not choosing to invest it only in those who’d provide a relational ROI, but more so in those who really needed it.

Second, Logan spoke words of affirmation. Such words can feel empty when actions don’t coincide, but there was no such incongruence here. For instance, my son wasn’t the only freshman beneficiary of Logan’s encouragement—another young man remembered Logan’s final words to him when, picking him out of a crowd, he simply said, “You’re my favorite goalie.”

In an age where so many affirmations come in the form of “Likes” worth little more than the click they require, a single, timely, genuine word of encouragement can buoy us when we fail and shape us when we succeed.

Finally, Logan extracted a redeeming reality out of circumstances that would waylay most. More succinctly, he was a glass-half-full kid who chose to find the best in both people and situations.

Of his passions in life, lacrosse may have been the foremost. But despite being an imposing athlete and an ideal teammate, he didn’t always make the team he tried out for, especially at his 4,000-student high school. “He handled it better than I did,” his father told me, when he missed the final cut for varsity.

We would all be disappointed, as Logan was, but our natural tendency is often to cast external blame and protect our vulnerability through embitterment. Logan did neither, and in retrospect, it also gave him the opportunity to play his final season of lacrosse alongside his younger brother, celebrating another high school league championship together just days before Logan’s passing.

Helping came naturally to Logan—but it doesn’t to most of us. We live in a time and place where crafting our individual narrative and boosting our resume is sadly very much a part of adulthood. The perception machine is always cranking, and the very design of “friending” and “connecting” is to pad our own stats and build our own credibility.

Spending time, effort, and social or professional capital, therefore, is seen as the domain solely of the untouchable philanthropist who has acquired more than it appears possible to spend in multiple lifetimes.

“I’ll give back when [fill in the blank],” seems a sensible refrain. But Logan’s example reminds us that our “when” may never come, and that we do not have to wait on an estate to build a legacy. Material riches are not required to make an investment in time or influence.

But if altruism isn’t enough motivation, there’s also a pragmatic case to be made. Helping others—without any expectation of reciprocity—is an entirely valid strategy for those (read: most) of us who are still in the accumulation phase of building a meaningful life, personally and professionally. Indeed, it is the premise of Adam Grant’s book, Give and Take: Why Helping Others Drives Our Success, and the inspiration for his weekly productivity routine:

I try to start every week with three things that I want to accomplish that I care about. And then three ways that I want to help other people. And that’s the compass for the week. I’ll plan my whole schedule around those things.

As I’ve been stumbling my way through Logan’s loss, I found myself asking a question about the equity of my accomplishment/helping ratio:

How much more of an impact could I have if I followed through on my best intentions, specifically relating to helping, affirming and building-up others versus striving toward my own accomplishments?

Would you consider asking the same question?

Consider allowing yourself, as I have been, to be humbled and inspired and challenged by a kid, an “old soul,” whose legacy will extend long beyond his life.

In loving memory of Logan Michael Janik: December 6, 2001 – May 7, 2019

This commentary originally appeared October 19 on Forbes.com

By clicking on any of the links above, you acknowledge that they are solely for your convenience, and do not necessarily imply any affiliations, sponsorships, endorsements or representations whatsoever by us regarding third-party Web sites. We are not responsible for the content, availability or privacy policies of these sites, and shall not be responsible or liable for any information, opinions, advice, products or services available on or through them.

The opinions expressed by featured authors are their own and may not accurately reflect those of the BAM ALLIANCE^®. This article is for general information only and is not intended to serve as specific financial, accounting or tax advice.

© 2019, The BAM ALLIANCE^®