Bronze, silver or gold?

At the end of this year, the festive and solemn spirit surrounding me leads me towards philosophical and emotional reflections. And that's good because it allows me to put a lot of things into perspective. 2013 was a very good year for the stock market, without a doubt. But what does it matter, because who remembers the good and bad years year after year? It's the 'extreme' years that remain engraved in our memories, but the economic and stock market past has an unfortunate tendency to dissolve into a cloud of memories whose contours become increasingly blurred with the years that pass. Memory records much better events linked to emotional relationships, that is to say family events, friendships formed and sometimes broken, sporting exploits (or failures) where we surpassed ourselves, in short everything that touches the soul, the spirit and the other.

The stock market is such that it categorizes us into winners or losers, more by our perception than by reality: Did we beat this index? Did we do better than last year? So what does it matter if we end 2013 as the gold medalist for stock market performance? A chocolate medal is more than enough, and it too will be quickly forgotten.

An entire financial industry has been built on the inexorable human need to compare ourselves, to surpass ourselves. Let's stop playing this game, even for a few days. Let's be content to be satisfied with what we have, to have a good year behind us, while knowing that come January, the whirlwind of announcements, profit warnings and other surprises will make us live an emotional rock'n'roll... unless we really know how to take a step back and invest in a way that is not dependent on emotions, but live serenely in the conviction that what we have invested in is 'right', will survive the worst stock market roller coasters and that we are not in a situation where we need funds in the short term, in short, plan, organize and manage (but not too much, because that's when we make mistakes...). How? The means exist, we all know them, I won't insult you by repeating them. On the other hand, the application part ('Umsetzung' as they say so well in German) is the tricky part. That's why I wish you for 2014 not a favorable stock market year (yes, a little bit), but above all a peaceful year during which you will know how to put your priorities where they should be (and we all intuitively have the answer...).