5 Financial Lessons from Pokémon – Arbogast Advisers LLC

Surprisingly, Pokemon can teach us a lot about investing. The lessons we learn in Pokemon are about being persistent, determined, and hard working through adversity. Never giving up, and trusting in your team. These qualities all carry over to the investing world too. Here are my top 5 lessons I learned about investing from playing Pokemon all day. (and my mom said I needed to go outside.. This’ll show her!)

There’s always someone out there ahead of you

Gary was the worst! When professor Oak forgot his name, I always named my rival “Butt”. It was great to see, “Butt is about to use Alakazam!” and “Jaycob defeated Butt!” on the screen. What wasn’t so much fun is every time I got to a gym, the statue out front read, “Winning trainers… Butt” before I ever got there. It didn’t matter how fast I went through the Gym leaders, Gary would always beat each leader before I got there. The lesson here is to know that there will always be someone who’s ahead of you. But that doesn’t matter. It didn’t matter that Gary had already defeated the Elite Four by the time I got there, because I knew that I would beat him eventually. I did end up being the Elite Four champion, because I followed a solid strategy and I didn’t worry about Gary always being 2 steps ahead of me. When you spend all your time comparing yourself to someone else you’re not focusing on what’s really important; your saving strategy and your goals.

There’s no Rare Candy Cheat Code in the real world!

Missingno doesn’t exist in the stock market, so your rare candies aren’t going to get you to the finish line any faster here. There’s no short cut to riches when it comes to investing. Sometimes you’ll get lucky and a you’ll see huge returns in a short period of time. Just like sometimes you’ll get lucky and catch a Mewtwo with a greatball. That’s an exception to the rule however, and there’s no save and reset when it comes to your investments. The slow and steady way is usually the best when it comes to planning for retirement, so don’t try to hit every ball out of the park.

An Even team is better than just one Strong Pokemon

Sure, you could beat the Elite Four with just one level 100 Pokemon, but what happens when you receive a critical hit and your one stalwart has fainted? Can your level 15 Goldeen that you only keep around to Surf handle the rest of the battle alone? Definitely not. It’s easier to win if you have 6 Pokemon all at level 60, especially if they are of different types. Why not work on all of your Pokemon’s stats and not just your Charizard? The same is true for investing. Sure, it’s possible to strike it big with just one stock, but that’s not the best way, nor is it a likely way to succeed. Spend your time on all of your stocks or mutual funds, make sure each one is exactly what you’re looking for.

Gotta catch ’em all!

Professor Oak always wanted to you to catch every pokemon there was. And investing is no different. No, you shouldn’t be trying to buy every stock there is in the whole world, but having a lot to choose from can be a big help. Keep putting money into your portfolio throughout your whole life. If you make a commitment to continuously put money into savings every month or every quarter you’ll grow that savings before you know it. In the finance world, we have a concept called “diversification.” That means you want to have a broad selection of investments to choose from, because if one of them goes down in value, (or one of your Pokemon faints) you’ll still have at least a few others you can fall back on for support.

Sometimes you need a little help.

Whether you traded Pokemon with your friends to get them to evolve, or you dropped off your level 5 Magikarp at the daycare to get a Gyarados faster, you don’t want to try and beat the game all by yourself. You’re going to want some help from a friend or a professional. Sometimes a friend can offer some good advice to help you improve your portfolio. Sometimes it makes sense to hire a financial planner to help you manage your portfolio. Either way, don’t feel like you need to do everything alone. If you’re uncomfortable with managing your finances alone, contact a professional, or just ask your friends for some suggestions. You don’t have to commit to anything if you don’t like their advice, but at least you have somewhere to start.

Those are the top 5 tips we can learn from Pokemon. Hope you found that fun to read. If you want some more finance tips, feel free to contact us at www.arbogastadvisers.com/contact-us/ We’d be happy to help out. (Also if anyone wants to trade, I’m still trying to trade my Haunter to get a Gengar.)