Wear sunscreen. And invest.

I love Baz Luhrmann’s movies and am hard pressed to decide if Romeo+Juliet or Moulin Rouge is my favourite. And of course, Luhrmann’s ” Everybody’s free to wear sunscreen” – with over 22 million YouTube views – contains great wisdom and often has me reflecting on priorities.

When I asked CN&CO’s word guru, Colin, to help me work a bit on our Purple Group manifesto, he came up with the below – proving not only his brilliance (biased as I am) but also that AI is great and has many uses, but a clever writer and a human with EQ, still wins the game!

Whose financial dignity will we help secure today?

Everybody’s free to invest for the future

(With apologies to Baz Luhrmann)

If I could offer you one tip for the future, financial investment would be it.

The long-term benefits of investing have been proven by economists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience; I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of compound interest. Oh, never mind, you will not understand the power and beauty of compound interest until you see it in action. But trust me, in 20 years you’ll look back at your financial situation and recall in a way that you can’t grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how much fabulous financial potential you had.

You are not as broke as you imagine.

Don’t worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind. The kind of thing that blindsides you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Don’t be reckless with other people’s money. Don’t put up with people who are reckless with yours

Invest

Don’t waste your time on daily price moves.

Sometimes you’re ahead, sometimes you’re behind.

The race is long and in the end, it’s only with yourself.

Remember the gains you make.

Forget the losses.

If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Diversify

Don’t feel guilty if you don’t know what you want to do with your investments. The most interesting people I know didn’t know at 22 what they wanted to do with their cash. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don’t.

Do plenty of research.

Be kind to your under-performers. You’ll miss them when they’re gone.

Maybe you’ll buy ETFs, maybe you won’t.

Maybe you’ll invest offshore, maybe you won’t.

Maybe you’ll buy Satrix40.

Maybe you’ll cash in your portfolio on your 75th wedding anniversary

Whatever you do, don’t congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are risk-dependent. So are everybody else’s

Enjoy your investment journey; use it every way you can. Don’t be afraid of it or what other people think of it. Your portfolio is the greatest instrument you’ll ever own. Invest, even if you have nowhere to do it but your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don’t follow them.

Be sure to read respected business content. It will make you feel empowered.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they’ll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings, they’re your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that stocks come and go, but for the precious long-term successes you should hold on.

Work hard to balance the gaps between saving and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you’ll need the cash you wasted when you were young

Travel

Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too, will get old. And when you do, you’ll fantasise that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and investors respected the markets.

Respect the markets.

Don’t expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you’ll have a wealthy partner. But you never know when either one might run out.

Don’t mess too much with your hair or by the time you’re 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you take. But be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia; dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it’s worth

But trust me on the financial investment.

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