Beyond the Market

Everyone wants to make money in the stock market. Until the stock market starts falling.

Suddenly, the same people who claimed they were investing for the next 20 years are wondering whether they should sell everything.

With AI stocks like Nvidia and Meta falling and fears of a stock market crash growing, which enevitable means that some investors are panicking. But here's the reality, if a few bad days in the market make you question your entire investment strategy, you might not be as prepared for long-term investing as you think.

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I explain what I actually do when markets fall, drawing on 15 years of investing and my own experiences of watching thousands of pounds disappear from my portfolio.

We'll explore why intelligent investors make terrible decisions during market downturns, why trying to time the market often backfires, and why doing absolutely nothing can be harder than buying or selling.

Because building wealth isn't just about making money when markets rise. It's about what you do when they fall.

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I used to think I was too smart to invest in index funds. I had a maths degree, worked in finance and spent years reading investing books. Surely I could do better than simply buying the market?

As it turns out, that mindset was one of my biggest investing mistakes.

In this week's episode of Beyond the Market, I'm sharing how my obsession with picking individual stocks, researching companies and trying to beat the stock market actually stopped me from investing.

We explore why intelligence doesn't necessarily translate into investing skill, why professional fund managers struggle to outperform the market, and why buying low-cost index funds can be surprisingly difficult for ambitious, intelligent people.

I'll also explain how I overcame my ego, changed my investment strategy and learnt that building long-term wealth doesn't have to be complicated.

If you're trying to build your first £100,000 investment portfolio but find yourself constantly researching stocks, waiting for opportunities or overthinking your next investment, this episode might change how you approach investing.

Sometimes the smartest investing decision is to stop trying to be clever.

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Charlie Munger famously said that the first $100,000 is the hardest. But nearly 30 years later, is that advice outdated? Should your first investing milestone now be $200,000 or even $250,000?

I think everyone making that argument is completely missing the point.

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I dig into what Charlie Munger actually said about building your first $100,000, the famous quote that he may never have said and why I still believe everyone should aim for their first £100,000 invested.

The internet loves to argue that Munger's figure needs adjusting for inflation. But it was never about the exact dollar amount.

I'll explore why accumulating your first meaningful investment portfolio is so difficult, the behaviours that Munger believed were essential to building wealth, and why compound returns become increasingly powerful as your portfolio grows.

I'll also share my own experience of reaching £100,000 invested and the mistakes I made along the way.

Your first £100,000 isn't the finish line. It's the foundation for everything that comes next.

And that's why I think Charlie Munger's message is just as relevant today.

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Why has having no money become something people are almost proud of?

This week’s episode of Beyond the Market is a rant about one of the strangest money mindsets I keep seeing online: people joking about having no money.

People are happily annoucing they have 10p left in their bank account, spending everything they earn, and treating being “bad with money” as completely normal.

At the same time, say you’ve built £100,000 invested, kept six months of expenses in cash, or simply managed to accumulate wealth, and suddenly the reaction changes to “Lucky you.” “You must have inherited it.” “Must be nice.”

That mindset is completely weird to me .

This episode is not about people who are genuinely struggling to make ends meet. It is about the people who earn decent money, spend it all (often to look rich), then act as if saving and investing are somehow impossible.

I talk about the obsession with looking rich rather than being rich, why visible consumption feels so rewarding, and why boring, invisible wealth building rarely gets the same social approval.

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Why are so many people in the UK still scared of investing?

After one of my recent social media posts went viral, I was flooded with comments saying investing was gambling, that I wanted people to lose their money, and that keeping cash in the bank was the safer option.

To me that reaction says a lot about how investing is still viewed in the UK.

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I look at why millions of people are comfortable saving money but never make the step into investing, despite having long-term financial goals.

We look at FCA data showing that millions of UK adults hold significant amounts of cash without investing, why so many people never even consider the stock market, and the contradiction between being afraid of investing while already investing through a workplace pension.

I also explore where these beliefs come from, including family, financial education, property, generational differences and the stories we hear about people losing money.

One the biggest things that this highlights is that financial education in this country leaves a lot to be desired, with misinformation a huge problem.

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The UK State Pension is going to be worth more than £13,000 a year for the first time.

This has made quite a lot of noise this week, with people talking about pensioners paying tax or intergenerational fairness.

But I think that actually misses the bigger point. This is a moment to think about investing and how much you'd need invested to comfortably withdraw £13,000, as that will shock you.

Because if £13,000 a year doesn’t sound like enough to fund the retirement you want, the important question is how much do you need and what would you need invested to generate that income yourself?

Using the 4% rule as a simple retirement planning framework, generating £13,000 a year would require roughly £325,000 invested.

Suddenly, aiming for your first £100,000 portfolio doesn’t sound quite so big.

I break down the 4% rule, why £100,000 should be viewed as a major milestone rather than the finish line, and how to work backwards from the lifestyle you actually want.

I also explain why I prefer to think about retirement as a number rather than an age and why building your own invested assets gives you more control over when and how you eventually stop working.

If you’re building your first £100k invested, planning for retirement or wondering how much money you actually need invested, this episode will help put those numbers into perspective.

Make sure you follow @anthonycotterfinance on Instagram and TikTok.

When you see a billionaire investing millions into a start-up, cryptocurrency, property or the next big technology, it is easy to assume they know something you don’t.

But that headline usually tells you very little about how they actually built their wealth.

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I look at the billionaire family behind LEGO and their investment into plastic recycling, and why copying the most interesting part of a wealthy person’s portfolio can be a huge mistake.

I explain why the size of an investment means very little without understanding the rest of the portfolio, why a tiny speculative position for one investorcan be an enormous risk for another, and why your ability to take investment risk changes dramatically as your wealth grows.

I also share how I think about building an investment portfolio as a pyramid, creating a strong foundation first, before moving into individual stocks, property, private businesses, start-ups, crypto and other higher-risk investments.

The boring part of your portfolio might not make the headlines, but it is often the part doing most of the work.

If you are building towards your first £100,000 invested, this episode is about focusing on the foundation before chasing the interesting stuff.

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Investing is boring. And that kind of the point.

In this week's episode of Beyond the Market, I explain why a boring investment portfolio isn't something you need to fix and why constantly searching for something more exciting can actually make it harder to build long-term wealth.

I look at why so many people associate investing with trading, stock picking and constantly watching markets, and how that expectation can push investors towards unnecessary risk. I also share a real example from the COVID investing boom, where bought into the hype then went from boom to bust.

We also look at what actually matters when you're building your first £100,000 invested, which is the boring stuff, how much you invest, how long you stay invested and whether you can stick with your strategy.

I explain why compounding feels painfully slow at first, why respectable stock market returns can seem underwhelming, and why repeatedly changing your investment strategy can interrupt the very process you're relying on to build wealth.

Your portfolio doesn't need to entertain you.

It's job is to fund the life that you want to lead.

Why haven’t you started investing yet?

For most people, it isn’t because they don’t understand that investing can help them build long-term wealth. Instead, there are a handful of barriers that keep them waiting for the “right” moment.

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I break down four of the biggest reasons people put off investing, the fear of losing money, feeling like they don’t know enough, believing they don’t have enough money to start, and convincing themselves they’ll invest later.

Drawing on 15 years of investing experience and over a decade working professionally in finance, I explain why investing doesn’t require perfect knowledge, why volatility is different from permanently losing money, and why starting with £100 can matter far more than it initially appears.

I also look at the cost of waiting and why intelligent professionals can fall into the trap of turning investment research into procrastination.

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Is investing in individual stocks stupid?

That is the argument I keep seeing across personal finance social media. And while I agree that most people probably should not be picking individual stocks, I completely disagree with the idea that stock picking itself is "stupid".

In this episode of Beyond the Market, I explain why investing in individual companies is far harder than most people realise. I've been investing for 15 years and work in finance, so I know first hand.

We look at what actually goes into analysing an individual company, how much research professional investors undertake before say "yes" because most of the time you do teh research to a point where you say "No".

Even experienced fund managers struggle to consistently outperform the market. They have teams of analysts, access to information and management, which individuals don't have. And spending an hour scrolling through Reddit to find bargains isn't going to be a strategy long term.

Finally, I explain why I still invest in individual stocks myself and why that does not mean I think everyone else should.

If you are building your first £100,000 invested and wondering whether to choose individual stocks, ETFs or index funds, this episode will help you understand the trade-offs.

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