This topic is not probably a useful investment post, or something that might have been discussed already. I though felt it would be good to discuss this on a forum where I would probably find the most amount of people in a similar world and from the same society, dealing with or having probably dealt with similar dilemmas.
As an investor, over time and hopefully with the right discipline and knowledge, we can probably have a reasonable degree of success. I am sure at current levels, most long term investors would be looking at their portfolios with a sense of certain pride, as even though we might be close to highs (who knows!) but on this day things seem good and decisions seem apt.
My query comes more from a psychological perspective, and especially from the background of living in Indian society where equities and investing are greatly misunderstood in my opinion.
Unfortunately the nature of stocks and lack of financial education, makes several people in society around us, be it friends or family whose opinions might matter, probably not credit our work and research credibly. I have often been in a position where people doing far less profitable work, or things like starting businesses but projecting them highly, often get way more respect and adulation than investing in stocks. For some reason, I get the feeling in several conversations that stocks are equated to be close to gambling by a very large percentage of society, and investing gets no where near the respect it deserves.
Socially, a real estate investor can display properties, an art aficionado can display art, a start up founder can display a company website or products, but you rarely see even the most successful investors talking about/displaying portfolios. I know that is a true sign of wealth, and how being rich and wealthy are 2 different things, but living in understatement is not the easiest especially if one feels genuinely successful.
I would hence if possible, ask community members for advice and any nuggets that can be shared to deal with these aspects better, including:-
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What do you tell people you do, if you largely spend time on investment/research/trading? If you mention something else, does it justify the success you have to peers versus your investments?
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India is a society characterised by a high level of people showing wealth. Most great investors advise frugality and rightly so. But how does it feel to have done that for long? (Being frugal is not easy if the world sees it)
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Investors at least for me are a rare commodity to meet, I see this as a quiet world working hard behind the incredible market graph in probably amongst the most intellectually stimulating profession. How do you build a social circle that values that rather than where it is not understood?
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Any resources or books (say on psychology?) that can help understand how to handle this better?
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Earnings is probably in a lot of our thought processes and way of being doing what we do. But do we over estimate the importance of profits and earnings in life? Is public image more important or the bottom line? Even the market strangely seems to be valuing Elon Musk higher than Bill Gates ironically!
It has been fantastic to have gained so much knowledge about stocks from this community. This post is a bit unlikely and personal, so would request administrators to delete the same if violating forum norms.