The Gap We Need to Bridge

Amar Pandit , CFA , CFP

Amar Pandit

A respected entrepreneur with 25+ years of Experience, Amar Pandit is the Founder of several companies that are making a Happy difference in the lives of people. He is currently the Founder of Happyness Factory, a world-class online investment & goal-based financial planning platform through which he aims to help every Indian family save and invest wisely. He is very passionate about spreading financial literacy and is the author of 4 bestselling books (+ 2 more to release in 2020), 8 Sketch Books, Board Game and 700 + columns.

Can you guess what this headline refers to?

All right, I will give it as I don’t have the luxury of creating all the suspense.

We all know the concept of left brain versus right brain. I have always found this subject fascinating so decided to write briefly about this concept in the context of our industry/profession and the work we do. 

If you are generally analytical in your thinking, you are considered left brained. On the other hand, if you are creative, you are considered right brained. Obviously, everyone has a left and right, but I am using the terms left brained and right brained to keep this Nano simple. 

When it comes to our money and investing, investors are generally visual and emotional. In short, their right brain is far more active. However, financial professionals are analytical, and numbers driven. They are more left-brained oriented. This creates a combination of a left brained (oriented) person speaking with a right brained one. This causes a gap or breakdown in communication. This is absolutely visible during bear markets/sharp corrections and even during crazy euphoric times.

How many times have you tried explaining numbers and charts (missing the best 20 days, time in the market versus timing the market) to someone in a bear market only to realize that the person is just not getting it? Have you been frustrated with this?

The problem is that human topics are not in the comfort zones of financial professionals. They take comfort in a spreadsheet that accepts everything they say. They prefer discussing stock market and product numbers. They do the easy thing and continue to do the easy thing. 

This is the AREA where it would pay to bridge the gap between the left and the right.

 I am curious to hear what you think.