May 2025: Temperament trumps tactics
Investors often chase the next winning move – glued to headlines, reacting to every market swing, hoping to time things perfectly.
For them, investing becomes a series of tactical decisions.
Take the recent tariff uncertainty.
Many investors scrambled to adjust their portfolios based on daily news, despite even policymakers seeming unclear on the eventual outcome.
But what if your greatest investing advantage isn’t tactical skill, but temperament?
Strategy vs tactics
Imagine your financial journey as a sea voyage.
Your strategy is the charted course – your retirement plan, education funding or legacy goals, rooted in your values and life circumstances.
Tactics are your short-term adjustments, like altering sails during a storm. While the weather (or markets) changes frequently, your destination doesn’t. Unless your personal situation changes significantly, your strategy likely shouldn't either.
Yet many abandon solid plans in favour of reactive decisions based on noise or market predictions, none of which are reliably accurate. Even economists and fund managers can’t consistently forecast short-term market movements.
The temperament advantage
Once your strategy is in place, temperament becomes your most valuable asset. Warren Buffett puts it well in the quote that concludes this newsletter.
But what does that mean in practice?
It means patience – letting your strategy unfold
It means discipline – sticking with your plan during volatility
It means perspective – accepting market ups and downs as part of the journey
Trying to make short-term adjustments during the recent tariff drama? Nearly impossible. Conditions change daily, making tactical moves guesswork at best.
Great investors accept that wealth creation is rarely smooth – it’s more like a rollercoaster. The key is staying on the ride.
Focus on what you can control
Our brains aren't wired for investing. We fear losses, seek patterns and believe we can predict the future. Managing these instincts requires emotional discipline. We can't control markets, politics or global events. But we can control how we respond.
That’s why, in uncertain times, it's better to revisit your financial plan, not the financial news.
In investing, as in life, success isn't about avoiding storms. It’s about building a ship strong enough to weather them, and having the temperament to stay the course. Your future self will thank you.
The stock markets
As a reminder, this is what stock market returns have been over the last month and 30 years.
How we helped
Temperament is one of the key factors for driving long-term investment success – Time, Temperament, Fees, Allocation and Contributions (TTFAC), which reminds us to:
invest for the long term
stay calm
watch costs
diversify wisely
invest regularly
TTFAC is also an acronym for a Transitional Tax-Free Amount Certificate. This month, we helped a client who had used over 99% of their Lifetime Allowance when they took their NHS pension several years ago. If 100% of the lifetime allowance has been used, the available lump sum allowance (LSA) is deemed to be zero.
However, we applied for this certificate and our client was able to claim another £85,000 of tax-free cash, saving over £34,000 in tax.
It’s worth noting that, once you go down the TTFAC route, you cannot go back to the standard 25% of Lifetime Allowance usage method. So, before you request one, it is critical to crunch the numbers to determine whether it will actually improve your allowances.
Quote
Warren Buffett, arguably the most successful investor of our time, famously said:
“The most important quality for an investor is temperament, not intellect.”
We hope you enjoyed this month’s newsletter. Please let us know what you liked or write back with any of your own news, or if you want more communication or reassurance about your investments.