After the Bell: Should you play with your money?

I should start with an apology. Because I’m about to ask you a very personal question. One you probably wouldn’t ask a close friend. One that perhaps you might only ask your spouse.

Okay. Here’s the question:

**How often do you think about your money?**

Money has become so important to our lives, our societies, our very existence as a species. It drives us and pushes us and scares us.

Some people even think that without money, a currency of some sort, we probably wouldn’t really have the society that we recognise today.

I was thinking about all of this while looking through the results of The Purple Group on Wednesday. They own the company Easy Equities (and my compliments to whoever wrote their SENS release, it made a nice change from the professionally dry updates from almost everyone else).

In case, pretty much like me, the most you know about them is their billboard advertising, they’re the guys who allow you to trade on the stock market from your phone. Basically, it allows you to play the markets, along with share trading and investments in funds linked to gold and other commodities, while you’re pretending to work.

Their number of customers was up more than 20% in the last financial year. And obviously, they’re beginning to make some serious money.

Their CEO, Charles Savage, told The Money Show on Wednesday night that one of the reasons their trading volumes were so high was because their customers were obviously responding to what was coming from the White House.

It wasn’t just the recent war, which has not formally ended yet. It was the Liberation Day tariffs and all of the other drama we’ve come to expect from the US.

You can imagine why this happens. Like on the JSE on Wednesday, when the situation changes, you feel compelled to trade. And this drives trading volumes, particularly over the past year or so.

But there might be a real problem here.

While Easy Equities obviously wants its customers to trade as much as possible, plenty of other personal finance people, people who spend their lives planning your retirement, will probably tell you that you should invest your money wisely.

And then you should leave it alone.

Their point is that over the longer term (more than five years, really) you just cannot beat the index. If you put your money into the JSE as a whole for 20 years and leave it there, there are very few ways to beat that outcome.

Of course, things can happen. You would not want those 20 years to end on day two of a national lockdown during a pandemic.

And fund managers, professionals, will make a lot of money by looking at particular stocks with real growth potential and investing there. But your money is probably looked after by people who are better able to do that than almost anyone else.

So then, why play with your money yourself, when you could get someone else to do it?

I think part of it must come from a feeling of control. It’s your money, you should be able to put it into coal stocks if you want. And you should be able to it NOW! With a tap on your phone screen.

After all, that same tap allows you to make calls, move money on your banking app and, to a large extent, control the rest of your life.

Why not your retirement too?

I think there is another aspect to it. One that is also used by the online gambling people.

When you watch a cricket match, and you’re absolutely convinced your team is better than the other, you want to be involved.

There you are, on your couch in front of the biggest TV you can get hold of, a chilled beverage conveniently placed, almost wishing you were the one with the helmet and the willow and the feel of the pitch beneath your feet.

When you gamble on that last ball you’re not just a watcher, you’re a player.

I wonder if it’s the same with Donald Trump.

The line between reality TV for entertainment and actual politics and war has become so blurred in the past few years that it can feel like a game we should all be playing.

So, for example, when Trump says something insane, it must be fun to play the market, to literally, by touching your phone, be a part of the action.

And it must feel like everybody else is doing it.

As Reuters reported last night, someone made a fortune betting $950-million that the oil price would drop hours before Trump’s announcement of the ceasefire with Iran.

It’s become common to see this reporting, where mysterious traders make a fortune because they clearly had prior knowledge of what was going to happen.

The point is, if you can see other people who are making money by playing the game, why not play it too?

But is it healthy to “play” with your money? While Savage will tell you his customers are getting a higher return than anyone betting the index, I’m still not convinced.

While I talk about money all the time, I don’t know that I’m that interested in thinking about my own money all the time.

How about you? DM