The "Newsiest" Year in Recent History

T H O U G H T S F O R T H E W E E K

The digital world alters how we receive and process news. Online media outlets, social networks, and mobile newsflashes throw more content our way than any combination of print newspapers ever could. New York Times columnist Farhad Manjoo recently described 2017 as “…the newsiest year in recent history.”

So is more news better? Or have digital conveniences encouraged unnecessary, excessive, and worse news coverage? It may be that speed and quantity are sacrificing accuracy and depth.

Manjoo’s frustrations with 2017’s record-breaking news-fest led him to unplug from the digital world for the first two months of 2018. He shared his experience in an article titled “For Two Months, I Got My News from Print Newspaper. Here’s What I Learned.”

For two months, the author unsubscribed from digital news sources and signed off of social media. Just a person and print copies of The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The San Francisco Chronicle.

His experience was life changing. “Turning off the breaking-news machine…” says Manjoo, “…was like unshackling myself from a monster who had me on speed dial, always ready to break into my day with half-baked bulletins.” He feels less anxious, has more free time, and more informed.

Three short “instructions” were clear to Manjoo: Get News; Not too quickly; Avoid Social. If the cadence of these instructions sounds familiar, it’s because they were inspired by author Michael Pollan’s nutrition advice: Eat Food; Not too much; Mostly Plants.

Get News: Seek information not opinions. Hard, yes, but not impossible. Read fewer articles with more depth and avoid looking for news that supports or caters to personal beliefs.

Not too quickly: Misinformation is a problem in the 24 hour news network – slow down to reduce confusion. “Real life is slow; it takes professionals time to figure out what happened, and how it fits into context. I was getting the news a day old, but in the delay…hundreds of experienced professionals had done the hard work for me.”

Avoid Social: Social media may not be the problem, but it exacerbates the problem. Tweets and posts are designed to be concise, easily parroted and spread virally. Here, commentary often precedes facts, and Manjoo encourages us to source our news elsewhere.

Stock market prices and other economic data get wrapped up in this fast-paced, digital news world. Investors are bombarded with more financial information today than at any other time in our careers. Unfortunately, this can encourage people to make important, long-term financial decisions based on short-term, fleeting information. Like Pollan and Manjoo, we offer three short instructions to help make long-term decisions in a short-term world: Get a plan. Not too demanding. Avoid mistakes.

Get a plan: Develop a long-term financial plan - a thoughtful strategy that maps how and when you expect to achieve a goal in the future. Avoid the current financial media “obsession of the moment.”

Not too demanding: Your strategy shouldn’t demand constant attention. Don’t worry too much about how your investments perform over short periods of time and trust, relying instead on the long-term plan you’ve created. Revisit and revise your plan as needed, but the news on any given day is highly unlikely to warrant a change.

Avoid mistakes: Successful investing is less about making brilliant decisions and more about avoiding big dumb ones. Stay calm when the stock market goes haywire; remain disciplined when things seem too good to be true; and never risk the things you have and need to get things you don’t have and don’t need.

These lessons encourage less frequent, but more in depth thought. The financial media caters to the short-term, reacting quickly to fleeting information – this should not be your concern. Your long-term financial goals are highly unlikely to be impacted by today’s news, and much more likely to be impacted by consistent, sound decision making over the long arc of time. When it comes to nutrition, news, and financial advice, speed and quantity might just be overrated.

Enjoy your reading and your weekend,

Mike, Cate, Scott, Marina, Zack, Julia and Willis

Private Wealth Advisors

Mike Burbank, Managing Director Wealth Management

Scott Hafeli, CFA

Zack Schiller, CFP

Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management

555 California Street, 14th Floor | San Francisco, CA 94104 Office: 415 576 3131

Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/07/technology/two-months-news-newspapers.html

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The Burbank Hafeli Group at Morgan Stanley Private Wealth Management is focused on serving the investment and financial planning needs of the founders of food, beverage, and consumer products companies and private equity and investment banking professionals. Mike Burbank was recognized as one of the Top 400 Advisors in the United States by the Financial Times in 2013 and 2014. Scott was also recognized as one of the Top 400 Advisors in the United States by the Financial Times in 2015. https://www.morganstanleypwa.com/the.burbank.hafeli.schiller.group

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