# The Most Expensive Investing Mistake

## Метаданные

- **Канал:** MeaningfulMoney
- **YouTube:** https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE
- **Дата:** 05.03.2026
- **Длительность:** 13:22
- **Просмотры:** 21,407

## Описание

Most investors think the biggest risk to their financial future is a market crash - but in this episode we explain why the most expensive investing mistake is often a quiet, recurring “behaviour gap” of around 1% a year. Using evidence from studies including Morningstar, DALBAR and the FCA, he breaks down the key behavioural biases that cause everyday investors to underperform the very funds they invest in - from performance chasing and loss aversion to overconfidence and action bias. You’ll learn practical guardrails to protect your long-term returns. 

➡️ Take the Behaviour Gap scorecard to measure your own investing blind spots and improve your investment outcomes in the UK: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/behaviourgap

#meaningfulmoney #meaningfulacademy #financialpodcast

Links mentioned in the episode:
🔗 Morningstar Mind The Gap US report - link to study: https://www.morningstar.com/business/insights/research/mind-the-gap
🔗 Morningstar Mind The Gap report - summary article: https://www.wealthmanagement.com/investing-strategies/morningstar-investors-miss-out-on-15-of-fund-total-returns?utm_source=chatgpt.com
🔗 DALBAR Quantitative Analysis of Investor Behaviour (QAIB) study - press release: https://www.dalbar.com/PressReleases/doc/2025QAIBPressRelease.pdf
🔗 Barber & Odean - Trading Is Hazardous To Your Wealth: https://faculty.haas.berkeley.edu/odean/Papers current versions/Individual_Investor_Performance_Final.pdf
🔗 FCA Occasional Paper OP66 - Playing the market: a behavioural data analysis of digital engagement practices and investment outcomes: https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/occasional-papers/op66-digital-engagement-practices-investment-outcomes.pdf
🔗 Vanguard Research: The value of personalised advice
in the UK: https://www.vanguard.co.uk/content/dam/intl/europe/documents/en/whitepapers/the-value-of-personalised-advice-in-the-uk-en-pro.pdf

Check out MeaningfulAcademy:
👉 MeaningfulAcademy - Financial Foundations: https://meaningfulacademy.com/financialfoundations/
👉 MeaningfulAcademy - Build Wealth: https://meaningfulacademy.com/buildwealth
👉 MeaningfulAcademy - Retirement Planning: https://meaningfulacademy.com/retirementplanning

🏷️ Use PROMO Code "YOUTUBE" to save on any of the courses.

🌟 Check out main YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@MeaningfulMoney

📚 Recommended Resources:
Get your copy of my latest book, The Meaningful Money Retirement Guide, packed with practical strategies to help you retire confidently: 📙 (NEW) https://meaningfulmoney.tv/meaningful-money-retirement-guide/

📝 Free Resources:
Take the quick 5 Retirement Mistakes Quiz to see how well-prepared you really are for retirement: https://scoreapp.meaningfulmoney.tv/5-mistakes

📙 The MeaningfulMoney Handbook: [http://petesbook.com](http://petesbook.com/)
The MeaningfulMoney Community (Facebook):
👉 https://meaningfulmoney.tv/community

👉 Life Insurance with LifeSearch: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/lifesearch
👉 Farewill - Discount off your Will: https://meaningfulmoney.tv/resources/wills-from-farewill

CHAPTERS:
00:00 Welcome
01:03 The Evidence       
03:40 What's Actually Going On?    
04:31 Behavioural Bias No. 1 - Performance chasing and recency bias    
05:29 Behavioural Bias No. 2 - Loss Aversion    
06:22 Behavioural Bias No. 3 - Overconfidence    
07:20 Behavioural Bias No. 4 - Action Bias    
08:51 What can we do about it?    
12:10 Conclusion    

FOLLOW ME:
✔ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/meaningfulmoney
✔ Twitter: https://twitter.com/meaningfulmoney
✔ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/meaningfulmoney.tv
✔ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/petematthew/
✔ Website & Podcast: [https://meaningfulmoney.tv](https://meaningfulmoney.tv/)

⚠️ Risk Warnings and Disclaimers

**Capital at risk. Prevailing tax rates and reliefs are dependent on your individual circumstances and are subject to change. We do not provide tax advice. Any examples used in the video are for illustrative purposes only and you may get less back than the figures shown. This video does not constitute personal advice. We do not take any responsibility for third party websites and content we may link to from this video. The information in this video is believed to be correct at the time of its production, but such information is subject to change. E&OE.**

Copyright © Meaningful Money Limited 2026. All rights reserved.
The author asserts their moral right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this channel and any video published on it.

⚠️ IMPORTANT: Please be aware that MeaningfulMoney does NOT endorse or recommend ANY people or businesses claiming to be experts in crypto or other investments. We would never recommend you any investment strategies within the comments section. Please protect yourself against spam and misleading information from fake accounts and please do not share any private or sensitive information.

📫 Leave me a comment below - I read all of them and love hearing from you!

## Содержание

### [0:00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE) Welcome

When they think about risk, most investors think that the biggest potential risk to their financial future is a market crash. But it isn't. It's a quiet, almost invisible 1% underperformance each and every year. You see, research shows that investors consistently earn less return than the very funds that they invest in. It's the same investments, but they get different results. Why the difference is behavior. Hi and welcome back to the channel. My name is Pete Matthew and I'm a chartered financial planner based here in the UK. What I want to do in this video is to give you some evidence for what has become known as the behavior gap. I want to dig into the specific behavioral biases that will screw up your future wealth and then practically give you some steps to take to minimize the impact of this issue. So stay tuned for all that and also because a little later on I've got something for you that will help you measure your susceptibility to the sorts of issues that I'm talking

### [1:03](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=63s) The Evidence

about today. Okay, let's have a look at the evidence. The idea of investors underperforming the markets isn't theoretical. It's not anecdotal. It's been measured repeatedly and scientifically. Morning Star runs an annual study called Mind the Gap. And in it they compare the return that a fund delivers with the return that investors in that fund actually receive. So it's the same funds, same markets. The only difference is the timing of cash going in and out. And they do this for 25,000 US funds and ETFs. Over the 10 years to the end of 2024, the average fund in the US delivered about 8. 2% per year. the average investor received closer to 7%. Now, that 1. 2% gap doesn't sound too dramatic, but it represents roughly 15% of the total return being lost to behavior over the 10 years. And that's mainly down to buying after strong performance and selling after weak performance. Another outfit called Dalbar, which has been tracking investor behavior for decades, finds something very similar. In strong years, investors often underperform the market significantly because they miss time, entry, and exit. In the calendar year 2024, the S& P 500 returned 25%, but the average investor only made 16. 5%. That's 8 and a half% difference. And so, the pattern is consistent. Poor timing erodess returns. Then finally, here in the UK, the financial services regulator, the financial conduct authority, looked at digital engagement and investment outcomes. And their research showed that investors using highly engaging platforms, these are the ones with more prompts, more notifications, more nudges to act, investors using those platforms experienced returns roughly 4. 8 8 percentage points worse than comparable investors on less engaging platforms. In other words, the more people interacted, the worse they did. And over time, even just a 1% annual behavior gap is enormous. On a £100,000 invested for 30 years, the difference between 8% and 7% annual return is about a quarter of a million quid. Same market, same investments, but different behavior. So

### [3:40](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=220s) What's Actually Going On?

what is actually going on here? If the research is clear that investors tend to underperform their own investments, what is causing this? Well, it's not lack of intelligence. I mean, you must be smart. You're watching this. It isn't access to information. There's obviously more information to hand now than at any point in human history. And it's not even cost usually. It's cheaper than ever to invest. What it is psychology. It's behavior. It's the way we are wired. And there are four behavioral tendencies, biases that show up again and again in the research. Just a quick reminder to like this video and subscribe to the channel if you're not already. I have been doing this a long time and there's lots of content on this channel and loads more to come. So, thank you very much in advance. Okay

### [4:31](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=271s) Behavioural Bias No. 1 - Performance chasing and recency bias

let's have a look at the four behavioral biases that keep coming up in all this different research. The first is performance chasing and recency bias. We are wired to extrapolate the recent past into the future. So when something has done well recently, it feels like a safe choice. It feels somehow validated, sensible, like a logical option. And so money flows in after strong performance. And the Morning Star research shows this clearly. Investors tend to add money following good returns and withdraw after poor returns. But the thing is markets are fairly cyclical. What's just done well often cools off and what has lagged often recovers. So, we end up buying high and selling low, not because we're foolish, but because recency feels like evidence, but it isn't. Behavioral

### [5:29](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=329s) Behavioural Bias No. 2 - Loss Aversion

bias number two is loss aversion. Losses hurt about twice as much as gains feel good. That's not opinion. That is proven behavioral science. So, when markets fall sharply, the emotional discomfort is real. It feels like danger. And our fightor-flight instinct is to reduce that discomfort and so we sell. The problem is that temporary declines then become permanent losses the moment we crystallize them. And often the strongest market rebounds happen very shortly after the worst days. Darbar's long-term work repeatedly shows that mistimed exits and delayed re-entries into the market are one of the biggest drivers of underperformance. So, it's not volatility that damages our long-term returns. It is our reaction to

### [6:22](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=382s) Behavioural Bias No. 3 - Overconfidence

volatility. Number three is overconfidence. Apparently, most of us believe we are slightly above average decision makers. Well, statistically that can't be true, can it? And a classic study by Barbara and Odian found that investors who traded most frequently significantly underperformed the market by over 6% a year. And the more active they were, the worse their results. And why is this? Well, I think it's because trading feels intelligent. It feels proactive. It feels like control and maybe even trying to get one over on the markets. But markets already incorporate vast amounts of information by the millisecond. So thinking we can repeatedly outmaneuver that system is at best misplaced optimism masquerading as skill. Remember that next time you're tempted to click on an advert on Instagram giving you a proven trading strategy. Uhhuh. And finally, behavioral

### [7:20](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=440s) Behavioural Bias No. 4 - Action Bias

bias number four is action bias. Doing something feels better than doing nothing. In most areas of life, action can solve problems, but when it comes to investing, action often creates problems. The FCA's digital engagement research is fascinating here. Investors who were exposed to more prompts, more nudges and notifications tended to trade more and they experienced worse outcomes. So more engagement leads to more activity which leads to lower returns and that should make us pause. Modern investment platforms are built to encourage interaction but interaction is not neutral. It's often actively harmful to our wealth. So, I've created a short questionnaire, a scorecard that will help you to think through and measure your susceptibility to these four biases and hence the underperformance that comes with them. It takes about 3 minutes to complete and if you're honest with how you answer the questions, you'll get some useful insight into how you tick as an investor. Also, we cover investing and behavioral economics in the build wealth course at meaningful academy. So, take the behavior gap scorecard and in the PDF that gives you your results, there's a special link to meaningful academy with a very special discount on the BuildWealth course. Head to meaningfulmoney. tv/behavior gap and that's spelled the correct way, the English way with a U in behavior or click the link in the description. So

### [8:51](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=531s) What can we do about it?

what can we actually do about all this? Well, here things get encouraging hopefully. If the behavior gap is caused by wiring and not by stupidity, then the solution isn't willpower. It's not more information. It is structure. You see, we can't eliminate these biases. They are hardwired into our humanity. So, we have to design around them. So, here are five practical guard rails that will meaningfully reduce the risk that these biases represent. Number one is to automate as much as possible. Regular monthly investing removes timing decisions. There's no should I wait or is now a good time? The money just goes in. The same goes for withdrawals. If you're in the spending phase of your life, the same goes if you're wanting to drip feed a lump sum into the market. just automate it because automation reduces opportunity for your emotions to get in the way and interfere. Number two is to simplify your portfolio. Complex portfolios just invite interference. The more moving parts you've got, the more tempted you're going to be to adjust them. A simple portfolio structure reduces decision points, and fewer decisions means fewer mistakes. Honestly, for most of us, a global equity tracker fund may be tempered with a global bond fund. That's enough. That's how I invest. Number three is to reduce how often you check your portfolio. Anybody guilty of this? The FCA's engagement research tells us something really important. More interaction tends to mean worse outcomes. So, if you check daily, you're going to experience the inevitable daily volatility emotionally. If you check quarterly, you're going to experience longerterm progress. Honestly, make it annually if you can, half yearly at most. Looking at your portfolio improves nothing. It just messes with your head. So, give yourself a break. Number four is to write down an investment policy. Honestly, this is super powerful. Before the next market fall, while things are going well, write down your chosen asset allocation, why you chose it, under what circumstances you might change it, and what you'll do when the next 30% market fall happens. Notice I say when, not if. Why does this help? Well, pre-commmitment protects you from future you by pre-thinking and codifying some stuff before the pressure is on. And finally, add some accountability. For some people, that's a professional financial advisor. Honestly, it's the biggest part of my job, coaching clients through tricky markets and doing the pre-work to make sure that those tricky markets don't get inside their heads. But if it's not an adviser, it might be just a discipline framework or it might be a spouse or an investing partner. Vanguard's research on advisor value, they call it advisor alpha. It consistently suggests that behavioral coaching, keeping investors invested and in their seats, might be the single biggest source of value that people like me can add. And so here's

### [12:10](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jQZUzlD66xE&t=730s) Conclusion

the reality, folks. Markets are volatile. That's normal, right? Human behavior is predictable because it's hardwired, but it's also really expensive. And remember, the difference between a 7% return and an 8% return over 30 years is roughly a quarter of a million pounds on 100 grand invested. And that gap, it comes from small human decisions repeated and compounded over time. So take the scorecard, be honest with yourself, and then build yourself some guard rails because the goal isn't to try and overcome our natural biases. It's to structure around them. Investment returns are what the markets give you. Investor returns are what your behavior allows you to keep. And the most meaningful gains come not from chasing more returns, but from losing less of what the markets give you. Thanks for watching. I'll see you in the next one.

---
*Источник: https://ekstraktznaniy.ru/video/45781*