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\t<\/a><\/p>\n\t \t\t 18th Mar 2026<\/p>\n I don\u2019t talk about this one as much as I should.<\/p>\n Maybe because it still makes me wince a little. Maybe because it involves a number big enough to make your stomach drop. Or maybe just because admitting you nearly lost \u00a320,000 through a combination of complacency and bad timing isn\u2019t exactly a comfortable thing to put in writing.<\/p>\n But here we are.<\/p>\n Because if there\u2019s one thing I\u2019ve learned after decades of investing, through stock market crashes, crypto rollercoasters, peer-to-peer disappointments and everything in between, it\u2019s that the mistakes are where the real education lives. And this particular mistake taught me more than almost anything else.<\/p>\n So let\u2019s talk about it.<\/p>\n Also read:\u00a03 Things I Wish I Could Tell My Younger Self About Money<\/a><\/p>\n The Icelandic bank. The \u00a320,000. The moment I kicked myself\u2026<\/p>\n It was 2007. The financial world was starting to wobble in ways that made seasoned investors nervous, though most people (myself included) didn\u2019t quite grasp the scale of what was coming.<\/p>\n I had \u00a320,000 sitting in one of the Icelandic banks. At the time, they were offering attractive interest rates and felt perfectly legitimate. Lots of people had money in them. I wasn\u2019t doing anything unusual or reckless. I was just saving, in the way that careful people save.<\/p>\n And then the banks failed.<\/p>\n I remember the sickening feeling of watching it unfold and thinking: \u201cI knew something was off!\u201d I\u2019d had a sense, a nagging voice in the back of my head, that something wasn\u2019t right. That I should move the money.<\/p>\n I didn\u2019t move the money.<\/p>\n In the end, I was fortunate. The Icelandic bank was bailed out, and savers like me got our money back. I was deeply relieved and deeply grateful. But I was also deeply annoyed with myself. Because I had felt that something was coming, and I had done nothing.<\/p>\n That feeling has never entirely left me. And honestly, I\u2019m glad it hasn\u2019t. Because it changed the way I invest.<\/p>\n Also read:\u00a0How to get started with investing<\/a><\/p>\n What fear does to an investor<\/p>\n Here\u2019s what I\u2019ve come to understand: fear is one of the two great enemies of good investing. The other is greed. Between them, they are responsible for the vast majority of bad financial decisions ever made.<\/p>\n Fear makes you freeze. It makes you hold on to something when all the signals are telling you to let go. It makes you ignore that voice in your head because acting on it would mean admitting that something is wrong, and that feels too uncomfortable.<\/p>\n I felt fear in 2007. And instead of using it as information, instead of listening to it and doing something, I let it paralyse me.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what fear does. It whispers that it\u2019s probably fine, that you\u2019re probably overreacting, that moving the money would be an overreaction. And so you stay still. And sometimes you get lucky, as I did. And sometimes you don\u2019t.<\/p>\n And then there\u2019s greed. Or rather, FOMO.<\/p>\n The other side of the coin is what happened when I got into cryptocurrency<\/a>.<\/p>\n I won\u2019t pretend I fully understood it at the start. I got interested in Bitcoin<\/a> and other cryptocurrencies around 2017, when the hype was at a deafening pitch, and it felt like everyone you spoke to had a story about money they\u2019d made overnight. That kind of noise is significant. It creates a very particular kind of anxiety- the fear of missing out, of being the only person not at the party.<\/p>\n So I put money into a few cryptocurrencies. Some of them went nowhere. And I can\u2019t say I\u2019m entirely surprised, because if I\u2019m honest with myself, I didn\u2019t fully understand what I was investing in or how it was going to generate a return.<\/p>\n There\u2019s a rule I live by now: never invest in anything you don\u2019t understand. I knew that rule. I just didn\u2019t apply it strictly enough when the excitement got loud enough.<\/p>\n The good news is that I had another rule working in my favour: never bet big on something you\u2019re not sure about.<\/p>\n I kept my crypto holdings deliberately small. So when some of them underperformed, it didn\u2019t have a huge impact on my wealth. That, at least, I got right.<\/p>\n What all of this actually taught me<\/p>\n A few things, which I\u2019ll share as plainly as I can.<\/p>\n Listen to your instincts, then act on them.<\/p>\n That quiet voice that told me something was wrong in 2007 was right. I just didn\u2019t trust it enough to do anything.<\/p>\n Now, when I get that feeling, I take it seriously. I might not always be right. But I\u2019d rather make a move and be wrong than stay still and kick myself later.<\/p>\n Keep your head when the noise gets loud.<\/p>\n Whether it\u2019s the noise of panic or the noise of hype, the loudest moments in financial markets are almost always the worst times to make decisions.<\/p>\n When everyone is selling in a frenzy, that\u2019s often when the opportunity is. When everyone is buying in excitement, that\u2019s often when the risk is highest.<\/p>\n Learn to do the opposite of whatever the crowd is screaming.<\/p>\n Small bets on uncertain things.<\/p>\n If you\u2019re not sure about an investment, if you don\u2019t fully understand it, if it feels exciting rather than logical, keep your stake small. Put in an amount you can genuinely afford to lose without it affecting your life.<\/p>\n This isn\u2019t timidity. It\u2019s wisdom. It lets you participate in opportunities without betting the house on a hunch.<\/p>\n Diversification is your best protection.<\/p>\n The reason the Icelandic bank situation was survivable, even before the bailout, was that the \u00a320,000 wasn\u2019t everything I had. It was a portion of a broader portfolio<\/a>.<\/p>\n When you spread your money across different asset classes, a single bad decision or a single piece of bad luck can\u2019t wipe you out. This is the most important structural decision any investor makes.<\/p>\n The mistakes are not the end of the story.<\/p>\n This is perhaps the most important thing.<\/p>\n Every investor I admire, every genuinely successful person I\u2019ve spoken to about money, has a story like mine.<\/p>\n Some have stories much worse than mine!<\/p>\n The difference between people who build wealth and people who don\u2019t isn\u2019t that one group never makes mistakes. It\u2019s that one group learns from them and keeps going.<\/p>\n Why I wanted to tell you this<\/p>\n
\n\t\tJasmine Birtles
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