ICR252: Spencer Jakab, Why Smart Investors Fail

Hello and welcome to this episode of Informed Choice Radio. My guest on the show today is Spencer Jakab.

Spencer writes for and edits the “Heard on the Street” column for The Wall Street Journal and previously wrote its daily investing column, “Ahead of the Tape.”

He has also written about investing for the Financial Times, Barron’s, and Dow Jones news wires.

Prior to becoming a journalist, he was a top-rated stock analyst covering emerging markets at Credit Suisse.

His first book is Heads I Win, Tails I Win: Why Smart Investors Fail and How to Tilt the Odds in Your Favor.

According to Spencer, most of us have no idea how much money we’re leaving on the table — or that the average saver doesn’t come anywhere close to earning the “average” returns touted in those glossy brochures. We’re handicapped not only by psychological biases and a fear of missing out, but by an industry with multi-million dollar marketing budgets and an eye on its own bottom line, not yours.

In this episode, I chat to Spencer about making the transition from stock analyst to journalist, how important the cost of investing really is, steps we can take as investors to insulate ourselves from making bad decisions, the common mistakes Spencer sees investors making, and much more.

Here's my conversation with Spencer Jakab, Wall Street Journalist columnist and author of Heads I Win, Tails I Win, in episode 252 of Informed Choice Radio.