“Mom, I’m thinking of buying GameStop stock—what do you think?” asked my 28-year-old novice-investor son, Peter, on a recent January morning. “I’ve been reading about it on Reddit, DFV and I think there is an opportunity there.”

My boys have always loved GameStop. I remember taking them at midnight for game releases when they were tweens. But that was then, and this is now: “GameStop?!” I replied. “No way, that’s like buying Blockbuster and we all know how that ended.” After all, does anyone go into a physical store to buy video games anymore?

“I’m not comfortable even eating outdoors at restaurants,” said my husband, Peter, right after returning from a Home Depot Trip. As we have all noticed, everyone has a different Covid risk tolerance, and it’s frequently inconsistent. It’s much the same with risk tolerance when considering investments and asset allocation. In both, personal comfort isn’t all that matters and often an expert opinion, as well as historical research, can save someone from themselves.

“Don’t worry, Mom,” my daughter Judy chimed as I expressed concern about the wind and rain in New Orleans generated by Hurricane Laura. “Tulane says we don’t need to evacuate.” I am visiting my college freshman in the Crescent City and this is my first experience with a tropical storm of such magnitude. Having recently watched the Spike Lee series, When the Levees Broke about Hurricane Katrina, I am a little nervous.

“Ann, you’d be so proud of me!” exclaimed Fred. “I haven’t done a thing with my investments—absolutely nothing!” In fact, I was impressed. Fred is a client with a history of losing his nerve during market declines and making poor emotionally-driven investment decisions. Over the past 10 weeks, Covid-19 has made it impossible for anyone, regardless of their risk tolerance, to hold on tight and not question the markets. The fact that Fred internalized my advice and was not panic selling was remarkable.

New Delhi’s Sarojini Nagar Market. The narrow streets are thronged with young women hoping to update their wardrobes on the cheap. Most of the shops cater to them, but a few “gents clothing” shops have managed to carve out a space in the market as well. As I approach a store with a few racks out front and begin flipping through the shirts a young attendant approaches and says something to me in Hindi. I don’t understand him, but instead pick out a shirt and ask him “yo kitne kya hai?” (How much is this). He tells me its 100 rupees, about $1.50. I switch to English to ask him if they have it in a bigger size. He seems startled, but shows me the same shirt in other sizes. As I go to hand him 100 rupees for the shirt, he smiles and says “No sir, this one is 400 rupees, sir.” I angrily reply that he just, less than a minute before, told me they cost 100. “No sir, actually I meant 400.” It seems he remembered the item’s price only after coming to realize that I was a foreigner.

"Ann, I did everything laid out in my plan and I’m not as far ahead as I would like," lamented my client Ross the other day. This contrasted completely with my meeting with Sylvia earlier in the week where it was I that was aggrieved, "Sylvia, you didn't do anything that I laid out in your plan last year!" To which she retorted accurately, "Yes—that’s true, but I did great financially anyway."

“Ann, it's great to see you!” exclaimed Sally as she burst into my office for her annual review. Like many of my clients Sally enthusiastically gives me credit for the past year's financial markets performance. I first did Sally’s plan 9 years ago and she has been this effusive whenever we have our check-in meetings. Although I’d like to take personal credit for the financial markets performance since 2009, I usually spend the first 30 minutes of our time together explaining to her why I’m no genius.

“Arghhhh,” I head from the basement as I puttered around my kitchen on Sunday morning.

“What about rising interest rates and the growing deficit?” asked Sue, a retiree, in a panicked tone of voice at a recent investment club meeting. “Isn’t anybody worried about these things? I am!” The other members of the club listened but were nonplussed.

The financial experts know a lot more about the markets and how the markets will perform in the future than the ordinary rest of us.  Right?