When we invest, to be successful over the long term, we can’t just rely on buying the “right ETFs”.

In fact, the longer I’ve been investing, the more I’ve realised that 90% of investing success has to do with our psychological behaviours rather than what we actually buy. The buying part is relatively simple. It’s the discipline and consistency that comes after that’s tough.

That’s because we are human and innate biases run through each and every one of us. It’s normal (so don’t be ashamed of it!) but what makes us better investors over time is the ability to recognise these biases and limit the potential damage they can inflict on our portfolio.

Beyond that, we have our own relationship and dynamic with money to contend with. How we were brought up with money, how we viewed money and how we interact with money now. These all come into play in terms of how we invest.

One of the most fascinating things I find about money dynamics are the concepts of the “abundance” and “scarcity” mindsets.

Now, these don’t need to be specifically about how we spend/not spend money because they are actually applicable to other parts of our financial life – particularly investing. 

As you can see above, in short abundance tends to mean seeing the glass “half full” while scarcity translates to seeing the glass “half empty”. In investing, the abundance mindset allows us to focus on what could go right.

Too often, as investors (particularly when we see markets at, or close to, all-time highs), we focus on what can go wrong. That’s understandable. The headlines out there scream “recession” or “crash” because that makes for good news and attracts eyeballs.

Crashes and recessions are also part and parcel of investing. We have to accept that they’re totally normal. But talking about the world progressing and companies becoming more profitable over time is a dull scenario yet it’s exactly what’s happened during the past 120 years.

Stock markets grind higher over time and – to be successful longer term – we have to maintain a somewhat optimistic outlook if we want to stay invested in global equities.

That’s because, at the end of the day, investing is a long-term belief that our world will advance and we’ll benefit from that.

It’s so important to keep that bigger picture in mind when we do invest our money. It’s not for short-term gain, unless you’re trading and, in that case, you should have a separate pot of capital for that.

Of course, having a scarcity mindset doesn’t necessarily spell doom and gloom for other parts of our life.

Scarcity can be useful for things like saving and avoiding excessive lifestyle creep but it’s much more critical that we harness the best aspects of both the abundance and scarcity mindsets. By doing this, we can grow as both an investor and as someone who interact with our finances every day.    

When talking about air miles credit cards, there’s always a lot of discussion around which card to get to “optimise” your spending.

One area that gets overlooked a lot is actually the partner “payments network” of the bank card, so Visa, Mastercard or American Express. However, the last one (Amex) – in contrast to Visa and Mastercard – also acts as a card issuer itself.

The problem is that American Express, as a card issuer at least, tends to have terrible air miles cards in Singapore. But when it does have a decent partnership with a bank – like the DBS Altitude Amex or the UOB PRVI – my preference is always to go with the Visa or Mastercard option.

Why? Because Amex just isn’t as widely accepted as the other “big two”. Think about it. If a merchant does accept credit card, it’s nearly 100% certain it will be one or both of the big two.

Yet there are a lot of merchants who accept both Visa and Mastercard but do NOT accept Amex. If you hold one of those Amex air miles cards, that’s a foregone opportunity to earn miles on it as you’d need to find another card or just pay cash.

The main reason Amex is not supported as widely is that it charges more to merchants for processing, typically in a range of 2.5% to 3.5% of each transaction. Meanwhile, Visa and Mastercard charge less on average with their global average sitting at around 2.35%.

For small businesses operating on thin profit margins, this can be a determining factor of what cards to accept. So, the next time you get an air miles credit card (and they have an option of all three), always go with either the Visa or Mastercard option.

If you’re completely new to investing, then check out my YouTube video on understanding our risk appetite!

Subscribe and follow along as I share a weekly tip on my Tim Talks Money channel.

If you want the full step-by-step system behind the ETF cheat sheet, check out my Investing Made Simple workshop.

In it, I take Singaporeans and non-US expats through the history of markets, the psychology behind investing and how best to think about building a tax-efficient ETF portfolio via cash, CPF or SRS.

It walks you through (step by step) how to build a comprehensive portfolio, with confidence. More importantly, using broad-based ETFs is the most simple, low-stress, and low-cost way to consistently build wealth. And anyone can do it.