A couple of weeks ago I had a discussion with my financial advisor about my retirement accounts that seem to be going nowhere. Though I am investing a thousand dollars a month in one of those accounts the returns have left a lot to be desired. As we looked closely at the account it was fairly easy to see the problem was essentially one money losing mutual fund. My emotions were telling me to sell my entire position in that underperforming mutual fund and reinvest it into a better performing one. Makes sense, right? But, my advisor advocated a different point of view. His message was simple, “don’t follow the crowd”.

Now that I have reached fifty years of age, I have become more more reflective about the financial decisions that my wife and I have made over the years. We’ve made some good ones for sure. We purchased our first two homes while we were still in our twenties. We’ve amassed multiple hundred thousand dollars in retirement savings. Outside of our mortgages, we carry little debt. And, we have a decent amount of money in emergency savings. We’re proud of those things.

But, we have also made some major money gaffes over the years that have diminished our current financial standing. We sold our first house in a major metropolitan market to just break even without even considering the possible benefits of renting it out. We purchased new cars and to make matters worse in one case even financed one for six years with an insane interest rate—that was crazy. On multiple occasions in our early years, we borrowed money out of our retirement account. I could go on. But, the point is that we’ve made many errors, large and small, when it comes to financial acumen.

So, when my current financial advisor said “don’t follow the crowd”, I wanted to hear him out. Ultimately, I decided to follow his advice. I will not add new money to this disappointing fund. But, I will resist the impulse to sell when others sell. I will maintain my wits about me and stick to my diversification strategy. I won’t follow the crowd.