Welcome to the Bigger Pockets Money Podcast, finance Friday edition, where we interview Zoe and talk about how to invest for the future.

The tool I would recommend there for you is a one-page investment philosophy.

And I think that to put that together, you have a lot of homework to do, because the investment philosophy follows you for a long period of time.

And you've got to make some hard choices when you get into that.

If you would come in and said, I believe in Google, Amazon, Facebook for these reasons, and I have these stocks, I think that over 30 years, they're going to do phenomenally well.

And I'm ready to ride the ups and downs that come with investing in tech stocks in good times and bad. That'd be totally fine. That's not your viewpoint.

You're like, I invested in them because they were the top of listed Robinhood. And now that they're down, I want to pull out.

That means that that philosophy is not yet developed.

Hello, hello, hello. My name is Mindy Jensen, and with me, as always, is my forward-thinking co-host, Scott Trent.

That was a new introduction for the future, Mindy.

That was terrible. Whatever. We'll just keep going.

They can't all be winners, Scott. Scott and I are here to make financial independence less scary, less just for somebody else to introduce you to every money story because we truly believe financial freedom is attainable for everyone, no matter when or where you're starting.

That's right. Whether you want to retire early and travel the world, go on to make big-time investments and assets like real estate, start your own business, or come up with an investment philosophy.

We'll help you reach your financial goals and get money out of the way so you can launch yourself towards those dreams.

Scott, I am excited to talk to Zoe today because I think she's facing something that a lot of people are facing for the first time, a downward trending market.

And I want to, I really want to hammer home the thought that just because your stocks are down, just because your portfolio total value is down doesn't mean you have lost money unless you sell the stocks.

And yes, you have sort of lost money. Help me figure this out, Scott. Help me enunciate this correctly because you haven't lost money unless you sold you still own X number of shares of this individual stock or that index fund.

You just, it's just not worth as much as it was last month.

At least in the accumulation phase of building wealth, you never spend the principle. So if I invest a hundred bucks, I never going to spend it. It's just, it's just not part of my life. It's not something I consider as part of my wealth or that I can, that I'm able to access.

I'd only ever spend the returns generated by that hundred dollars, right? So the dividends, for example, or the appreciation over the long term.

But I'm going to stick with that investment for 30 years or maybe forever. It may, I may never sell the index funds that I purchase.

And so, you know, am I going to lose money? Sometimes the paper value of that will go up or down. But my, but I just keep buying.

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