As doctors, we know that if your patient doesn’t buy into the treatment plan, they won’t follow it.
You can have the most evidence-based, clinically perfect treatment in the world. But if you’re dismissive of your patient’s beliefs or concerns—they’ll walk out and do their own thing anyway.
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Creating an investment portfolio works exactly the same way.
The Treatment Plan Approach
Here’s how we create treatment plans:
Start with the evidence: “Here’s what the research shows works best.”
Understand the whole person: “Is there anything from your culture or beliefs that’s important to you?”
- Herbal remedies? Acupuncture? Dietary changes? Religious considerations?
Create a plan that incorporates both: You don’t dismiss their beliefs as “not evidence-based.”
You acknowledge them as a whole person—not just a diagnosis. When people feel heard and respected, they engage with their care in a completely different way. Not because you’ve manipulated them into compliance, but because you’ve created a plan that actually makes sense for their life.
A dismissive “just do what I say” approach? They’ll disengage completely—and rightfully so.
Investing is the Same
The evidence is clear: low-fee, diversified index funds should be the foundation.
But humans aren’t robots. Investing isn’t just math—it’s psychology, emotion, and personal values.
And you might not want just ‘boring’ index funds.
I personally love boring. Life with 2 toddlers is full of enough energy, colour and drama that I don’t need any of that in my investment portfolio thank you very much.
But maybe you want to buy some Tesla on the side because you believe in their vision?
Maybe you want to check out crypto because it all sounds fascinating?
Go for it!
Many financial experts recommend allocating no more than 5-10% of your portfolio for these more speculative investments. If your “play money” investment tanks? It’s not your whole portfolio going bust. Your foundation is solid.
If your Tesla shares soar? Great! You got to participate.
If your meme coin crashes? You learned something, and it didn’t wreck your financial future.
Most importantly: you’re actually engaged instead of ignoring it entirely.
The key here is to make sure that you’re truly in a position to be ok if you did lose this money.
Do not invest money that you need in the short term into the share market. If you know you’ll need money within the next 1-2 years for things like your emergency fund, or upcoming parental leave – don’t risk it by trying to make more than you could in a high interest savings account. That money isn’t ‘extra’ – that money is essential.
Compliance Over Perfection
This is so key in medicine. Creating a treatment plan that works means:
A) You’ve educated them in simple, easy to follow language
B) You genuinely understand where they’re coming from—their beliefs, values, and constraints
C) You’ve worked together to create a plan that respects both the evidence AND their reality. Not a perfect-on-paper plan they’ll ignore, but a good-enough plan they’ll actually follow.
A good plan that the patient follows is better than a perfect plan they ignore.
Same with investing.
A mostly evidence-based portfolio that you’re engaged with? Better than a theoretically perfect portfolio you abandon at the first market dip.
A 90% index fund foundation with 10% fun money? Better than 100% sitting in a savings account because investing felt too boring.
This post is for educational purposes only and is not personalised financial advice.