On this episode of Saving the American Dream, we’re talking about how financial media uses fear and pessimism to drive ratings and how it affects your investing peace of mind.

Whether you tune into Fox Business, CNBC or something else, their job is not to get you the highest rate of return on your money. Their job is to sell advertising, and they use fear to get more viewers.

Fear and negativity get better ratings than optimism and positivity. Fear and negativity also breed more activity in investor portfolios, and more activity inside of a portfolio creates more fees and commissions for the financial services industry in general.

So as money moves, that’s how revenues get generated for the financial companies that are primary advertisers of media websites and TV channels.

Money is the cause of a lot of anxiety for people, and a lot of that can be traced to the information that we’re absorbing from these media companies and the dysfunctional narrative that they’re providing. It’s destroying our peace of mind.

Possible market crashes are one thing media loves to talk about. But what market crashes can actually do is they can create opportunities for those with patience, courage and fortitude. Because one of the best times to buy stocks is in a crash.

Listen to the full podcast or use the timestamps below to jump to a specific section.

Navigating the Show

[2:11] – Facts about financial media

[5:52] – Money anxiety and Mark Cuban

[9:38] – Magazine covers

[13:58] – Predicting collapse

[18:03] – True bottom

[21:20] – A time to panic?

[23:45] – Checking with clients

“Fear and negativity get better ratings than optimism and positivity.”

– Michael Schulte