Invest Your Stock Portfolio Like You Want to Make Money, Not Like It’s Your Alter Ego.

Elon Musk did not invest in Twitter.

He SPENT $2.6B to buy a 9.2% stake after musing out loud about starting a social media network because of his love/hate (or hate/hate) relationship with Twitter. (Nice way to talk the stock down while building your stake, Elon.) Predictably the stock popped on the news, and even more when he indicated he might become an active investor and join the board. After all the Muskies finished piling on, he’d made close to 40% on his stake.

But Musk was interested in buying influence, not a return on investment.

After a bunch of back and forth and name-calling, Musk decided not to join the board (Oh, the horrors of being a fiduciary and not being able to blow raspberries at the man at will!). Throwing three billion around just to tweak Twitter management seems infantile, even if you have a couple hundred billions to spare.

Was he really serious about creating a new social media platform that played by his rules?

Who knows? It’d be more expensive and might fail. Far easier to throw money at the problem and guarantee a seat at the table. But it’s hard to imagine, given Musk’s run-ins with the SEC over his Tesla tweets, that he didn’t know having a board seat would hinder his desire to clip the Blue Bird’s wings. After the board seat brouhaha, who knows what he’s really up to?

To give Musk credit — at least he has fun with his money.

In my work with non-multibillionaires, I often find people who, like Musk, buy stocks for reasons that have nothing to do with investing. The difference is that they can’t afford to fling their money around for a vanity agenda. Your stock portfolio is a tool to build wealth. Go ahead and invest your values. If you don’t want to own a weapons maker or child labor exploiter — don’t. Your decisions may affect your returns for better or worse, but your wealth building should not be a betrayal of the soul.

But please please please do not buy a stock to create your identity.

Owning the stocks the cool kids own will not make you cool. Owning the stock of a company run by a visionary will not make you a visionary. Owning a popular stock will not make you popular. There are better ways to “stick it to the man” than buying a meme stock.

Your portfolio should cater to your investment goals, not your ego.

Photo credit: Reface