How to maximise your money when you can't control the markets

It may feel right now that the world is changing even faster than usual. 

The stock markets are moving quickly and fear levels are high.

RELATED: Why you should NEVER invest with the aim of making money in the short term

This is especially because people are worried about tech shares imploding, AI eradicating jobs, politicians behaving badly and low economic growth, says Galileo Capital's Warren Ingram.

All of these are real concerns, Ingram affirms. However, he points out that they are also not factors we can influence or control. 

"While I find all the AI developments fascinating.... I'm just not sure I believe all the prognosticators... They might be clever but they lose sight of one important factor - they need to remember that, as humanity, we are fantastically terrible at making accurate predictions."

So, how do we manage our money in these conditions?

The personal finance guru shares some valuable pointers.

Markets tend to create wealth... over time

One of the main reasons investors in the stock market become wealthy is time and patience, Ingram emphasizes.
If you give your investments time to grow, you have a very good chance of creating wealth.
However, few people are able to maintain patience when markets start to fall and news flow becomes scary.
Some people believe they can influence how their investments perform by anticipating events and taking action before they occur.
It is not possible to anticipate what will happen in markets, he reiterates.

What can you control?

Once you realise you cannot predict events, it frees you to manage your money differently from the rest, says Ingram.

Focus on what is within your control:

• You can control how much you allocate to shares, bonds, property and cash.
• You can control where you allocate your money, e.g., in SA or globally.
• You can try to control your emotions so that you don't get greedy when "everyone else is making money" in a sector or on an asset type that you don't understand.

• You can also control your emotions so that you don't get fearful when markets fall - they do at some point in every year!

What can you do?

Consider what you can do to save a bit more when markets fall, as you are buying at a discount, Ingram advises.
If you are retired and the markets are crashing, can you delay big purchases by a year or two, e.g, a replacement car or an overseas holiday?
If you are generally nervous about markets, you can build a larger emergency fund to protect you from unforeseen events. The aim is to remain invested, so your larger emergency fund is an emotional benefit that might save you from yourself.

And, you can stop reading or watching content from prognosticators who create anxiety for you, he points out.

Scroll up to the audio player to listen to Ingram's detailed advice