Conor Riley – Don’t Throw Good Money After Bad Money

<p><strong>BIO:</strong> Conor Riley is a global executive who has worked in investment banking, private equity, and consumer products.</p><p><strong>STORY:</strong> Conor heard about the Washington Mutual stock from his workout buddy. He invested without doing any research. The stock price dropped significantly when the global financial crisis hit in 2008. Conor thought it was best to buy more. The price never went up. The company finally went under. Conor lost 70% of his net worth.</p><p><strong>LEARNING:</strong> Don’t have more than 8% of your portfolio in a single thing. Do your own research. If an investment is going wrong, get out as quickly as you can.</p><p><strong>&nbsp;</strong></p><blockquote class="ql-align-center"><strong>“My rule of thumb right now is don’t have more than 8% of your portfolio in any one thing.”</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center">Conor Riley</blockquote><p>&nbsp;</p><h2>Guest profile</h2><p><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/conor-riley-ceo/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><strong>Conor Riley</strong></a> is a global executive who has worked in investment banking, private equity, and consumer products.</p><p>He served as CEO, Principal, and other key roles while leading <a href="https://www.globalcapitalmarkets.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Global Capital Markets</a> and <a href="https://www.luxiebeauty.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Luxie, Inc</a>, and funds over a 20-year career.</p><h2>Worst investment ever</h2><p>Conor would spend a lot of time at the gym working out. One of his gym buddies started talking about some good stocks paying good dividends and how one could maximize their income risk-aversely. Conor was listening to this talk between reps thinking this was great.</p><p>He did zero research beyond what the gym guy told him. He’d never invested in the stock market, so he didn’t know anything.</p><p>Conor went ahead and invested in the Washington Mutual stock in 2007. This was the only stock he wanted