A few years ago, I turned $50k into $1.7 million in the stock market. It wasn’t luck; it was a combination of research, timing, and the kind of guts that only beginners seem to have. At first, I couldn’t believe it—watching my portfolio grow felt surreal. I started imagining all the things I’d do with that money: paying off family debts, upgrading my quality of life, and securing my future. For a brief moment, I felt invincible.
But then came the fatal flaw: I married the stock. I believed in it so deeply that I couldn’t bring myself to sell. Every dip felt temporary, every warning sign ignorable. “It’ll bounce back,” I told myself. “This stock is different.” Spoiler: it wasn’t.
The market corrected, and in a few months, my $1.7...