Key points
- When it comes to media diets, most of us are overfed but undernourished. We consume too much noise (news, opinions, forecasts) and not enough substance (education, history, context).
- A poor media diet doesn’t just waste time—it actively harms decision-making by amplifying fear, bias, and short-term thinking.
- Better inputs drive better outcomes: cut the junk, focus on high-quality information, and think deeply about what actually matters.
The problem
By default, we consume the media that dominates most news sources: Endless breaking news, opinions and punditry, and bold predictions.
At the same time, we get very little of what actually drives investment decisions: Historical context, nuance, and relevant insights.
In other words, we are effectively eating 2,000 calories of sugar and wondering why we feel terrible.
We're not starving; we are malnourished.
Source: UBS. For illustration purposes only. Image created with Microsoft Copilot.
If your media diet is poor, it’s not your fault. Financial media is engineered for attention, engagement, and ad revenue.
Just like junk food is designed to be addictive, news and social media are built to keep you hooked. Outraged. Scared. Hungry for more content.
The hidden cost
A poor media diet doesn’t just waste time—it can actively harm us as investors.
Short-term noise tempts us to overtrade. Fear-based content pushes us to panic. Confirmation bias prevents us from learning.
Over time, this doesn’t just give us worse information—it makes us worse decision-makers.
As humans, we’re wired to worry—it’s part of what enables long-term planning. But not all worry is productive. In the wrong context, it leads to poor decisions.
The solution
Here’s the key: we don’t need more information, we need better information. More nutritious sources of information intake.
Here are some tips that may help to improve a media diet:
1. Cut the “empty information.”
If it won’t matter in a year, it's probably not worth our time.
This simple rule means that we can cut out breaking news, daily market commentary, stock-specific speculation, and most social media.
As we discussed in our recent article ( Is your portfolio "fail safe"?, published 8 June 2026), preparing for potential risks is more important than trying to predict them. If my portfolio is well-diversified—and I have a sufficient Liquidity strategy to maintain my lifestyle regardless of short-term market movements—then I can escape the trap of trying to predict markets, and focus on long-term planning and investing action items instead.
2. Replace with "high-nutrient" inputs
In the modern world, we are swimming in data, which is often just noise. Separating the signal from the noise can be an exhausting exercise, especially when consuming news sources that start with misleading or sensationalized headlines.
To combat this, we can seek to increase our consumption of content with a higher signal-to-noise ratio:
- Educational material
- Long-term historical analysis
- Historical case studies
- Personal finance content
Does this sound boring? It should.
This is an equivalent to eating your fruits and vegetables. Being informed doesn't always have to be entertaining—that's what entertainment is for!
Having a financial advisor is like having a personal chef—they source high-quality ingredients and tailor them to your needs.
Financial advisors can add a vital ingredient that no other source of information can provide: context.
At the end of the day, only information with context is actionable. And what is the point of information, if not to help make better decisions?
3. Improve how we consume information
To better digest information, it can be helpful to make a few changes to the way we consume information:
- Read fewer things, but read them more deeply.
- Take notes instead of skimming. After finishing, write yourself a note about your takeaways.
- Seek out multiple perspectives.
- Discuss with a friend or financial advisor, or with your partner.
Final thoughts
A healthier media diet can make us better investors—but it takes both diet and exercise to stay in shape.
Improve your inputs by cutting junk and adding higher-quality sources. Then “exercise” by thinking deeply about your goals, assumptions, and decisions.
Because when you understand your own objectives, it becomes much easier to filter what actually matters—and ignore everything else.
