Every home should have a hedge fund

John Andrews says investing is like motoring: it’s not the vehicle that’s dangerous but the way it’s driven

Dave wins millions on the lottery, and the first thing he does is sprint down to the nearest Ferrari showroom and jump into the latest model with extra-deep bass woofers and a little fold-down table for his can of Red Bull. His mother spits out her tea with fright. ‘You’ll kill yourself!’, she screams. ‘Why don’t you buy something safer, like a Vauxhall?’ ‘Mam’, he says, ‘if I drive the Ferrari at 200 mph down the wrong side of the M1, blindfold…’ his mother starts to hyperventilate, ‘…you’re right, I’ll kill myself. But if I drive it at 4 mph in the middle of a field, nothing will happen. It’s not the car, it’s how you drive it.’ Mam goes to put the kettle on, and thinks for a while. She comes back.