I’m sure you’re looking at this headline and saying… WTF? Can we really learn something from a movie like Spider-Man 3? After all, it’s just another film that cost a boatload of money to produce, repeats previous thematic elements, plays it safe by virtue of its sequel status, and will be thrown into the trashbin of history.

All four are correct.

It also now holds the record for highest opening gross on a weekend with a $151mm domestic and a $231mm international gross, continues a streak of successes, and will prove to be the highest-grossing trilogy of all time (in absolute dollars). Oh, and there’ll be a fourth

OK. “I still don’t understand.”

The point is… that the creators, funders, and producers of this movie have built a franchise that will continue to reap profit because of the past risks that they took. They took a calculated, yet very expensive risk to produce the first Spider-Man movie and are now reaping the rewards of that plan. You should be doing the same thing in your financial lives. It’s easy to keep socking away money in your 401(k). It’s not easy to take that money and use it for some project that you think has merit. Now, I’m not espousing that you shut down your 401(k) plan, light it on fire, and ship it out to sea. There’s nothing wrong with putting money in your 401(k). There is something wrong with allocating all of your savings to relatively safe investments known as equities, fixed income, and cash. In other words, the classical diversification that “experts” talk about has a foundation that is correct, but a “building” that’s faulty.

You need to allocate money to another type of asset class, and let’s call it “personal pet projects.” Personal pet projects that have a plan, a future, and a business model. Yet their personal pet projects. Maybe it’s the purchase of some real estate, or some online machination. It doesn’t matter.

Allocate money to that asset class.

If you’re unprepared, it may be the riskiest asset class there is. If you prepare yourself, weigh the rewards versus the risk, use the example of history (Spider-Man included), you’ll find that you can earn high returns with reduced risk.

Go for it. You’ll sleep better at night