December 2013

2013 Lessons Learned

Josh Brown has a terrific piece up today at The Reformed Broker that summarizes the lessons learned in 2013 by people from all over the world of finance and media.

Books For Your New Year’s Resolution

“Simplifying is generally the strategy of people who view the world in terms of systems.” – Scott Adams Every year people make New Year’s resolutions to lose weight, save more, spend less or better their career prospects. According to Forbes, about 8% of these people actually achieve these resolutions. Tracking the drop off in traffic…

Forecasting and Your Local Meteorologist

“Recognizing that the amount of confidence someone expresses in a prediction is not a good indicator of its accuracy – to the contrary, these qualities are often inversely correlated. Danger lurks, the in the economy and elsewhere, when we discourage forecasters from making a full and explicit account of the risks inherent in the world…

John Bogle on All-In Investment Expenses

“In the short term the impact of costs may appear modest, but over the long run, investment costs become immensely damaging to an investor’s standard of living. Think long term!” – John Bogle At this point, most investors are aware of the fact that keeping your costs low is one of the most important factors…

Enough.

“Every dollar you spend is a vote for what you value in life.” – Anonymous “I like the fundamental tenets — do unto others as you would have them do unto you, try to be a good citizen, do what’s right for the people around you.” – John Bogle

Rick Ferri on Stock Losses

“There is risk, there is return and there are costs, all else is marketing.” – Rick Ferri When I get sick of music or sports talk radio on my commute into work I often like to fill that time with podcasts. My iPhone plugs right into my car radio so it’s an easy change of…