“Even the intelligent investor is likely to need considerable will power to keep from following the crowd.” – Benjamin Graham The chart below, from Scott Krisiloff of Avondale Asset Management, shows the 15 top performing stocks from the Russell 1000 Index since 2003.
You Should Hate Some of Your Investments
“Most people get interested in stocks when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is.” – Warren Buffett “If it makes me feel like I want to throw up, I can be pretty sure it’s a great investment.” – Brian Posner I hate some of the investments in my…
Michael Mauboussin on Skill vs. Luck
When we have success in our lives we tend to attribute that success to skill or hard work. When something goes wrong and we fail, we attribute it to bad luck. Sound familiar? I know I do this all the time. It’s easier than admitting that there was some luck involved in our wins and…
Common Sense Investment Rules
“The business schools reward difficult complex behavior more than simple behavior, but simple behavior is more effective.” – Warren Buffett Just a simple post today. These are my common sense investment rules. Common Sense Rules That Will Ruin Your Investment Portfolio 1. Trying to consistently “beat the market” 2. Trying to forecast the market in…
My Advice For Young Real Estate Buyers
“What we learn from history is that we don’t learn from history.” – Benjamin Disraeli The Wall Street Journal ran an article last week chronicling the stories of young buyers who are stepping up their investments in real estate by, “skipping the starter home and betting heavily on high-end real estate.” We’ve seen this movie…
The Downside of Trying to Time the Market
“Far more money has been lost by investors preparing for corrections, or trying to anticipate corrections, than has been lost in corrections themselves. I can’t recall ever once having seen the name of a market timer on Forbes’ annual list of the richest people in the world. If it were truly possible to predict corrections,…
The Government Actually Does Something Right: Retirement
“There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you.” – Will Rogers Many of us take great joy in pointing out the ineptitude of the government. No matter which way you lean politically, you probably wouldn’t get too many arguments if you were to claim that the government…
Asset Allocation: What You Need to Know
“Instead of concentrating on the central issue of creating sensible long-term asset-allocation targets, investors too frequently focus on the unproductive diversions of security selection and market timing.” – David Swensen “One of the things you learn about asset allocation is that the unemotional defeat the emotional over time by fading their highs and lows, their…
Saving Just 1% More
Take a look at this really great new tool from the New York Times (click to enlarge): Like most financial calculators, you enter in your basic information (salary, % saved, salary increase, expected returns and time horizon). But, this one has the added benefit of showing you how your results would be different if you…
Math Doesn’t Matter
“Everyone has the brainpower to follow the stock market. If you made it through fifth grade math, you can do it.” – Peter Lynch We often hear financial advisors and investment strategists use statistical terms like standard deviation, co-variance matrix, efficient frontier and risk-adjusted returns (I’ll even admit to using some of these terms myself…
