“The markets are a classroom where lessons are taught every day. The keys to investment success lie in observing and learning.” – Howard Marks I just finished The Most Important Thing by legendary investor Howard Marks of Oaktree Capital. Marks is one of the greatest value investors of all-time and the book cover even comes…

“A pile of emergency money is about preparing for the unexpected—and it’s about peace of mind.” – Jonathan Clements

“Our natural reaction is to sell after bad news and buy when news is good, thus indulging our fear and our greed. It’s an impossible strategy.” – Carl Richards   A recent study looked into the effects that the weather played on the trading patterns of institutional investors and how this influenced the overall stock…

Business Week has an awesome cover story on Amazon.com this week and its founder, Jeff Bezos. Here’s a story that lets you know what kind of company he is running:

“The future ain’t what it used to be.” – Yogi Berra Despite a correction in the works because of those lovely politicians in DC, 2013 continues to be a great year for US stocks. The S&P 500 was up nearly 20% through the end of September.

“Having a plan is important because it’s impossible to make rational decisions about investments without one.” – Larry Swedroe An investment policy statement (IPS) is something every investor needs to be able to achieve their long-term financial goals.  Without one you are basically a rudderless ship drifting across a vast ocean.  You’ll be lost. An…

“Keep one eye fixed on the details; the other, on the horizon.” – Unknown Although we have experienced some wild swings along the way, stock market returns over the past 10 and 20 year periods are actually not that far off the long-term averages. Through September 30, the 10 year annual returns for the S&P…

“Timing the market is a fool’s game, whereas time in the market is your greatest natural advantage.” – Nick Murray An actual conversation I overheard this week: Guy #1: What do you think about the government shutdown and the debt ceiling? Time to get out of stocks? Guy#2: Stocks have already dropped since early last…

“I look to the future because that is where I’m going to spend the rest of my life.” – George Burns Morningstar’s John Rekenthaler had an interesting article recently that discusses what matters most when saving for retirement. He goes over a hypothetical situation where a 42-year old investor is looking at the options for…

“Here is part of the tradeoff with diversification. You must be diversified enough to survive bad times or bad luck so that skill and good process can have the chance to pay off over the long term.” – Joel Greenblatt For investors that would like to keep things extremely simple, investing in a low cost…