SOME FINANCIAL WISDOM
Focusing on investment performance alone with no context around your goals is a huge mistake. Align your finances (cash management, investing, risk, retirement planning, asset & income protection, etc) with what matters most. Ensure your life goals are always connected to your investments. Look at investing through the lens of your life & the priorities you value.
Goals provide a rudder for you to steer with when making financial & investment decisions. Otherwise, you are at the mercy of the "elements" (fads, perceptions, emotions, herd mentality, economic conditions, etc). Don't be rudderless.
Early diagnosis = less radical treatment. This applies in healthcare AND personal finance.
Cash flow management is the foundation for meeting financial goals. Financial independence comes more from knowing how to manage money than it does from learning how to earn more money.
When it comes to investing, emotional & instinctual urges can be your worst enemies. Success has more to do with behavior than it does with your sophistication or education.
Small decisions can have a profound impact when the impact is measured over the course of several years or even decades.
Most of Wall Street is premised on a false belief in the predictability of unpredictable things. Don't get sucked in.
"I'd compare stock pickers to astrologers, but I don't want to bad-mouth astrologers." ~Eugene F. Fama, Finance Professor, Univ of Chicago. Awarded Nobel Prize in Economics in 2013 for his pathbreaking insights into the functioning of markets, asset pricing theory, and corporate finance that have benefited market participants worldwide.
"Unwise strategy: buy stocks only when you feel complete comfort in doing so & sell when the headlines made you queasy." ~Charlie Munger, Vice-Chairman of Berkshire Hathaway
Investment success or the amount of wealth you accumulate isn't determined by returns alone, but by how much & when contributions/withdrawals are made & the TIMING of the returns. Using average returns of the past 1, 5, 10, or even 20 years to select investments or project portfolio growth is a capital mistake.
The key to investment success isn’t hitting home runs; it’s avoiding strikeouts and inning-ending double plays.
The unpredictable up & down randomness of the stock market helps create its superior long-term rate of return. So, celebrate the uncertainty. But avoid unnecessary equity risk.
Financial scam = guaranteed returns, excessive complexity, lack of disclosure, use of unregistered securities, & no third party custodian.
"In the investing world, everything that’s intuitively obvious is questionable & everything that’s important is counter-intuitive. ~Howard Marks, CEO, Oaktree Capital Group LLC
Make investment decisions relative to your life priorities, not uncertain and volatile financial markets.
Once your financial plan is in place, adjust the lifestyle & financial choices you have CONTROL over to constantly keep the odds of reaching your goals tilted in your favor. Think of these as small course corrections compensating for the uncertainty of the markets and life circumstances.
"Since what we seek in money is oftentimes not what is really missing in our lives, what we find in money is never really enough." ~Maria Nemeth, PhD, The Energy of Money
When you feel pressure from anyone to make a financial decision -- especially those taking your money -- RUN for the exit. Odds are, your interests are not aligned.
Be especially wary when you hear a person giving you financial advice say, "Don't worry. You don't pay me. The insurance/mutual fund company pays me." Make no mistake. You are paying. Understand how. Understand how much.
"Your decisions, not your conditions, determine your financial destiny." ~Anthony Robbins
