Quotes About Investing

Throughout this book we'll gradually build an argument that many individuals should consider an automatic approach to investing by relying primarily on mutual funds—specifically index mutual funds, which try to do nothing more than mimic the performance of the stock and bond markets in general.

For diversification to work as a salve for the pains of loss, you must avoid looking at losses or gains in isolation.

The sting of losing money, for example, often leads investors to pull out of the stock market unwisely when prices dip.

I found the stock market very intriguing because prices used to fluctuate, I used to wonder why the price fluctuates.

I spend about half of my time wondering why I have so much in stocks and about half wondering why I have so little.

You could lose hundreds or thousands one day on paper and gain it all back the next, and it has literally no effect on your immediate future, provided the money you have in the market is money you're investing for the long haul (meaning at least three to five years).

Investing is a probabilistic business. Every once in a while, it's sort of like you're throwing six-sided dice, and anything except a one or a two, you're doing well. Statistically speaking, you throw the dice enough times, you're going to throw a one or a two five times in a row, and you're going to look pretty foolish, right?

One of the best places to look for value is what I call 'babies thrown out with the bathwater' - in other words, scour the most out-of-favour sectors for good companies whose stocks have been crushed due to overblown concerns about the industry that do not, in fact, have an impact on the company.

Many follow a rule of thumb - no more than 5% in one stock. But that's not the entrepreneurial road to riches.

Although it's easy to forget sometimes, a share is not a lottery ticket... it's part-ownership of a business.

In a time of tight budgets, difficult choices have to be made. We must make sure our very limited resources are spent on priorities. I believe we should have no higher priority than investing in our children's classrooms and in their future.

Make a list of some things your children like you to do with them but aren't necessarily fun for you—playing a board game on the floor with a young child, going outside to throw a ball, sitting down with a child to read his or her creative story or to look at an artistic creation, and so on. Commit to saying yes to their requests instead of no, knowing that if you invest in what is important to them, they will be open to believing in what is important to you.

If you can buy the best companies, over time the pricing takes care of itself.

It would be nice if this [finding really cheap stocks] happened all the time. Unfortunately, it doesn't.

If you defer investing your time and energy until you see that you need to, chances are it will already be too late.

The next time you see an outside day with a down close lower than the previous day, don't get scared, get ready to buy!

Real investors should never feel bearish because the time to buy value is when markets go down!

I stopped wasting time on what [other] people claimed a stock was worth and started looking at the numbers.

You shouldn't own common stocks if a 50 per cent decrease in their value in a short period of time would cause you acute distress.

The safe time to invest is when there is blood in the streets.

The United Nations has been in the Great Lakes Region and Sahel for 50 years, mostly investing in peacekeeping. NOW is the time to invest in young people!

It's a familiar truism that at any one moment, financial markets are dominated by either fear or greed. But the healthiest markets are those that are animated by both fear and greed at the same time.

Never try to time the bond market. Anyone who claims to know the future of interest rates is certifiable.

The company must be paying dividends. Preferably the dividend will have been increasing and have been paid for some time.