Quotes About Investing

The safest port in a sea of uncertainty is diversification.

Wise Investing series is a collection of stories and analogies designed to demonstrate that the winning investment strategy is a simple, elegant,

Wise Investing series is a collection of stories and analogies designed to demonstrate that the winning

financial and life goals. Over the years, I have talked to thousands of people about investing. I have

Buffett knows that a down market is when investors should be buying, not selling.

After adjusting the comparison of index funds to actively managed funds for survivorship bias, taxes, and loads, the dominance of index funds reaches insurmountable proportions. Once

An active manager must overcome the drag of about 3.25 percent in annual operating costs. If the fund manager is only to match the market's historical 9 percent return, he or she must return 12.25 percent before all those costs. In other words, to do merely as well as the market, an active fund manager must be able to outperform the market return by over one-third or 34.1 percent!5

TIME IS ARCHIMEDES' LEVER in investing.    Archimedes is often quoted as saying, "Give me a lever long enough and a place to stand, and I can move the earth." In investing, that lever is time. (And the place to stand, of course, is a firm and realistic investment policy.)

And if you don't believe me or even Charley, remember that Warren Buffett, perhaps the greatest investor of our time, has opined that all investors would be better off if their portfolio contained a diversified group of index funds.

Most institutional and individual investors will find the best way to own common stock is through an index fund that charges minimal fees. Those following this path are sure to beat the net results [after fees and expenses] delivered by the great majority of investment professionals."1 —Warren Buffett, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway

As market expert Jason Zweig puts it, "If we shopped for stocks the way we shop for socks, we'd be better off." We are wrong when we feel good about stocks having gone up, and we are wrong when we feel bad about stocks having gone down.

When the New York City pension funds began investing in index funds in the mid-1970s, the New York Times, in an article entitled "Why Indexing Frightens Money Managers," quoted Dave H. Williams, then chairman of the investment committee of Mitchell Hutchins & Company: "It's an avenue for seeking mediocrity.

Like the weather, the average long-term experience in investing is never surprising, but the short-term experience is always surprising.

Emerging markets investing, where Capital is far and away the world leader1 came very close to never happening. "David Fisher is the one who said, 'This is where the future lies. Let's go for it!'" explains Bob Kirby.

Even though most investors see their work as active, assertive, and on the offensive, the reality is and should be that stock and bond investing alike are primarily a defensive process. The great secret for success in long-term investing is to avoid serious losses.

Don't pay more per share for a company's stock than you'd be willing to pay if you were buying the whole company.

Before examining the many powerful changes in the investment climate, let's remind ourselves that active investing is, at the margin, always a negative-sum game. Trading investments among investors would by itself be a zero-sum game, except that the large costs of management fees and expenses plus commissions and market impact must be deducted. These costs total in the billions every year. Net result: Active investing is a seriously negative-sum game. To

Robert Coleman's challenge: "One must decide where he wants his ministry to count—in the momentary applause of popular recognition or in the reproduction of his life in a few chosen ones who will carry on his work after he has gone? Really, it is a question of which generation we are living for.

Every Christian must see themselves as the link to the next generation," writes William Barclay.

Evade purchasing stocks which purely look like a bargain.

Real estate investing is unique in that it's almost as much a career or a way of life as it is a form of investing. Indeed, the fact that real estate is involves so much sweat equity makes it unique among other investments.

I would say one of the reasons that women don't invest to the same extent that men do, is because we still think of it in some ways as a male pursuit.

Startup investing is one of my things, but it is not my everything.

I am retiring from startup investing. It's hard to leave all this behind right when things are going so well.