Investing for Survival

  Investing for Survival from Morgan Housel

0ne-Sentence Financial Rules (1-20)

1. Dollar-cost average for your entire life and you'll beat almost everyone who doesn't.

2. Only invest in products and companies you can explain to a six-year old.

3. Every five to seven years, people forget that recessions occur every five to seven years.

4. You're twice as biased as you think you are (four times if you disagree with that statement). 

5. Read more books and fewer articles.

6. Read more history and fewer forecasts.

7. It's strange that you go to the doctor once a year, but check your investments once a day.

8. Be careful when reading about how stupid investors can be and not realize you're reading about yourself.

9. Your circle of competence is probably 90% smaller than you think it is.

10. You're only diversified when some of your investments perform worse than others.

11. Big risks will always be disregarded; small risks always blown out of proportion.

12. Check your brokerage account as infrequently as it takes to prevent rash decisions.

13. When in doubt, choose the investment with the lowest fee.

14. Emotional intelligence is more important than book intelligence.

15. The more you learn about the economy, the more you realize you have no idea what's going on.

16. Start saving for college before your kid is born, and start saving for your retirement before you graduate college. You'll feel silly when you start and like a genius when you finish.

17. The most powerful way to grow your money is learning to live with less, since you have complete control over it.

18. Singer Rihanna nearly went broke and fired her financial advisor, who described her situation well: "Was it really necessary to tell her that if you spend money on things, you will end up with the things and not the money?"

19. You have no obligation to have an opinion about anything. 

20. You have a strict obligation to not have an opinion about things you don't understand.