My primary reason for sharing my thoughts on wealth-destroying mistakes to avoid is to ultimately help you improve your financial well-being. What I provide is not an all-encompassing list of wealth-destroying mistakes nor are they in any order of severity. Some mistakes can be corrected more easily than others. Much depends, however, on your unique [...]
In my recent Corrections Are Healthy post, I reference Rudyard Kipling's poem 'If'. I mention that the segments from the poem that resonate the most with me are: If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs If you can wait and not be tired by waiting After publishing that post [...]
Some investors perform discounted cash flow analyses when trying to assess a company’s outlook. Perhaps these calculations help them justify their investment decisions. I, however, get absolutely no value from performing these calculations and came to this realization in the mid-1980s while attending a Master of Business Administration (MBA) program at university. My finance professors [...]
The world of equities consists of fuel generators and fuel suckers. I use this terminology to describe the types of companies that either fuel or hamper wealth creation. Both categories include companies that: distribute no dividend, or that have unimpressive dividend metrics; and have alluring dividend metrics. This is why it is so important to [...]
Morgan Housel’s The Psychology of Money – Timeless Lessons on Wealth, Greed, and Happiness is one of the thought-provoking books listed in the Books section of this site. Chapter 4 entitled Confounding Compounding touches upon why compounding can be difficult. The counter-intuitiveness of compounding may be responsible for the majority of disappointing trades, bad [...]
In times like this, it is no surprise many investors are experiencing some trepidation. Let them panic. You, however, should proceed knowing that corrections are healthy. Allow me to take you back in time to the mid-1970s when I was in high school. Several (most) of my high school courses never interested me. I never [...]
One of the books listed in the Books section of this blog is Peter L. Bernstein's Against the Gods: The Remarkable Story of Risk. In this book, Bernstein delves into the importance of risk assessment. It traces developments from ancient times to the modern financial era and emphasizes the critical role of risk assessment in [...]
Investing is difficult unless you master your mindset. The math component of the investing process is not what makes investing difficult. The difficulty lies in our ability/inability to control our emotions. Investing requires us to understand how we react in various situations. After having invested for almost 4 decades, I distill my approach to investing [...]
I now pay considerably more attention to the tax implications of my investment decisions. Gone are the days where I looked forward to receiving dividend income. Our circumstances may differ, and therefore, my decision to significantly reduce dividend income may not align with your objectives. Furthermore, the tax treatments of different forms of investment income [...]
In my recent Tips To Achieve Investment Success post, I touch upon why it is important to think like an owner when investing. Shares are not mere pieces of paper. They represent part ownership of a business. So, when contemplating an investment, think like a prospective owner. - Warren Buffett Many shareholders totally miss the [...]