Investing for Survival

  Investing for Survival from Morgan Housel

   One Sentence Financial Rules (41-61)

41. Imagine how much stuff you'd have to make up if you were forced to talk 24/7. Remember this when watching financial news on TV.

42. There is, and always will be, more money to be made providing investment advice than receiving it.

43. Assume the worst, hope for the best, accept reality. 

44. Save for your own retirement; assume Social Security and private pensions won't be around (even though they probably will).

45. Annuities: A product mixing the complexity of high finance with the sales tactics of used-car salesman has an entirely predictable outcome.

46. The correlation between confidence and future regret is incredibly high.

47. During the last 100 years, there have been more 10% market pullbacks than Christmases. Everyone knows Christmas will come; think of volatility the same way.

48. Don't attempt to keep up with the Joneses without realizing the Joneses aren't any happier than you are.

49. Predictions, opinions, and forecasts should be discounted by the number of times the person making them is on TV each week.

50. Not taking advantage of an employer match on your 401(k) is no different than declining a raise.

51. Don't let Washington sway your investment decisions. Congress has been a dysfunctional swamp of disappointment since 1789, and stocks have done well ever since.

52. To quote Larry Summers: "A good rule of thumb for many things in life holds that things take longer to happen than you think they will, and then happen faster than you thought they could."

53. Another Larry Summers gem: "THERE ARE IDIOTS. Look around."

54. "Invest in what you know" is dangerously simplified. 

55. Quit day trading, and donate your money to charity instead. Same financial result for you, and a better outcome for society.

56. Most people's biggest expense is interest, which comes from living beyond your means, and buying things they think will impress others, which comes from insecurity. Avoid these two and you'll grow richer than most of your peers.

57. Reaching for yield to increase your income is often like sticking your hands in a fire to warm them up -- good in theory, disastrous in practice. 

58. Your devotion to a political party or economic philosophy is directly proportional to your tendency to think irrationally about how politics affects your investments.

59. Most people need a financial advisor, but everyone needs a financial counselor, or someone to talk them off the ledge before making a dumb decision.

60. There's a strong negative correlation between flaunting money and being rich. 

61. Investors were probably better informed 20 years ago when there was 90% less financial news.