If you listen to financial TV, or read most market columnists, you’d think that investing is some kind of sport, or a war, or a struggle for survival in a hostile wilderness. But investing isn’t about beating others at their game. It’s about controlling yourself at your own game. The challenge for the intelligent investor is not to find the stocks that will go up the most and down the least, but rather to prevent your self from being your own worst enemy—from buying high just because Mr.Market says “Buy!” and from selling low just because Mr. Market says“Sell!”If you investment horizon is long—at least 25 or 30 years—there is only one sensible approach: Buy every month, automatically, and whenever else you can spare some money. The single best choice for this lifelong holding is a total stock-market index fund. Sell only when you need the cash. To be an intelligent investor, you must also refuse to judge your financial success by how a bunch of total strangers are doing.
Submitted March 19, 2021 at 11:21PM by klinchev https://ift.tt/30WKDOM
