10-01-2008, 02:02 AM
special for gator
read this cause your stupit:
Then again, even if you've come into money, chances are you do not need a financial adviser. Follow this non-secret strategy that turns on buy-and-hold -- buy-and-hold being the strategy endorsed by Warren Buffett. Place $100,000, the maximum federally insured amount, into a CD, to have some money that will always be secure; max out whatever retirement instrument you qualify for; ignore gold, art and similar investments that are volatile; ignore commodities options, short selling, derivatives and similar complex investments that often trip up even specialists; ignore anything that's "securitized" (assets packaged into securities, there is no chance you can evaluate the underlying assets); buy real estate or real property only if your plan is to hold it for many years; place the remainder of your funds in a plain-vanilla 60-40 Standard & Poor's index fund (one that invests 60 percent in blue chip stocks, 40 percent in corporate bonds and Treasury bills); buy that fund from any reputable investment firm open to the public; let the money in the 60/40 fund simply sit there, regardless of what's happening in the markets. For goodness sake, don't make frequent stock trades trying to "beat the market" -- studies show that only about a third of investors and brokers who actively pick stocks do better than simply buying and holding the Standard & Poor's. For goodness sake, hang up on anyone promising "confidential tax avoidance strategies" or "a once in a lifetime opportunity." For goodness sake, never deal with any funds or money managers who say they use "secrets" or have "exclusive information." For goodness sake, don't purchase real estate, or any form of real property, thinking you will "flip" it. For goodness sake, don't panic and sell just because the market is falling. If the market is falling, do nothing -- at some point the market will rise. A few years ago, Buffett had his brokers calculate how Berkshire Hathaway would have done had the company not made a single stock trade all year, and merely held its positions. The answer was the company would have come out ahead. This paragraph contains all the investment advice most people will ever need.
read this cause your stupit:
Then again, even if you've come into money, chances are you do not need a financial adviser. Follow this non-secret strategy that turns on buy-and-hold -- buy-and-hold being the strategy endorsed by Warren Buffett. Place $100,000, the maximum federally insured amount, into a CD, to have some money that will always be secure; max out whatever retirement instrument you qualify for; ignore gold, art and similar investments that are volatile; ignore commodities options, short selling, derivatives and similar complex investments that often trip up even specialists; ignore anything that's "securitized" (assets packaged into securities, there is no chance you can evaluate the underlying assets); buy real estate or real property only if your plan is to hold it for many years; place the remainder of your funds in a plain-vanilla 60-40 Standard & Poor's index fund (one that invests 60 percent in blue chip stocks, 40 percent in corporate bonds and Treasury bills); buy that fund from any reputable investment firm open to the public; let the money in the 60/40 fund simply sit there, regardless of what's happening in the markets. For goodness sake, don't make frequent stock trades trying to "beat the market" -- studies show that only about a third of investors and brokers who actively pick stocks do better than simply buying and holding the Standard & Poor's. For goodness sake, hang up on anyone promising "confidential tax avoidance strategies" or "a once in a lifetime opportunity." For goodness sake, never deal with any funds or money managers who say they use "secrets" or have "exclusive information." For goodness sake, don't purchase real estate, or any form of real property, thinking you will "flip" it. For goodness sake, don't panic and sell just because the market is falling. If the market is falling, do nothing -- at some point the market will rise. A few years ago, Buffett had his brokers calculate how Berkshire Hathaway would have done had the company not made a single stock trade all year, and merely held its positions. The answer was the company would have come out ahead. This paragraph contains all the investment advice most people will ever need.
I realise that I have a past to break with--an accumulation of inertia, wrong, foolishness, rot, junk. A great need of clarification, of mindfulness, or rather, of no mind. A need to return to genuine practice, right effort. Need to push on the great doubt. Need for the spirit. Hang on to the clear light.
Thomas Merton