The Average Investor’s Commandments

There are some rules, or commandments, that all investors should live by. We’ll discuss those ten commandments and explain the importance of each one.

1.  Think Long Term. You need to be in the market for the long con.  Put your money in and leave it alone.  You are not a day trader.

2.  Invest What You Can Afford. Don’t have so much money in the market that you have to pull it out to pay bills.  The constant in and out of the market is detrimental to long term gains.

3.  Buy What You Believe In.  If you have an interest, tech, music, you probably know a lot about brands within those interests.  That makes them good companies to invest in for you because you already have a lot of knowledge about the company.

4.  Do Your Own Research.  Matt bought Sirius stock because some guy told him to.  He didn’t do any research and lost money.  You have to put in some due diligence before buying stock.

5.  Set It And Forget It. Constantly checking your numbers does not make them go up.  Get your process in place and leave it alone.

6. Consistently Contribute.  If you are consistently putting money into the market, you are dollar cost averaging which means over time, you will mirror the market.  The market makes on average a 7% return.

7.  Be Fearful When Others Are Greedy.  When people are buying like mad, you should sit it out.

8.  Be Greedy When Others Are Fearful.  When everyone else is selling, buy, buy, buy!

9.  Find And Remove Frivolous Fees.  401K’s tend to have high fees, sometimes more than 1%.  Over thirty years that means 25% of the money you could have made goes to fees.  Do some research and find a fund with the lowest fee.

10.  Diversify.  If it can fail, it will fail so you need to spread out your risk.

Show Notes

Vanguard:  A low fee fund.

Mint:  The easy way to track your money.

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