Many novice investors lose money chasing big returns. And that's why Buffett's first rule of investing is “don't lose money”. The thing is, if an investors makes a poor investment decision and the value of that asset — stock — goes down 50%, the investment has to go 100% up to get back to where it started.
Rule 1: Never lose money.
By following this rule, he has been able to minimize his losses and maximize his returns over time. He emphasizes this so much that he often says, “Rule number 2 is never forget rule number 1.”
Rule No.
1 is never lose money.
“If you aren't willing to own a stock for 10 years, don't even think about owning it for 10 minutes.” We love this quote because it offers perhaps the best insight into how Warren Buffett approaches the active and passive investment debate.
Buffett, who has led Berkshire Hathaway since 1965, offered his unique viewpoint on career decisions. He suggested to those seeking employment to “take the job that you would take if you didn't need the job.”
Top 10 Best Wisdom Quotes:
"We are not what we know but what we are willing to learn." "Good people are good because they've come to wisdom through failure." "Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light for my path." "The first problem for all of us, men and women, is not to learn, but to unlearn."
“Wake your dreams.” “Life won't wait.” “Believe in yourself.” “Let it be.”
“We test the wisdom of retaining earnings by assessing whether retention, over time, delivers shareholders at least $1 of market value for each $1 retained.” This will assess whether management's capital allocation decisions are creating value for shareholders.
Buffett's Two Lists is a productivity, prioritisation and focusing approach where you write down your top 25 goals; circle your 5 highest priorities; then focus on those 5 while 'avoiding at all costs' doing anything on the remaining 20.
Always sell a stock it if falls 7%-8% below what you paid for it. This basic principle helps you always cap your potential downside. If you're following rules for how to buy stocks and a stock you own drops 7% to 8% from what you paid for it, something is wrong.
The Pareto principle or the 80/20 Rule - the fact that 20% of efforts cause 80% of the results across many areas of our life - is a critical mental model that has driven Warren Buffett's success.
Clear High-Interest Debt Possible As Soon As Possible
“I don't know how to make 18%, and if I owed any money at 18%, the first thing I'd do with any money I had would be to pay it off,” he said. “It's going to be way better than any investment idea.”
For instance, Buffett urges the average investor to purchase index funds. “Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund,” he wrote in his 2013 letter to Berkshire Hathaway shareholders. Buffett has given this advice for years.
“In the end, we are our choices. Build yourself a great story.” Your decisions shape your life; make choices you'll be proud of.
In fact, he's probably benefited significantly from credit cards over the years. It isn't from using credit cards. Buffett has said that he pays for 98% of his own purchases in cash. Instead, Buffett has made tons of money by investing in credit card issuers over the years.
Using the 4% rule to estimate how much money you need to never work again involves knowing how much you plan on spending that first year or retirement. For example, if you want to spend $200,000, the math is $200,000/. 04 = $5,000,000. Another way to calculate this is that you would need 25x your annual spending rate.
The Rule of 90 is a grim statistic that serves as a sobering reminder of the difficulty of trading. According to this rule, 90% of novice traders will experience significant losses within their first 90 days of trading, ultimately wiping out 90% of their initial capital.
What is the $1 rule? The $1 rule is my spin on the age-old cost-per-use idea, specifically calling out a dollar as the benchmark. Before buying an item, figure out how many times you'll use it. If it breaks down to $1 or less per use, I give myself the green light to buy it.
The result is the number of years, approximately, it'll take for your money to double. For example, if an investment scheme promises an 8% annual compounded rate of return, it will take approximately nine years (72 / 8 = 9) to double the invested money.