Sublime

years ago I wrote out “I am a passive investor optimistic in the world’s ability to generate real economic growth and I’m confident that over the next 30 years that growth will accrue to my investments.” This might seem quaint, but once you write that mission statement down you realize everything that’s unrelated to it—what the market did this year

Investors often innocently take cues from other investors who are playing a different game than they are.

Few people make financial decisions purely with a spreadsheet. They make them at the dinner table, or in a company meeting. Places where personal history, your own unique view of the world, ego, pride, marketing, and odd incentives are scrambled together into a narrative that works for you.

But you need short-term paranoia to keep you alive long enough to exploit long-term optimism.

We should be careful to define the difference between wealthy

To grasp why people bury themselves in debt you don’t need to study interest rates; you need to study the history of greed, insecurity, and optimism. To get why investors sell out at the bottom of a bear market you don’t need to study the math of expected future returns; you need to think about the agony of looking at your family and wondering if y

There is no reason to risk what you have and need for what you don’t have and don’t need.