I do not like debt and do not like to invest in companies that have too much debt, particularly long-term debt. With long-term debt, increases in interest rates can drastically affect company profits and make future cash flows less predictable.
By periodically investing in an index fund, the know-nothing investors can actually outperform most investment professionals.
You don’t need to be a rocket scientist. Investing is not a game where the guy with the 160 IQ beats the guy with 130 IQ.
Cash combined with courage in a time of crisis is priceless.
Investing is forgoing consumption now in order to have the ability to consume more at a later date.
A low-cost index fund is the most sensible equity investment for the great majority of investors. My mentor, Ben Graham, took this position many years ago, and everything I have seen since convinces me of its truth.
The greatest Enemies of the Equity investor are Expenses and Emotions.
If at first you do succeed, quit trying in investing.
We have usually made our best purchases when apprehensions about some macro event were at a peak. Fear is the foe of the faddist, but the friend of the fundamentalist.
Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense if you know what you are doing.
Investing is simple, but not easy.
Mr. Market is kind of a drunken psycho. Some days he gets very enthused, some days he gets very depressed. And when he gets really enthused, you sell to him, and when he gets depressed, you buy from him. There’s no moral taint attached to that.
We do not view the company itself as the ultimate owner of our business assets but instead view the company as a conduit through which our shareholders own assets.
Investment must be rational; if you can’t understand it, don’t do it.
The wise man once said, ‘Invest young.’
A great investment opportunity occurs when a marvelous business encounters a one-time huge, but solvable problem.
Valuing a business is part art and part science.
Time is your friend, impulse is your enemy. Take advantage of compound interest and don’t be captivated by the siren song of the market.
Experience is what you get when you didn’t get what you wanted.
Self-importance requires spending most of one’s life offended by something or someone.