Twenty Tips for No-Nonsense Investing
Get an attitude.
Market strategists, your brother-in-law Bob, the television talking heads and the local brokerage firm's slick salesmen all spew an endless stream of utter nonsense. Such garbage would be hysterically funny, if it wasn't so damaging to investors' financial health.
Want to avoid getting taken? You need to summon the skepticism of the unflappable, world-weary, Street-savvy veteran investor.
To that end, when you're next getting an earful, keep these 20 thoughts in mind.
1) You don't have any friends on Wall Street. You may want to make money. But so does the Street. And the more the Street makes, the less investors pocket.
2) Your neighbors are delusional. They spend too much, they own investments they don't understand and their overall portfolio isn't faring nearly as well as the one or two stocks they boast about.
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Jonathan Clements offers words of wisdom on how to avoid nonsense-investment advice.3) Most stock mutual funds are laggards and it's hard to find the winners. Sure, there are funds with great 10-year records. But you can't buy their past performance. Instead, what you get is the future -- and often that isn't nearly so dazzling.
4) There are no "magic" investments. Yes, investments enjoy brief surges of popularity and, for a few months or even years, they can seem like a sure thing. Think technology stocks in early 2000, hedge funds in 2003 and real-estate and energy stocks in 2005. But the magic never lasts. See a crowd gathering? Grab your cash and start running in the opposite direction.
5) You can control risk and investment costs, but you can't control returns. So why do investors spend so little time on risk and costs and so much time on returns? Beats me.
6) There's no substitute for saving money. Next time you crack open your wallet, think on this: The dollars you spend today are delaying your retirement.
7) Sophistication is usually an excuse for Wall Street to charge fat fees. If you don't understand an investment, don't buy it. Most folks can do just fine with a handful of plain-vanilla mutual funds, preferably market-tracking index funds.
8) Rich people often have more dollars than sense. Hedge funds? Venture-capital investments? Make no mistake: You have to be truly wealthy to afford the potential losses involved.
9) Your portfolio's growth is driven, more than anything, by how much you save and by how you divide your money between stocks and conservative investments. Your savings rate depends on your ability to delay gratification, while your stock allocation depends on your risk tolerance. So what exactly is your investment adviser doing for your portfolio? Good question.
10) If an investment is exciting, it probably won't be especially profitable. Investors love to buy hot growth companies, trade mutual funds and take a flier on initial public stock offerings. Before you join the fun, however, consider how much you might lose -- and how many paychecks it will take to recoup the money lost.
11) There is nothing like the prospect of a fat payday to skew advice, so be leery of all investment recommendations from commission salesmen. That brings me to a pet peeve. Investment advisers will often claim that most folks aren't smart enough to invest on their own, so they need an adviser's help. And yet, in the next breath, they will defend high-commission products like variable annuities, mutual-fund B shares and equity-indexed annuities, saying they only sell this stuff because that's what customers want.
12) Land appreciates, houses deteriorate. Like your car, your home sits out in the rain. You know your car is depreciating. Why should your home be any different? Keep that in mind next time your neighbors tout the investment value of their new kitchen.
13) Sound investment strategies don't change with the news. By all means, read the personal-finance magazine's 2006 market prediction and listen to the television reporter's breathless dispatch from the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. But for goodness sake, don't act on this nonsense.
14) Your worst investment enemy is often found in the mirror. Even if you don't get tripped up by Wall Street shenanigans or your brother-in-law's foolish advice, you could still end up with wretched returns if you chase hot investments or panic when the market declines.
15) Tax deductions are money losers. True, if you are in the 25% federal income-tax bracket and you incur $1,000 of mortgage interest, you will save $250 in taxes. But the other $750 is coming out of your pocket.
16) Leverage bites when you get it wrong. Most people wouldn't dream of borrowing money to buy stocks. Yet, it's considered prudent to borrow 90% of a home's purchase price. Most of the time, your leveraged real-estate bet will work out just fine. But cross your fingers, and hope you don't suddenly have to sell just as real-estate prices are sinking.
17) If financial forecasters are unanimous that stocks, or bonds, or the dollar are about to plummet, they almost certainly won't. The reason: Presumably, these soothsayers and their clients have already acted on their prediction -- and thus it's already reflected in current market prices.
18) Insurance is a necessary evil. When you buy insurance, you are paying somebody else to take on risk that you can't afford to bear. That can be a smart move. It will also cost you, however, so you shouldn't buy more insurance than you really need.
19) You can't get rich by spending money. The folks with the big house, fancy cars and designer clothes are, no doubt, loaded. But they may be loaded with debt.
20) Investment experts who promise market-beating returns deserve our profound skepticism. After all, if they are so wise, why are they still working for a living? And if their investment ideas are likely to be so profitable, why are they sharing them with us?
20个实用的投资窍门
时时刻刻都有人在向你大放厥词：市场策略师、你的姐夫鲍伯、电视评论员、证券公司狡猾的销售人员...这些毫无价值的废话要不是会对投资者的财务状况造成如此大的损害，听起来倒是蛮有趣的。
如何才能不被他们所迷惑呢？你需要像一位久经考验、愤世嫉俗的投资者那样精明、镇定自若，拿出他们特有的怀疑态度。
下次再听到有人向你大谈投资之道时，你一定要记住以下20条建议：
1) 华尔街没有你的朋友。你想赚钱、华尔街也想。华尔街赚得越多，进入投资者口袋里的钱就越少。
2) 你的邻居使了障眼法，其实他们挥霍无度，对自己的投资一点也不了解，他们把投资的一两只股票吹得天花乱坠，而总体投资组合却表现平平。
3) 多数股票共同基金都表现落后，很难找到其中的赢家。当然，有些基金最近10年也许业绩不错，但你不应该买它的过去，你要面对的是它的未来，而它未来的表现往往就不会如此耀眼了。
4) 世上不存在什么“神奇的投资”。一项投资在经历了短暂的人气急升后，在数月甚至数年内人们都会把它的上扬看作是理所当然的事情。想想2000年初的科技类股、2003年的对冲基金、2005年的能源类股。然而神奇的事情总是稍纵即逝。看到人头攒动的情景了？赶紧拿上你的钱，奔向相反的方向吧。
5) 你可以控制风险和投资成本，但你控制不了投资回报。那么，为什么投资者花在风险和成本控制上的时间少得可怜，却把大量时间都消耗在琢磨投资回报上呢？
6) 存钱是必不可少的。下回当你往外掏钱的时候，想想这个：今天花出的钱都将延迟你退休的时间。
7) 投资的复杂性往往是华尔街收取丰厚佣金的一个借口。如果你无法理解一项投资，那就不要买它。多数人单凭几只普通的共同基金、特别是跟踪大盘的指数基金、也能获得不错的回报。
8) 富人们拥有的金钱多过他们的理智。对冲基金？风险投资？别搞错了，只有真正有钱的人才能承受得起这些可能亏损的投资。
9) 促进投资组合升值的最重要因素是：你存了多少钱、以及你如何在股票投资和保守投资之间分配资金。你的储蓄率取决于你推迟享受的意愿，而股票投资比例的多少与风险耐受力有关。因此，你的投资顾问到底为你做了些什么呢？
10) 如果一项投资让你兴奋不已，它也许不会给你带来特别多的收益。投资者喜欢投资那些热门成长企业、交易共同基金、或是在首次公开募股中小试运气。然而，在你享受这些乐趣的同时，你也要考虑一下可能产生的损失，看看你得牺牲多少薪水才能把损失弥补回来。
11) 没有什么比丰厚回报的前景更能误导投资者了，因此要当心来自佣金销售人员的所有投资建议。这使我想起了投资顾问的一个毛病。这些人经常声称大多数人都不够聪明，无法自己投资，因此需要顾问的帮助。下一步，他们就会为诸如可变年金、共同基金B股和股票指数年金等高佣金产品辩护，称他们只销售此类产品，因为它们正是客户所需。
12) 土地更值钱了，房子却更糟糕了。和你的汽车一样，你的房子也处于风雨飘摇之中。你知道你的汽车在贬值。那你的房子怎么就会不一样呢？下一次你的邻居再吹嘘其新厨房的投资价值时，要切记这一点。
13) 稳健的投资策略不会随消息而变。务必要读一读个人理财杂志对2006年市场的预测，听一听电视记者从纽约证交所场内上气不接下气的报导。但是，看在老天爷的份上可别跟著这些废话采取行动。
14) 对你的投资最不利的人经常可以在镜子里找到。即便你没有为华尔街的把戏或者你姐夫愚蠢的建议所骗，但如果你追涨杀跌，你仍可能面临糟糕的投资回报。
15) 税收抵减也可能导致赔钱。诚然，如果你享受25%的联邦利息税抵减税率，而你的抵押贷款利息为1,000美元，那么你就可以节省250美元的税款。但其余750美元还是很容易从你的腰包里溜走了。
16) 判断错误时，杠杆操作会让你损失加倍。许多人不会想借钱炒股。但是，人们总认为借入90%的房贷是谨慎的投资。大多数时候，你负债的房地产投资会运转得不错。但是，祈求上帝保佑吧，希望你不要在房地产价格下滑的时候突然不得不出手。
17) 如果金融预言家们对股票、债券或美元行将大幅下挫持一致意见，那么几乎可以肯定这种情况不会发生。理由是：这些先知们及其客户已经根据他们的预测采取行动－－因此它已经反映在当前的市场价格中。
18) 保险是把双刃剑。你买保险的时候，是在向别人支付金钱，好让别人承担你无法承受的风险。这可能是个明智之举。不过，它也要耗费成本，因此你购买的保险不应超过你真正的需要。
19) 你不可能一边花钱还一边致富。那些拥有大房子、豪华汽车和高档时装的人无疑很过瘾。但他们或许也负债累累。
20) 那些承诺回报将超过市场平均水平的投资专家值得我们深表怀疑。毕竟，如果他们这么聪明，那他们为什么仍要工作谋生呢？如果他们的投资建议有可能赚这么多钱，那他们为什么要和我们分享呢？
