One of my colleagues regularly sends me a list of the most popular online investment searches.
This week one of the top contenders was “financial independence quotes.”
I followed a few links and found some good ones.
Like Dave Ramsey’s “You must gain control over your money or the lack of it will forever control you” and Chris Brogan’s “The goal isn’t more money. The goal is living life on your own terms.”
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Inspiring as these may be, they don’t provide any real insight into how to become financially independent.
That’s unfortunate.
Most folks are too busy with their jobs, their families, their hobbies and other interests to read even a small fraction of what they need to know to reach their financial goals.
As a nation, we are largely financially illiterate.
Wouldn’t it be great if someone collected the wisest thoughts of the world’s greatest investors, men like Jesse Livermore, Baron Rothschild, J.P. Morgan, Benjamin Graham, Warren Buffett, Peter Lynch, John Templeton and others?
As a matter of fact, someone has, my good friend and colleague Dr. Mark Skousen.
He recently released a new edition of The Maxims of Wall Street.
It’s a crash course in how to survive and profit in today’s volatile markets.
A college economics professor, founder of FreedomFest and bestselling author, Mark has spent more than four decades reading, writing, teaching and lecturing about financial markets.
Along the way, he has collected a treasure trove of proverbs, slogans, stories and juicy quotes.
Here are just a few of my favorites:
- “A share of stock is not a lottery ticket. It’s an investment in a business.” – Peter Lynch
- “The big money is not in the buying or the selling, but in the sitting.” – Jesse Livermore
- “A great business at a fair price is superior to a fair business at a great price.” – Charlie Munger
- “In a bear market, the winner is the man who loses the least.” – Dick Russell
- “Easy money – isn’t.” – Ken Fisher
- “Investors should purchase stock like they purchase groceries – not like they purchase perfume.” – Benjamin Graham
- “You can’t pick cherries with your back to the tree.” – J.P. Morgan
- “Never confuse genius with a bull market.” – Humphrey B. Neill
- “The one investment certainty is that we are all frequently wrong.” – Bill Gross
- “If you don’t profit from your investment mistakes, someone else will.” – Yale Hirsch
- “Investments should be based not on optimism but arithmetic.” – Benjamin Graham
- “My broker told me to buy this stock for my old age. It worked wonderfully. Within a week I was an old man.” – Eddie Cantor
- “If past history was all there was to the investment game, the richest people would be librarians.” – Warren Buffett
- “Investment success accrues not so much to the brilliant as to the disciplined.” – William J. Bernstein
Skousen provides plenty of stories and commentary to go with these gems and hundreds of others.
He also includes…
- Bernard Baruch’s 10 Rules of Investing
- Humphrey Neill’s 10 Ways to Lose Money on Wall Street (You may discover a few you haven’t yet stumbled on yourself.)
- Larry Swedroe’s 14 Simple Truths About Investing
- Dennis Gartman’s 20 Rules of Trading
- Mark Skousen’s List of 15 Nevers.
I found myself chuckling (and occasionally sighing) when I first read this book. And I still refer to it regularly.
Over my 35-year career, I learned much of this investment wisdom by trial and error. Fortunately, you don’t have to.
The Maxims of Wall Street is a pithy and indispensable guide.
The new seventh edition is a special, limited leather edition with gold lettering. Only 1,000 copies were printed. Each copy is numbered and autographed by the author if you order directly from him.
It’s available on Amazon. But it costs a lot less to buy it from the author himself at skousenbooks.com. The price of the first copy is just $20, including shipping and handling. (Additional copies are $10 each.)
It makes a great gift item to friends, family members and clients.
The Maxims of Wall Street is an essential read for anyone pursuing financial freedom.
Peruse it and be thankful that – unlike me – you didn’t have to gain a lot of this essential knowledge the hard way.
Good investing,
Alex