Warren Buffett keys to investing

Written by R.A. Stewart

Warren Buffett is a legendary investor who has valuable rules for investing your money; some of these are:

Do your homework

Be Consistent

Limit your borrowing

Keep things into perspective

Diversify your investments

Have an emergency fund

Stay disciplined.

I have written my thoughts about all of this, and as usual, it may not be applicable to your personal circumstances.

1 Do your homework

You need to understand everything that you invest your money in. Doing otherwise is simply inviting financial loss. Just investing in something because others are doing it or it is another bandwagon to jump on is a bad reason for investing in a particular stock. Keep in mind that when a particular company’s stock is rising, a lot of investors will jump aboard for the ride and inflate its true value.

2 Be consistent

Keep investing, that applies to putting money away for your retirement, building an investment portfolio, or saving for a rainy day. Learn to make sacrifices in order to make your dreams come true. 

3 Limit your borrowing

Borrowing can kill off your chances of financial success if you let it. The worst kind of borrowing is consumer debt, often referred to as dumb debt. When one borrows for consumer goods, they are paying for something which if they sold, would be worthless than the money owing on it. With borrowing, the crunch always comes when you have to pay it back.

4 Keep things into perspective

Success means different things to different people. Supporting your favourite charities is a way of giving back to society, even if you are just starting out and don’t have a lot to give. You can still give your time. Be faithful with what you have today. 

5 Diversify your investments

Placing all of your money in one company is called, “Putting all of your eggs in the one basket,” it could also be called “Stupidity,” It is inviting financial disaster. A common theme through many of the finance company collapses in New Zealand during the Global Financial Crisis is that many of the investors had their entire life savings invested in just one company. Many were left with destroyed retirement dreams as a result.

6 Have an emergency fund

It is sensible that one has an emergency fund to fall back on during times when cash is needed. This applies to everyone, whether one is a householder balancing the budget or in business.

7 Stay disciplined.

Keeping a disciplined frame of mind will help you stay on track. That includes staying in the habit of investing your money instead of frittering it away on things which do not add value to your life.

About this article

This article is of the writer’s own personal experience and opinion and may not be applicable to your personal circumstances therefore, discretion is advised. You may use this as content for your blog or website.

www.robertastewart.com

Are you a responsible Investor?

Are you a responsible Investor?

Written by R. A. Stewart

Answer these three questions to find out, but be honest.

Question number 1:

Do you blame others for losses which may or may not have been out of your control?

If you had money invested in a company which went into liquidation, do you take responsibility for the loss and learn lessons from it or do you find a scapegoat and play the blame game by finger pointing at others. Several finance companies went under in New Zealand during the Global Financial Crisis of 2007/2008 and there were sad stories of investors who had their life savings invested in the one company. In other words they had placed all of their eggs in the one basket. If they were honest, these people would have admitted that they were greedy because these companies were paying investors higher than normal interest rates. Financial experts were saying prior to these meltdowns that the higher interest rates do not reflect the risk investors are taking.

Question number 2:

Do you improve your financial literacy by reading finance and investing books?

Unless you educate yourself in matters of finance and investing you will be at the mercy of sharks who will take advantage of your ignorance. Sad stories appear in the newspapers now and again of people losing money because of some financial mistake. If they had sufficient financial literacy they would have made different decisions. The ability to discern whether something is right or wrong is sometimes down to education and experience.

Question number 3:

Do you save something from every payday to invest?

It is not how much you make which counts, it is what you manage to save from every payday.

Financial experts say that you should save at least 10% of your income for the purpose of building your wealth. In this day and age there is no shortage of investment opportunities and it only takes $14 or so to start a share portfolio.

Question number 4:

Do you make your own investing decisions?

Some people like to leave all of the decision making to others. Why?

Because they want someone else to blame if everything turns to custard and losses will occur. It is all very well asking a financial adviser where you should invest your money but investors need to take responsibility for their own decisions and use their common sense.

Fund managers make decisions on investors behalf but as an investor it is your choice of whether to invest in growth, balanced, or conservative funds, and that all depends on your time frame.

A mature person admits their mistakes and treats them as a learning experience and uses the lessons learned in order to make better decisions in the future.

About this article

You may use this article as content for your blog/website, or ebook. Feel free to share this article on social media.

Read my other articles on www.robertastewart.com