Tag Archives: Investing

16 Rules for Investment Success – Sir John Templeton

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“I never ask if the market is going to go up or down because I don’t know, and besides it doesn’t matter. I search nation after nation for stocks, asking: ‘Where is the one that is lowest-priced in relation to what I believe it’s worth?’ Forty years of experience have taught me you can make money without ever knowing which way the market is going.” ~ John Templeton

Sir John Templeton’s “16 rules for investment success” remain relevant in today’s volatile economic environment as they have for several decades.

Sir John Templeton was an investor and mutual fund pioneer who became a billionaire by pioneering the use of globally diversified mutual funds. He is known for searching far and wide for investments across countries and not restricting investments to UK or USA.

One of Templeton’s most noteworthy examples of investment success occurred when he bought stocks in 1939.

During the opening weeks of World War II and in response to the stock market crashing, Templeton bought 100 shares in stocks which were selling for $1 or less. Four out of the 104 companies in which he invested turned out worthless while he realized significant returns on the other companies.

John Templeton’s 16 rules for investment success include:

  1. Invest for maximum total real return. Templeton advises investors to be aware of how taxes and inflation erode returns and to avoid putting too much into fixed-income securities, which often fail to retain the purchasing power of the dollars spent to obtain them.
  2. Invest – don’t trade or speculate. Templeton warns that over-action and too much trading can eat into potential profits and eventually results in steady losses.
  3. Remain flexible and open-minded about types of investment. No one investment vehicle, whether it’s bonds, stocks, or futures, works best all the time. That being said, Templeton notes that the S&P 500 has “outperformed inflation, Treasury bills, and corporate bonds in every decade except the ’70s.”
  4. Buy low. While this advice might seem obvious, it often means that you’ll have to go against the crowd. When equities are popular and in demand, their prices are generally higher. Opportunities to buy low usually only come when when people are pessimistic about the market’s performance.
  5. When buying stocks, search for bargains among quality stocks. Templeton advocates identifying sales leaders, technological leaders, and trusted brands when selecting stocks to ensure a company is well-positioned and well-rounded before purchasing its stock.
  6. Buy value, not market trends or the economic outlook. Templeton emphasizes that individual stocks determine the market and not the other way around. The market can disconnect with economic reality.
  7. Diversify. In stocks and bonds, as in much else, there is safety in numbers. There are several advantages to portfolio diversification: you’re less likely to endure a major loss due to a freak event that devastates one company, and you also have a larger selection of investment vehicles from which to choose.
  8. Do your homework or hire wise experts to help you. Sir John insists that you must be aware of what you’re buying. In the case of stocks, you are either buying earnings (if you expect growth) or assets (if you expect an acquisition).
  9. Aggressively monitor your investments. Templeton notes that “there are no stocks that you can buy and forget.” Markets are in a state of perpetual flux, and change instantaneously. If you’re not aware of the changes, you’re probably losing money.
  10. Don’t panic. Even if everyone around you is selling, sometimes the best idea is to take a breath and hold on to your portfolio. In the event of a sell-off, only divest if you have identified more attractive stocks to pick up.
  11. Learn from your mistakes. The stock market is a lot like university: it can cost a lot of money to learn a few lessons. So don’t make the same mistakes twice. Learn from them, and they’ll turn into profit-making opportunities the next time.
  12. Begin with a prayer. Templeton believes this helps a person clear his or her mind and make fewer errors during a trading session or in stock selection.
  13. Outperforming the market is a difficult task. This rules, in effect, is a reality check. The largest hedge funds produce some extremely volatile returns from year to year, and some have produced negative returns. And those are the experts!
  14. An investor who has all the answers doesn’t even understand all the questions. “Pride comes before the fall.” Likewise, overconfidence or certainty in one’s investment style or knowledge of the market will inevitably end in failure. 
  15. There’s no free lunch. Never invest on sentiment, on a tip, or on an IPO just to ‘save’ commission.
  16. Do not be fearful or negative too often. While there have been plenty of bumps along the road, Templeton acknowledges that for “100 years optimists have carried the day in U.S. stocks.” In his opinion, globalization is bullish for equities, and he thinks stocks will continue to “go up…and up…and up.”

His lessons are the end result of a lifetime of knowledge, and include advice on stock selection, going against market sentiment, keeping your cool, and putting investing in perspective.

References:

  1. https://www.caporbit.com/16-rules-for-investment-success-john-templeton/
  2. https://www.businessinsider.com/templetons-16-rules-for-investment-success-2013-1
  3. https://www.gurufocus.com/news/157687/sir-john-templetons-16-rules-for-investment-success

How to Protect Your Money from Inflation

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Inflation causes your money to be worth less over time. To hedge against inflation, you need to invest your money in assets.

Inflation in the U.S. is at the highest rate in four decades.

Inflation decreases the purchasing power of your dollars over time. Here are steps you can take to protect the purchasing power of your dollars, according to Forbes.

  • Trim your expenses. To minimize the impact of inflation, review your spending and identify areas to reduce or eliminate completely.
  • Wait to pay off low-interest debt. Paying off debt is usually good, but you may want to hold off on making extra payments if you have low-interest debt. Your debt becomes less expensive due to inflation. Use the money for other purposes—like paying off higher-interest loans.
  • Invest your money. Inflation causes your savings to be worth less over time. To hedge against inflation, you need to invest your money. If the prospect of investing is scary, consider a diversified portfolio of broad market index funds to lower your risk levels and costs.

Getting inflation under control

The Federal Reserve is tasked with keeping inflation at a healthy level by adjusting the nation’s money supply and interest rates.

When the economy is expanding too quickly and inflation rises, the Fed will typically raise interest rates or sell assets to reduce the amount of cash in circulation. These actions tend to reduce demand within the economy and can push the economy into recession.

References:

  1. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/is-inflation-good-or-bad/

Warren Buffett Investing Lessons

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“Most people get interested in stocks [or assets like Bitcoin] when everyone else is. The time to get interested is when no one else is. You can’t buy what is popular and do well.” – Warren Buffett

Warren Buffett, Chairman and CEO, Berkshire-Hathaway, the Oracle of Omaha, has been the most successful investor of the 20th Century and is considered by many to be one of the greatest investors of all time.. His investment track record is simply remarkable with compounded annual returns over 20% over the last 55 plus years.

Essentially, if you had invested $10,000 USD in his investment firm Berkshire-Hathaway in 1965, that $10,000 USD would today be worth over $280 million US dollars.

What follows are several investing lessons all investors can learn from Buffett:

Investing Lesson 1: Risk Comes From Not Knowing What You are Doing

Many first-time investors have started trading in stocks and cryptocurrency without really understanding how these asset classes work. Buffett has advised investors to not chase everything that is new and shiny, and instead to only focus on the opportunities that they painstakingly researched and understand.

Stick to your circle of competence. Try not to be good at all things, and instead try to be great at one thing and give it all you`ve got. It`s better to be known for one thing than nothing.

“Never invest in a business you cannot understand.” Warren Buffett.

Investing Lesson 2: System Overpowers the Smart

Buffett advises that retail investors use a low-cost index fund. Investing via index funds gives you the advantage of a system, it allows for a disciplined investing cycle via SIPs and keeps emotions away from corrupting that framework. In other words, Buffett wants retail investors to follow a system over everything else.

And the system and a clear investing framework finding great business at good reasonable prices that have powered Berkshire Hathaway for the last five decades.

Change the way you see setbacks. You will make mistakes, probably lots of them, as long as you choose to swing for the fences. Buffett believes you can do well if you program your mind to see opportunities in every setback.

“A low-cost index fund is the most sensible equity investment for the great majority of investors.” Warren Buffett.

Investing Lesson 3: Have an Owner’s Mindset

Buying a stock is effectively buying a business and investors should follow the same kind of rigorous analysis and due diligence as one would do when buying a business.

The lesson here is that instead of getting too caught up in the recent movement of the stock price, you should spend more time analyzing the business fundamentals behind the stock price.

You can only genuinely value a business if you can accurately predict future cash flows. This is impossible without an understanding of the company’s operating environment and fundamentals.

And once you have answers to the pertinent questions, invest in a business that you would like to own for the next 10 to 20 years.

On how to invest in stocks. His response is a simple five-word answer: “Invest in the long term.”

“That whole idea that you own a business you know is vital to the investment process.” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 4: Be Fearful When Others are Greedy and Be Greedy When Others are Fearful

The stock markets work in cycles of greed and fear. When there is greed, people are ready to pay more than what a business is worth. But when fear sets in, then great businesses are available at huge discounts for anyone who is ready to keep their gloomy emotions aside.

In Berkshire’s 2018 shareholder letter, Buffett wrote, “Seizing opportunities does not require great intelligence, a degree in economics or a familiarity with Wall Street jargon such as alpha and beta. What investors need instead is an ability to both disregard mob fears or enthusiasms and to focus on a few simple fundamentals. A willingness to look unimaginative for a sustained period — or even to look foolish — is also essential.”

In other words, Buffett encourages investors to not follow the herd. And strip away emotions when making investment decisions, which is likely to open up more profitable opportunities.

“What investors need is an ability to both disregard mob fears or enthusiasms and to focus on a few simple fundamentals.” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 5: Save and Preserve Capital for A Golden Rainy Day

Warren Buffett goes by the philosophy – hold onto your money when money is cheap and spend aggressively when money is expensive.

Financial expert criticized Buffett for holding onto billions of dollars in cash and not deploying it in stocks. But Buffett was saving all that cash to be used when companies come down from the then astronomical valuations to more reasonable prices.

“Every decade or so, dark clouds will fill the economic skies and they will briefly rain gold. When a downpour of that sort occurs. It is imperative that we rush outdoors carrying washtubs and not teaspoons.” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 6: Never Invest Just Because a Company is Cheap

A cheap business may be cheap for a very good reason, but may not be a profitable or favorable investment.

His investing approach is to look at a business’s competitive advantage, intangibles like brand value, cost superiority and its strong growth prospects.

This goes hand-in-hand with his Buffett’s first rule of investing is “don’t lose money.” His second rule is “never forget rule number one.” In short, investors should try to avoid significant losses at all costs, but avoiding all losses is impossible.

“It is far better to buy a wonderful company at a fair price than a fair company at a wonderful price,” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 7: Time is The Friend of The Wonderful Business

Patience and time are important in investing and has investors can reap the benefits of compounding.

Additionally, “cash is king” and investors must avoid debt at all costs. Buffett has always had a strong net cash position. Cash gives optionality and means you’re unlikely to have to make hard decisions when the market becomes volatile and eventually turns.

Considering volatility, Buffett said, “There is simply no telling how far stocks can fall in a short period. Even if your borrowings are small and your positions are not immediately threatened by the plunging market, your mind may well become rattled by scary headlines and breathless commentary. And an unsettled mind will not make good decisions.”

Buffett is not a fan of the kind of debt that can leave consumers broke and helpless, especially when the markets go down.

“It is insane to risk what you have and need in order to obtain what you don’t need,” Warren Buffett

Investing Lesson 9: Keep It Simple

An element of simplicity is important. Buffett himself follows a simple to understand investing framework, which can best be defined as buying stakes in a business where the price you pay is far lower than the value you derive. He wants investors to invest in simple and understandable instruments only and using a process that one can easily digest.

For example, if you don’t understand cryptocurrency, don’t invest, trade, or speculate in Bitcoins or glamorous-looking investment vehicles we are exposed to every year.

“If you are uncomfortable with the asset class that you have picked, then chances are you will panic when others panic,” Warren Buffett

Finally, treat your body and mind like the only car you could have. If someone offered you the most expensive car in the world with a single condition that you never get another one, how will you treat this car?

With this analogy in mind, Buffett urges you to treat your body and mind the same way you treat your one, and only car. If you don’t take care of your mind and body now, by the time you are forty or fifty you’ll be like a car that can’t go anywhere.

Investing Bottomline

Buffett’s lessons are simple and straightforward. He submits to keep it simple, improve upon what you know, stay within your circle of competence and comfort zone, and there are enough opportunities for one to thrive in investing.

References:

  1. https://www.etmoney.com/blog/9-lessons-in-investing-by-warren-buffett/
  2. https://thetotalentrepreneurs.com/business-lessons-warren-buffet/
  3. https://addicted2success.com/life/5-lessons-we-can-all-learn-from-the-life-of-warren-buffett/
  4. https://finance.yahoo.com/news/5-warren-buffetts-most-important-224429018.html

Recession…recessions always come with significant increase in unemployment. It’s basically definitional. Employment and gross domestic product fall together during a recession.

Timeless Investing Lessons

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“It is near impossible to consistently outperform the market, which supports passive investing in lieu of active management strategies.” ~ Burton G. Malkiel

  1. Buy and hold investments for the long-term. Investment expenses and taxes will eat away at your returns. It’s impossible to perfectly time the market. You will make mistakes. Buying total market index fund will include buying nonprofitable companis in the mix. And, historical analysis shows:
    • When markets are high is when most people put money into the market.
    • When markets are low is when most people take money out of the market.
  2. Timing the market doesn’t work. Timing the market means selling assets at the top of the market and buying the asset at the bottom of the market. Successfully trying to time the stock market has never earned. Thus, you should not try to time the market.
  3. Dollar cost averaging. DCA means putting money into the market regularly overtime.
  4. Broad Diversification. You do not want all your personal capital and savings invested in a single stock or a single asset class, such as stocks only. You should diversify your investment across different asset classes (stocks and bonds), industries and countries. You want to own both domestic and foreign stocks, bonds, real estate and some cash.
  5. Cost matters. The two variable costs you can control are investment costs and taxes. Jack Bogle said, “you get what you don’t pay for.” Since, the lower the expense ratio the investor pays the purveyor of investment services, the more capital that is left over for the investor. Look carefully at the expense ratio.
  6. Index funds. Buy a total market index fund with zero or low expenses. Two-thirds of active investment managers are beaten by stock index funds annually. Ninety percent of active investment managers are beaten by stock index funds over a ten year period.
  7. Buy bond substitutes instead of total bond index fund such as preferred stocks or high yielding dividend paying established companies.
  8. Rebalance annually or at least bi-annually. This requires you to sale highly appreciated assets to buy assets that have not appreciated greatly or are on sale.

These are just a few timeless investing lessons that invest can follow to build wealth

References:

  1. https://www.wallstreetprep.com/knowledge/random-walk-theory/

Gratitude and Overcoming Limiting Beliefs

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Gratitude enables you to overcome your limiting beliefs.

Limiting thoughts and beliefs are false thoughts and beliefs that prevent you from pursuing your goals and desires. They can affect every aspect of your life from your wealth, health, relationships and emotional well-being. For example, if you believe you don’t deserve to be happy, you may never pursue your dreams or goals, and you will not be happy.
Gratitude in all things

Gratitude enables you to overcome and replace you limiting thoughts and beliefs with positive and abundant thoughts and beliefs. Further, your attitude, mood, behavior and thoughts improve when you practice gratitude.

The three keys to gratitude include :

  • Emote – to feel emotionally grateful
  • Extend – reach out and connect socially
  • Exercise – practice until it’s instilled

Be grateful in all circumstances, no matter what, both in good times and dark times. Although, it is easier to be thankful during good times than during hard times. The trials and sufferings in your life are there to strengthen you. They’re there for you to learn and grow.

Dr. Robert Emmons, known as the “world’s leading scientific expert on gratitude”, andis a psychology profession from the University of California, Davis and also the founding editor-in-chief of the Journal of Positive Psychology, found that being more grateful can lead to increased levels of well-being and that being grateful towards a higher power may lead to increased physical health. Giving thanks to those you are in a relationship with (not only your family) will strengthen the relationship.

Studies found that persons practicing gratitude showed more optimism in life, reduced stress, depression, and anxiety levels. It is a continuous loop.  The more you experience gratitude and say ‘thank you’  the more you will find in life to appreciate. When you choose gratitude over happiness even your self-control is stronger.

Research found that patients with heart failure showed reduced symptoms of heart failure and inflammation, improved sleep, and moods through keeping a gratitude journal.

Daily gratitude exercise

  • Reflect on three things your grateful for
  • Feel the gratitude in your body and
  • Extend the gratitude to others

When you practice gratitude, you change your thoughts and beliefs about yourself. You are happier and experience greater joy in life. And, when you change yourself, you change your perception of the world.

Be thankful for everything that God has given you. Apostle Paul declared, “I have learned the secret of being content in any and every situation, whether well fed or hungry, whether living in plenty or in want” (Philippians 4:12, NIV).

An attitude of gratitude and a spirit of thankfulness make all the difference. Thus, to change your life and your world, change your attitude and in all things, practice gratitude.

References;

  1. https://www.virtuesforlife.com/33-gratitude-affirmations-to-transform-limiting-beliefs/
  2. https://billygraham.org/story/how-to-be-thankful-in-all-things/
  3. https://lovegodgreatly.com/be-thankful-in-all-things/
  4. http://www.thelife.digital/tl/articles/gratitude-is-the-best-attitude/

“I am grateful to feel stronger, wiser and more confident with each new day.”

Qualified Dividends vs. Ordinary Dividends

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The distinction between Qualified and non-Qualified dividends has to do with how you’re taxed on those dividends.

  • Qualified dividends are taxed at 15% for most taxpayers. (It’s zero for single taxpayers with incomes under $40,000 and 20% for single taxpayers with incomes over $441,451.)
  • Ordinary dividends (or “nonqualified dividends”) are taxed at your normal marginal tax rate.

The concept of qualified dividends began with the 2003 tax cuts. Previously, all dividends were taxed at the taxpayer’s normal marginal rate.

The lower qualified rate was designed to fix one of the great unintended consequences of the U.S. tax code. By taxing dividends at a higher rate, the IRS was incentivizing companies not to pay them. Instead, it incentivized them to do stock buybacks (which were untaxed) or simply hoard the cash.

By creating the lower qualified dividend tax rate that was equal to the long-term capital gains tax rate, the tax code instead incentivized companies to reward their long-term shareholders with higher dividends. It also incentivized investors to hold their stocks for longer to collect them.

Qualified Dividends

To be qualified, a dividend must be paid by a U.S. company or a foreign company that trades in the U.S. or has a tax treaty with the U.S. That part is simple enough to understand.

Importance of dividends

From 1871 through 2003, 97% of the total after-inflation accumulation from stocks came from reinvesting dividends. Only 3% came from capital gains.”

To put this into perspective, take a look at the example used by John Bogle, where he writes: “An investment of $10,000 in the S&P 500 Index at its 1926 inception with all dividends reinvested would by the end of September 2007 have grown to approximately $33,100,000 (10.4% compounded). If dividends had not been reinvested, the value of that investment would have been just over $1,200,000 (6.1% compounded)—an amazing gap of $32 million.” The reinvestment of dividends accounted for almost all of the stocks’ long-term total return.

Dividends are an important consideration when investing in the share market as they provide a reliable source of return while you wait.

References:

  1. https://www.kiplinger.com/investing/stocks/dividend-stocks/601396/qualified-dividends-vs-ordinary-dividends

Price to Earnings (P/E) Ratio

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Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.

The price-to-earnings ratio, or P/E ratio, helps investors compare the price of a company’s stock to the earnings the company generates. The P/E ratio helps investors determine whether a stock is overvalued or undervalued.

By comparing the P/E ratios companies in the same industry, investors can determine which companies are relatively under or over valued in comparison to their industrial peers.

The P/E ratio is derived by dividing the market price of a stock by the stock’s earnings.

The market price of a stock tells you how much people are willing to pay to own the shares, but the P/E ratio tells you whether the price accurately reflects the company’s earnings potential, or it’s value over time.

If the P/E ratio is much higher than comparable companies, investors may end up paying more for every dollar of earnings.

The typical value investor search for companies with lower than average P/E ratios with the expectation that either the earnings will increase or the valuation will increase, which will cause the stock price to rise.

On occasion, a high P/E ratio can indicate the market is pricing in greater growth that’s expected in the future years.

A negative P/E ratio shows that a company has not reported profits, something that is not uncommon for new, early stage companies or companies undergoing financial perturbations.

Current stock price may be important in choosing a stock, but it shouldn’t be the only factor. A low market stock price does not necessarily correlate to a undervalued or cheap stock.

The P/E ratio is a key tool to help you compare the valuations of individual stocks or entire stock indexes, such as the S&P 500.

References:

  1. Rajcevic, Eddie, Greenbacks & Green Energy, Luckbox, May 2022, pg. 58.
  2. https://www.forbes.com/advisor/investing/what-is-pe-price-earnings-ratio/

Ten Critical Investing Lessons

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Investing in assets is a great way to grow your money or to put your capital to work.

If there’s any lessons investors relearned in 2022, when investing in stocks, bonds, derivatives and real estate, it’s that the markets will be unpredictable, defy logic and offer unexpected surprises.

Sometimes investors can correctly anticipate what’s coming based on our past investing experience and macro economic information. Other times, investors are reminded no matter what they thought they knew, the market always knows better.

For these reasons, it’s important to remember you can always become a better, more patient and disciplined investor, whether you’re learning lessons the hard way, reminded of lessons you previously learned, but forgot, or learning from the good or bad experiences of others.

Here are 10 Critical investing lessons you wish you could teach your younger, novice self:

1) Personal finances first – Master and manage your personal finances first and foremost. Dealing with volatility is never easy, but it’s so much easier when your personal finances are rock-solid (no bad or debilitating debt, positive cash flow and net worth, emergency fund established). Know and strengthen your personal balance and cash flow statements. And, always have some cash on hand to take advantage of market dips and pullbacks.

2) Expect to be wrong often when investing – You’re going to be wrong when investing. You’re going to be wrong a lot. Your goal isn’t to bat 1.000 (that’s impossible). Your goal is to increase your odds of success. Even the best investors are wrong approximately 2 out of 5 times.

3) Sell slow – Don’t be in a rush to sell – It’s tempting to book a profit quickly or sell when you get scared. One investor sold MSFT at $24. Current price: $268. Selling a mega-winner early is the most expensive investing mistake you can or will make. And, don’t forget about taxes when you earn income or sell assets. Any income (or profit) you earn from selling assets is taxable. Before you sell any appreciated asset or take any income, make sure you have enough money for the taxes so that your gains will not be wiped out by taxes alone.

4) Watch the business – Watch the business, not the stock. The two are not linked at all in the short-term. But are 100% linked in the long-term. Always remember, you’re buying a piece of a business, do understand the business and how that business generates cash flow.

5) Buy quality – Capital is precious. Making money and putting money to work for you are hard. Saving it and growing it are harder. Buy the highest-quality investments you can find. Avoid everything else. When you focus on buying quality, opportunities can be found in any market whether it be up (bull) or down (bear). Thus, stick to your long-term plan of buying quality companies every month and forget about how everybody else is performing.

6) Add to winners, not losers – Add more capital to your winners, not your losers. “Winners” means the business is executing. “Losers” means the business isn’t. Add to the best companies you can find at better and better value points.

7) Patience above all – Your biggest edge and investing super power is patience. Don’t waste it. Compounding over the long term is the greatest power of investing. Your holding period for an investment asset should be measured is in decades, not days.

8) Do nothing is usually correct – “Do nothing” (being a long term investor) sounds easy, until you start investing your capital. Investing should be more like watching paint dry than a Las Vegas casino. More often than not, it’s the correct thing to do. Ninety-nine percent of good investing is doing nothing. It’s essential to ignore the noise and the hysteria of Mr. Market. Never Let Short-Term Volatility Dictate Your Long-Term Investment Decisions.

9) Learn valuation – Know what valuation metrics matter and when they matter. P/E Ratio is great, but it’s not universally applicable, and it only works when a company is in mature (stage 4). Consider ROIC, P/FCF, and P/Sales. Remember: Every investment is the present value of all future cash flow.

10) Network with others – Connect with other trusted long-term investors and experts. A good community is worth its weight in gold. Especially when bear markets appear.

Final thought: Have a plan – A financial plan is paramount to your financial success. During periods of volatility, you often hear that investors should “stay the course”, but there is not a course to stay without having a comprehensive financial plan.

The plan should be based upon your goals, values, purpose and dreams for the future, short and long term. It is a roadmap for your financial future and it should provide a guide for how you invest. The plan should also address other areas such as retirement planning, estate planning, risk management, asset allocation review, and cash flow planning.

In all things, be grateful! Appreciate and be grateful for all aspects for your current life and the abundance of opportunities. Gratitude influences your state of mind, your behavior, your relationships and your perspective on the world.

Roman philosopher Cicero said that, “Gratitude is not only the greatest of the virtues but the parent of all the others.”

Source: Brian Feroldi, 10 Critical Investing Lessons, Twitter, June 25, 2022.

Warren Buffett’s Three Investing Principles

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If you want to invest on your own, billionaire investor Warren Buffett recommends three investing principles that have guided him over the decades.

The principles are derived from a book first published in 1949: “The Intelligent Investor”, written by Buffett’s mentor, Benjamin Graham:

Principle 1: Don’t look at a stock like it is a ticker symbol with a price that goes up and down on a chart. It’s a slice of a company’s profits far into the future, and that’s how they need to be evaluated.

Buffett has four things he wants to see, whether he’s buying the entire company for Berkshire, or just a slice of it as a stock:

  1. “One that we can understand …” When Buffett talks about “understanding” a company, he means he understands how that company will be able to make money far into the future. He’s often said he didn’t buy shares of what turned out to be very successful tech companies like Google and Microsoft because he didn’t understand them.
  2. “With favorable long-term prospects …” Buffett often refers to a company’s sustainable competitive advantage, something he calls a “moat.” A “moat” consists of things a company does to keep and gain loyal customers, such as low prices, quality products, proprietary technology, and, often, a well- known brand built through years of advertising, such as Coca-Cola. An established company in an industry that has large start-up costs that deter would be competitors can also have a moat.
  3. “Operated by honest and competent people …”. “Generally, we like people who are candid. We can usually tell when somebody’s dancing around something, or where their — when the reports are essentially a little dishonest, or biased, or something. And it’s just a lot easier to operate with people that are candid. “And we like people who are smart, you know. I don’t mean geniuses… And we like people who are focused on the business.” — 1995 BERKSHIRE ANNUAL MEETING. The quality of the business itself, however, takes precedence.
  4. “Available at a very attractive price.”Buffett’s goal is to buy when the price is below a company’s “intrinsic value.”“The intrinsic value of any business, if you could foresee the future perfectly, is the present value of all cash that will be ever distributed for that business between now and judgment day.“And we’re not perfect at estimating that, obviously”, Buffett stated. “But that’s what an investment or a business is all about. You put money in, and you take money out.”

Principle 2: The stock market is there to serve you, not instruct you.

Many non-professional investors become concerned when stock prices fall. They think the market is telling them they made a mistake. Some may even be so shaken that they sell stocks at the lower prices.

Buffett takes the opposite view. If he buys a stock because he thinks the company will be a long-term winner, he doesn’t let the market convince him otherwise.

Principle 3: Maintain a margin of safety

“We try not to do anything difficult …

“This is not like Olympic diving. In Olympic diving, they have a degree of difficulty factor. And if you can do some very difficult dive, the payoff is greater if you do it well than if you do some very simple dive.

“That’s not true in investments. You get paid just as well for the most simple dive, as long as you execute it all right. And there’s no reason to try those three-and-a-halfs when you get paid just as well for just diving off the side of the pool and going in cleanly.

“So, we look for one-foot bars to step over rather than seven-foot or eight-foot bars to try and set some Olympic record by jumping over. And it’s very nice, because you get paid just as well for the one-foot bars.” — 1998 BERKSHIRE ANNUAL MEETING

Low cost index funds

Buffett has long recommended that investors put their money in low-cost index funds, which hold every stock in an index, making them automatically diversified. The S&P 500, for example, includes big-name companies like Apple, Coca-Cola and Amazon.

Buffett said that for people looking to build wealth and their retirement savings, diversified index funds make “the most sense practically all of the time.”

“Consistently buy an S&P 500 low-cost index fund,” Buffett said in 2017. “Keep buying it through thick and thin, and especially through thin.”

References:

  1. https://fm.cnbc.com/applications/cnbc.com/resources/editorialfiles/2022/03/22/bwp22links.pdf
  2. https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/02/warren-buffett-says-investing-is-a-simple-game.html