Investors... can't pick stocks that are better than average. Stocks are a good thing to own over time. There's only two things you can do wrong: You can buy the wrong ones, and you can buy or sell them at the wrong time. And the truth is you never need to sell them.

Charlie and I have a number of filters that things have to get through before we'll think about them.

More investment sins are probably committed by otherwise quite intelligent people because of "tax considerations" than from any other cause. One of my friends-a noted West Coast philosopher-maintains that a majority of life's errors are caused by forgetting what one is really trying to do. This is certainly the case when an emotionally supercharged element like taxes enters the picture (I have another friend-a noted East Coast philosopher who says it isn't the lack of representation he minds-it's the taxation).

Does the business have favourable long term prospects?

Never depend on single income. Make investment to create a second source.

The patient that's on the floor with the cardiac arrest is not Wall Street. It's the American economy.

Too often, a vast collection of possessions ends up possessing its owner.