The purpose of investing is not to simply optimise returns and make yourself rich. The purpose is not to die poor.

An index fund is a fund that simply invests in all of the stocks in a market. So, for example, an index fund might invest in every single stock or almost every single stock in the U.S. market, it might invest in every single stock abroad, or it might invest in all of the bonds that are out there. And you can make a perfectly fine investing portfolio that mixes equal parts of all three of those.

The essence of effective portfolio construction is the use of a large number of poorly correlated assets.

It's bad enough that you have to take market risk. Only a fool takes on the additional risk of doing yet more damage by failing to diversify properly with his or her nest egg. Avoid the problem-buy a well-run index fund and own the whole market.

Market risk is like taking a plunge into a cool pool ... a lot of people are finding out right now what their risk tolerance is.

The reason that 'guru' is such a popular word is because 'charlatan' is so hard to spell.

Wall Street is littered with the bones of those who knew just what to do, but could not bring themselves to do it.