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

A fast food job, for most people, should be an entry level position. If you see no path for advancement beyond that, it's time to take a real fast look at your human capital and learn a skill that will make you more money.

There are two kinds of investors, be thay large or small: those who don't know where the market is headed, and those who don't know that they don't know.

The key aspect of an index fund is that many of them, not all of them, but many of them are extremely cheap.

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.

A decade ago, I really did believe that the average investor could do it himself. I was wrong. I've come to the sad conclusion that only a tiny minority, at most one percent, are capable of pulling it off. Heck, if Helen Young Hayes, Robert Sanborn, Julian Robertson, and the nation's largest pension funds can't get it right, what chance does John Q. Investor have?