Baruch's Rules for Investing

Rule 4 can help us maintain financial peace of mind

Bernard Baruch was an investor and an advisor to several presidents. In his memoir, he wrote out ten rules for investing. Here’s rule number 4:

“Don’t try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. This can’t be done—except by liars.”

I draw two useful lessons from this:

The first is that we shouldn’t strive for perfection. It’s not possible, and we run the risk of overthinking, which can lead to worse results.

The second lesson is that we shouldn’t pay too much attention to what other people might claim about their portfolio successes. Often, it’s not true. But at the very least, it’s a distraction.