finance

A budget tells us what we can't afford, but it doesn't keep us from buying it.

We need to pay as much attention to the MEANS, as to the END! This is the biggest principle of SUCCESS..The END is so enticing, that we lose sight of the details altogether..Success lies in the DETAILS!

But, in truth, it had not exactly been gold, or even the promise of gold, but more like the fantasy of gold, the fairy dream that the gold is there, at the end of the rainbow, and will continue to be there forever - provided, naturally, that you don't go and look. This is known as finance.

Those who say don't know, those who know don't say

NEVER accept "conventional wisdom" when it comes to finance. If others keep failing, why do you want to follow them?

Creating a complete picture of a company financial health, by looking at periodic financial statements, is like turning a hamburger into a cow

The __o nothing everything will be all right_ default plan is determined by the IRS and government.

In order to create something new, to invent a new product or idea, you need to anticipate where things are headed. That requires a mixture of certain habits of mind. You need to foster imagination, thoroughly understand the origins of past ideas, learn from others_ mistakes, talk to lots of people about ideas and test your hypotheses against people both alive and dead.

Corruption,' Jordan Belfort believes, 'is endemic to human being. I mean, even men in monasteries - where enticement is hard to come by _ even men in those circumstances have sex with other men and abuse children. Look at the Catholic Church! Man is an imperfect animal and he is corruptible, okay? And in finance, the liquid nature of the market makes corruption very easy. On Wall Street, this liquidity is so in your face -' he suddenly grits his teeth - 'that if you have even the slightest predisposition to the dark side, you become corrupted. In addition to which, those attracted to Wall Street have a predisposition to greed.

There is ample evidence that confirmation bias permeates throughout investors' decisions. For example, once an investor likes a stock, he is likely to seek out information that validates that stock. In a 2010 study, researchers showed that investors used message boards to seek out information that validated rather than challenged, stocks they owned (Park et al. 2010). If we own a stock, we tend to look for anything that validates our decision to buy it, and to reinforce why we should keep holding it.

I believe that the true definition of wealth is loving what you have rather than what you don__ have.

Instead of stocks investors should invest in blankets, that way they__l at least have something to keep them warm after they__e lost all their money when the company goes under.

We've been sold a dream of savings and investing that had no basis in any history or reality. We were participants in a vast experiment, a hope that personal finance and investments would do it all for us. We now know that for all too many people, it did not.

...you can ruin your credit in one seemingly responsible afternoon, but rebuilding it takes years.

Things change, not only in one__ life but also in the economyand on the political scene, and it pays to be aware. Is the foundationof your financial house secure, with an income that isguaranteed? Have you built solid walls, investing appropriately,and keeping inflation at bay? Are you living under a reliableroof, with assets positioned to grow? Is your house insulatedand sturdy, safe from any economic storm?

The personal checks and balances that most of us bring to bear when we are employed in other activities - we ask ourselves if we are producing a socially useful product - operate less well in finance because, with few exceptions, making money is the Raison d'être (reason for existence) for the financier

Smart Risk will shatter the emotional myths to investing and help Canadians see the opportunities in today's volatile market.

Exploitation to finance a beach house in Hawaii was one thing. Doing it to feed your kids was another.