Andrew Tobias's 'The Only Investment Guide You'll Ever Need' (Harcourt) has sold more than a million copies. A graduate of Harvard College and Harvard Business School, he has written extensively for such publications as Time , Worth , and Parade .
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A luxury once sampled becomes a necessity. PACE yourself.
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Pay off your credit cards!
Not having to pay 18% on a credit card is as good as earning 18% -- tax-free, risk-free.
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Buy in bulk when things are on sale.
You can easily stretch $1,000 to buy $1,400 of the very same items you'd have bought in the course of the year anyway. That's a 40% tax-free, risk-free return on your investment. Avoid doing this with alcohol, caviar or candy .
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Buy low-expense, no-load fund mutual funds.
In the investment race, over the long run, the horse with the lightest jockey - the lowest expense ratio - usually wins.
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People who buy stocks when they get a bonus and sell when they need a new roof are entrusting their investment strategy to their roofs.
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If you buy individual stocks, use a deep-discount broker.
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Don't buy things that are fairly valued. Buy things that are UNDERvalued.
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People who try to get rich quick generally get what's coming to them.
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If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.
Aesop probably said that, and maybe his great-great grandfather, too. But when I first wrote it, it seemed original.
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As Jerry Goodman (Adam Smith) so aptly advised - 'Don't fall in love with your stock. It doesn't know you own it.'
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Beware the permanent trend. Nothing lasts forever.
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Beware spreads .
Always check to see how much you would lose if the item you bought today you immediately sold tomorrow.
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Heed the words of Billy Rose, the old vaudevillian: 'Never invest in anything that eats or needs repairing.'
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Be a buyer, not a sellee - figure out what you need, and then shop around for the best deal.
Don't invest in something because your old college chum, let alone a stranger, is pitching it to you.
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Diversify - over asset classes, specific stocks, and over time.
For most people, the best strategy is a lifelong program of steady monthly investing in low-expense, no-load index funds.
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And then the most obvious, and least original: Buy things when nobody wants them; sell when everybody does.
Or as Bernard Baruch famously put it: "Buy straw hats in the winter. Summer will surely come."