Among the quotes attributed to Mark Twain is this one: “It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” This highlights one of the challenges of personal finance: that the data and the conclusions we rely on for decision-making can never [...]
Avoiding errors
On April 1, 1976, Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak founded Apple Computer. What’s less well known is that originally there was a third co-founder, an engineer named Ronald Wayne. Wayne’s tenure at the company was short, though. Concerned by the risk—and by Jobs’s personality—Wayne sold his stake in the [...]
The center lane
What’s the first rule in personal finance? My suggestion: Always look for ways to stay in the center lane—that is, to take a balanced approach. As the new year gets started, here are 10 ways you could apply this principle. Housekeeping. Over time, many of us accumulate a mixed bag of investment [...]
Avoiding regret
I spoke recently with a fellow who had climbed Mount Everest. The first question I asked: What was it like at the top? What I expected him to say was that the view was dramatic. Instead, he said, his time at the summit turned out to be less than he’d expected. For starters, it was 4:45 in the [...]