Culled Financial Wisdom

Several times a year my crack staff pulls together a mélange of the best and most useful bits of wisdom that we have come across. We put these together for your amusement, enlightenment, and hopefully, profit. Let’s dive in:

“Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future.” - Niels Bohr; and “The hardest thing about being a historian is predicting the past.” - attributed to various Soviet-era scholars.

“Everybody wants money. That’s why they call it money.” - Danny De Vito (In the movie ‘The Heist’); Reminds me of Willy Sutton’s reply to “Why do you rob banks?” — “Because that’s where the money is.”

“A banker is a fellow who lends you his umbrella when the sun is shining but wants it back the minute it begins to rain.” - Mark Twain.

“I intend to live forever, or die trying.” - Groucho Marx. This is a version of “Today is the oldest that you have ever been and the youngest that you will ever be.”

“Reality is the leading cause of stress among those in touch with it.” - Lily Tomlin — A spin on Robin Williams’ “Reality, what a concept.”

“The indispensable first step to getting things that you want out of life is this; decide what you want.” - Ben Stein. And financial planners will tell you that knowing exactly what you want is a rarer commodity than you might first imagine.

“You can tell if a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.” - Naguib Mahfous. Docs take note.

“Scientific education in medicine has been compared to teaching would-be tailors about the molecular structure of wool, how to grow cotton and how yarn is spun in a mill. After that, they are sent out to tailor clothes.” —Anonymous (but probably a doctor). This is what I have been writing about for years: the need to re-shape the medical curriculum to the reality of medical practice. It harms what we are trying to do to not have our arms around the business and organizational context in which we function. And leaving the acquisition off this knowledge base to “On the Job Training” and the “College of Hard Knocks,” as most of us have been forced to do, is beyond a foolish waste of time, money, and optimized results, medical and financial. The scientific underpinnings of medicine are necessary for practice, but not sufficient without a trained awareness of context.

“Wealth is the ability to fully experience life.” — Thoreau. Adding financial wealth, however, can help open a few more doors to that experience, most would agree….

“You’ve got to save a lot of money for retirement. More than you think. More than you want to.” — Unknown – and ouch.

“The biggest mistake that people make is looking for ideas or thoughts that support their existing opinions. You don’t learn anything that way.” - Matt Hougan.

“When looking for investment advice, consider the source.” - Rick Ferri. And that would be good for all advice, not just financial.

And lastly, “You just meet some guys in your life who know how to make money.” - Overheard in Silicon Valley.