Buffett's 93rd Birthday: 93 Nuggets of Investment Wisdom

Today (August 30th) is the 93rd birthday of the stock god Warren Buffett.

Buffett's value extends far beyond investing. His investment wisdom can be seen as a form of "general" wisdom.

Today, we have selected 93 pieces of Buffett's investment wisdom to share with everyone.

Wishing the stock god a happy birthday, good health, and continued delivery of more "golden quotes" for us.

We are not good at timing the market.

We don't know when to buy what, but we always hope that the market will have a period of decline so that we can buy more.

When you read an article with the headline "Investors Lose Money as the Market Falls," please smile.

In your mind, it should be edited as "When the market falls, speculators lose money, but investors profit."

Our satisfactory performance comes from a dozen or so truly correct decisions - about one every five years.

Flowers bloom brilliantly, while weeds wither silently. Over time, only a few winners are needed to create miracles.

Diversification is better. That's what I do, and it has yielded good results.

When you buy, it won't be at the lowest price, and no one will figure out when to buy for you, but you have to be prepared.

Buy companies. Diversify your purchases.

In my opinion, the most suitable investment method for most people is to hold S&P 500 index funds.

There will always be someone trying to sell you something else because they make money when you buy.

We welcome market declines because they allow us to pick up more stocks at new, panic-inducing cheap prices.

I hope that everyone, when buying stocks, can have a mindset that you are not buying stocks, but rather a part of the company's business.

Perhaps you may ask, is now a good time to buy stocks? It depends on what you mean by "good."

Does buying stocks mean they will rise? I don't know about that "good."

Tomorrow, next week, next month, next year, whether stocks rise or fall, I don't know.

All I know is that by diversifying your stock purchases and holding them for twenty or thirty years, you will definitely reap the rewards.

You might think an old man talking about twenty or thirty years is quite optimistic.

I just hope that everyone knows that when buying stocks, you are buying a stake in the company, so don't treat stocks as chips and only focus on their ups and downs, only thinking about trading.

We have no idea how the stock market will perform after it opens, not even the slightest clue.

We will never buy (stocks) based on how the stock market will move. We cannot accurately time the market.

Charlie and I have never liked playing the game of predicting interest rates because we don't know what the average rate will be over the next year, ten years, or thirty years.

We welcome market declines because they allow us to pick up more stocks at new, panic-inducing cheap prices.

The future stock prices could change in any way. Sometimes, the stock market crashes, with declines of up to 50% or even more.

However, for those who don't borrow money to speculate in stocks and can control their emotions, hitching a ride on the economic tailwind will help stocks become a better long-term choice. First the innovators come, then the imitators come, and finally the fools come.

By regularly investing in index funds, an amateur investor who knows nothing can often outperform most professional investors.

Our CEO will always be the Chief Risk Officer - even though he or she is not required to assume this responsibility.

The best investment is to invest in yourself. By doing what you are good at and becoming a useful member of society, you don't have to worry about your money losing value due to high inflation.

A person can enjoy the shade of a tree today because they planted it a long time ago.

When a wealthy person meets an experienced person, the experienced person will ultimately gain wealth, while the wealthy person will leave with experience.

The only value of stock prediction experts is to make fortune tellers look good.

Only those who are planning to sell stocks in the near future will be happy to see stock prices rise, while potential buyers should prefer prices that continue to fall.

It's like someone who plans to eat hamburgers for a lifetime but doesn't raise cows, always hoping for lower beef prices.

Once you buy at the bottom, the stock price will rise all the way, so you won't be able to buy the most.

The most important thing is not to "take risks."

If you don't plan to hold a stock for ten years, don't hold it for ten minutes.

It is impossible to buy at the bottom.

In fact, price is a game, so when buying at a low point, don't overly consider the price factor.

Why would you risk something important to you in order to obtain something that is not important to you?

I don't care if the probability of success is 100 to 1 or 1000 to 1, I won't do such a thing.

The work you want to do after achieving financial freedom is the work you should be doing now. That is the ideal job.

Doing this kind of work will make you happy, allow you to learn, and be filled with passion.

You will jump out of bed every day and cannot go a day without working.

People always say that we learn from mistakes, but I think it's best to learn from other people's mistakes as much as possible.

If I could live again, I would only want to do one thing, choose the genes that allow me to live to 120 years old.

I don't like easy businesses because easy businesses attract competitors. I like businesses with moats. I hope to have a priceless castle guarded by a duke who possesses both talent and virtue.

If someone tells you to charge forward, then charge forward; if someone tells you to run quickly, then run quickly... Brokerages are especially willing to befriend you.

I would rather have a blurred correctness than an accurate mistake.

In a struggling company, as soon as one problem is solved, another one arises - there will never be just one cockroach in the kitchen.

We do not want to associate with managers who lack respectable character, no matter how attractive the prospects of their companies may be. We have never successfully done business with a bad person.

We will never want a 99 to 1 odds, never. In our view, a small opportunity for pain and shame cannot be offset by a big opportunity for excess returns.

Most investors, including institutional and individual investors, will eventually realize that the best way to invest in stocks is to buy low-cost index funds. If you play cards for half an hour and still don't know who the rookie is, then you are.

Investing is mainly about avoiding stupid decisions rather than making a few extraordinary and wise decisions.

The fastest way to bankrupt a millionaire is to tell him insider information.

Compound interest is a bit like rolling a snowball down a mountain.

At the beginning, the snowball is small, but if it rolls down for a long enough time and sticks together tightly, it will become very big in the end.

Margin of safety: When building a bridge, you insist on a load capacity of 30,000 pounds, but you only allow trucks weighing 10,000 pounds to shuttle through.

The same principle applies to the field of investment.

If the stock market is in a bullish sentiment, you will pay a high price to enter.

I never intend to make money on the day after buying stocks. When I buy stocks, I always assume that the stock exchange will close tomorrow and reopen after 5 years.

The reason we succeed is not because we try to skip a 7-foot fence, but because we look for some 1-foot railings that we can easily cross.

Don't invest in businesses that even fools can do, because one day fools will do it too.

Never ask a barber if you need a haircut.

If we have a firm long-term investment expectation, then short-term price fluctuations are meaningless to us unless they give us the opportunity to increase our holdings at a cheaper price.

In almost any field, professionals achieve significantly higher achievements than laymen. But this is often not the case in money management.

Fear and greed, these two highly contagious disasters, will always appear in the investment world. We just need to be fearful when others are greedy and greedy when others are fearful.

When people forget the most basic common sense that "two plus two equals four," it is time to sell.

Assume that you only have one investment decision card that can be used for 20 holes. Every time you make an investment, you punch a hole on the card. Conversely, the number of times you can make investment decisions is reduced by one.

If investors are really restricted in this way, they will patiently wait for excellent investment opportunities to appear instead of making rash decisions.

When gold is falling from the sky, you should use a large bucket to catch it, not a small ring.

The risk comes from whether the company's business is easy to do, and the risk comes from whether you really understand the investment you are making.

As long as you understand the company's business and have a clear view of the company's management, there is not much risk.

Even with enough insider information and $1 million, you can still go bankrupt within a year.

Whether we are talking about socks or stocks, I like to buy high-quality goods when they are on sale.

Stable price levels are like virginity, they seem to be able to be maintained but not repaired.

A bull market is like sex. When you feel the climax is approaching, it means it's almost over.

We see a fat man and don't know if he weighs 270 pounds or 290 pounds. It doesn't matter, he's definitely a fat man.

The good business we are looking for is a fat man that can be seen at a glance.

Although we hope to spend 40 cents to buy something worth 1 yuan, if we come across a good business, we are willing to pay nearly 1 yuan to buy it. You only have one body and one mind. Treat your body and mind well, as if they are the only vehicle you have in your lifetime.

When it comes to investing, if you have an IQ of 150, you can easily sell 30 points to others.

Investing doesn't require genius-level IQ, but rather stable emotions, a calm mindset, and the ability to think independently, because in investing, you will face various stimuli.

An investment opportunity that requires a computer or calculator to calculate should not be bought. It should be classified as "too difficult".

A good investment opportunity is obvious. It should shout at you to buy, and you don't need to constantly calculate it in Excel.

If you tell me that eating healthy broccoli every day can extend your life by one year, I wouldn't choose that. I would still choose to eat what I like and live comfortably. I believe that happiness is the most important factor in living a long life.

Once you reach a certain level of wealth, you can live a different life. But beyond that level, having 10 times or 20 times more money is unnecessary.

Don't think that earning 10 times or 20 times more can solve all the problems in life. Such thinking can easily lead you astray.

We never dwell on the past. We believe that there is so much to look forward to in the future, so why bother clinging to the past?

Don't dwell on the past, as it is useless. Life can only be lived by looking forward.

In the case of limited funds, if you truly understand the companies you want to invest in, six is already a lot. If it were me, I might choose three that I have the highest confidence in.

There are three secrets to successful investing: first, protect your capital; second, protect your capital; third, remember the first and second rules.

The best trades, at the beginning, almost always tell you not to buy based on the numbers alone.

The market is like a god, helping those who help themselves. But unlike a god, it does not forgive those who don't know what they are doing. So, don't touch things you don't understand.

For most investors, what matters is not what they know, but whether they truly understand what they don't know.

If the market were always efficient, I would just be a homeless person on the street carrying a tin can. In fact, the market is indeed efficient most of the time. But there are times when the market goes crazy.

You are dealing with many fools in the market, like a huge casino where everyone except you is indulging themselves. If you keep drinking Pepsi, you might win.

Knowing the size of your circle of competence is much more important than the size of your competence. Or in other words, even people with a large circle of competence can suffer greatly outside of it.

Only when the tide goes out do you know who has been swimming naked.

People often refer to day traders who enter and exit the stock market on a daily basis as investors, just like how everyone considers love cheats who have one-night stands as romantic partners.

Interest rates are like gravity for stock market investments.

Some people always invest in only one stock, but I believe balance is important in investing. That's how I do it, and I have achieved some success. My company, my business, and my perspectives are all cross-industry. Short-term stock market predictions are poison and should be kept in the safest place, away from children and those investors who behave like immature children in the stock market.

If you can't afford a 50% drop in stock prices, you shouldn't be trading stocks.

If you find yourself in a hole, the most important thing is to stop digging.

In a marathon race, the prerequisite for coming in first is to complete the entire course.

Many people in the stock market are like ducks in a pond. Due to heavy rain, the water level rises and the ducks float up with it.

But at this point, the ducks think they are floating up on their own, not because of the water level in the pond.

How much wealth you can accumulate in your lifetime does not depend on how much money you can earn, but on how you invest and manage your finances. It's better to have money work for you than to work for money.

Current financial courses may only help you do ordinary things. Who would be willing to teach investment to someone who is already good at it?

The risk comes from not knowing what you are doing.

Read 500 pages a day, and wisdom will accumulate.

A partner is the biggest investment in life. When choosing a partner, if you make a mistake, it will cost you a lot, not just in terms of money.

Find what you are truly not good at and avoid it. Even if you are smart, you cannot excel at something you are not interested in.

The only thing I have learned from history is that the masses have never learned from history.

I believe that a transparent company's management will benefit investors. CEOs who mislead others in public will eventually mislead themselves in private.

If you have no principles in small matters, you will have no principles in big matters.

When you reach my age, you will find that the measure of your success is how many people truly care about you and love you.