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It's bad enough that you have to take market risk. Only a fool takes on the additional risk of doing yet more damage by failing to diversify properly with his or her nest egg. Avoid the problem-buy a well-run index fund and own the whole market.

William J. Bernstein

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William J. Bernstein
Age: 76
Born: 1948
Born: January 1
Author
Chemist
Economist
Neurologist
Writer
Take
Failing
Nests
Whole
Fool
Eggs
Enough
Risk
Properly
Takes
Fund
Running
Damage
Diversify
Problem
Investing
Index
Wells
Avoid
Nest
Well
Market
Additional

More quotes by William J. Bernstein

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The essence of effective portfolio construction is the use of a large number of poorly correlated assets.
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No one in his right mind would walk into the cockpit of an airplane and try to fly it, or into an operating theater and open a belly. And yet they think nothing of managing their retirement assets. I've done all three, and I'm here to tell you that managing money is, in its most critical elements even more demanding than the first two.
William J. Bernstein
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You have to understand what market history looks like. What market history tells you is that the very, very best investments are made when things look the worst.
William J. Bernstein
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The key thing about any fund is to make sure its expenses are low. You know, if you look at the funds in your plan and you see that they're all charging 1.5 and 2 percent,you've gota bad plan.
William J. Bernstein
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If your broker or investment advisor is not familiar with the concept of standard deviation of returns, get a new one.
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The typical fund company services 401k plan participants in the same way that Baby Face Nelson serviced banks.
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The reason that 'guru' is such a popular word is because 'charlatan' is so hard to spell.
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The definition of investment is the deferring ofpresent consumption for future consumption. So, you dohave to be willing to defer. And there are a couple of tricks that you can use to save money. One of them is simply to pay yourself first.
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There are two kinds of investors, be thay large or small: those who don't know where the market is headed, and those who don't know that they don't know.
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When it comes to fund managers and market strategists, this year's hero usually turns into next year's zero.
William J. Bernstein
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For the taxable investor, indexing means never having to say you're sorry.
William J. Bernstein
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99% of fund managers demonstrate no evidence of skill whatsoever.
William J. Bernstein
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It's human nature to find patterns where there are none and to find skill where luck is a more likely explanation (particularly if you're the lucky manager).
William J. Bernstein
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Do the math. Expect catastrophes. Whatever happens, stay the course.
William J. Bernstein
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All the things that make us human make us terrible investors and you have to understand what they are and how to avoid them.
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The key aspect of an index fund is that many of them, not all of them, but many of them are extremely cheap.
William J. Bernstein
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Investment success accrues not so much to the brilliant as to the disciplined.
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The purpose of investing is not to simply optimise returns and make yourself rich. The purpose is not to die poor.
William J. Bernstein
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Market risk is like taking a plunge into a cool pool ... a lot of people are finding out right now what their risk tolerance is.
William J. Bernstein
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Wall Street is littered with the bones of those who knew just what to do, but could not bring themselves to do it.
William J. Bernstein