When getting help with money, whether it is insurance, real estate or investments you should always look for a person with the heart of a teacher, not the heart of a salesman.
Interpretation
Seek guidance from those who genuinely wish to educate rather than just sell.
This quote emphasizes the importance of finding advisors in financial matters who prioritize teaching and empowering their clients over just making sales. A 'heart of a teacher' implies a commitment to sharing knowledge and ensuring that individuals understand their financial choices, which ultimately leads to better decision-making and financial literacy.
In practice
During a financial seminar, I would quote Dave Ramsey to highlight the importance of knowledgeable advisors.
Debt is so ingrained into our culture that most Americans can't even envision a car without a payment ... a house without a mortgage ... a student without a loan ... and credit without a card. We've been sold debt with such repetition and with such fervor that most folks can't conceive of what it would be like to have NO payments.
The thing I have discovered about working with personal finance is that the good news is that it is not rocket science. Personal finance is about 80 percent behavior. It is only about 20 percent head knowledge.
Debt collectors like to play on your emotions because they think you'll give in and do something you can't really afford to do. Most of them don't care about you or your situation as long as they get some money.
Hitting bottom and hitting it hard was the worst thing that ever happened to me and the best thing that ever happened to me.
Your priorities, passions, goals, and fears are shown clearly in the flow of your money.
You have to teach children about money intentionally - create teachable moments.
If I was counselling an individual, and my purpose was to help that individual, the most important thing would be that you should save more. Because don't expect that your retirement will follow those trajectories that some advisers are telling you.
The securitisation of mortgages added a new dimension of systemic risk. Financial engineers claimed they were reducing risks through geographic diversification: in fact they were increasing them by creating an agency problem. The agents were more interested in maximising fee income than in protecting the interests of bondholders. That is the verity that was ignored by regulators and market participants alike.
The average investor's return is significantly lower than market indices due primarily to market timing.
Don't try to buy at the bottom and sell at the top. It can't be done except by liars.
At long as a stock is acting right, and the market is right, do not be in a hurry to take profits. One should never permit speculative ventures to run into investments.
In other words, the percentage change in book value in any given year is likely to be reasonably close to that year's change in intrinsic value.
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