Friday, October 17, 2008

In the words of Mr Buffett, now is the time to invest!

I know almost nothing about the stock market, like so many other aspects of life. Early in my life, I learnt that I don't need to know everything (probably because I can't) - it was far more important to identify an expert in a particular sphere and factor that person's better judgment in my decision making process.

I am not alone in saying that when it comes to stocks, there is no maven bigger than Warren Buffett. Here is what he says about investing in today's economy:
You might think it would have been impossible for an investor to lose money during a century marked by such an extraordinary gain. But some investors did. The hapless ones bought stocks only when they felt comfort in doing so and then proceeded to sell when the headlines made them queasy.

Today people who hold cash equivalents feel comfortable. They shouldn’t. They have opted for a terrible long-term asset, one that pays virtually nothing and is certain to depreciate in value. Indeed, the policies that government will follow in its efforts to alleviate the current crisis will probably prove inflationary and therefore accelerate declines in the real value of cash accounts.

Equities will almost certainly outperform cash over the next decade, probably by a substantial degree. Those investors who cling now to cash are betting they can efficiently time their move away from it later. In waiting for the comfort of good news, they are ignoring Wayne Gretzky’s advice: “I skate to where the puck is going to be, not to where it has been.”

I don’t like to opine on the stock market, and again I emphasize that I have no idea what the market will do in the short term. Nevertheless, I’ll follow the lead of a restaurant that opened in an empty bank building and then advertised: “Put your mouth where your money was.” Today my money and my mouth both say equities.
Not only is the man rich, he's wise and very eloquent. After reading words like his, there should be no guessing what I'll be doing starting Monday and the rest of next week.

No comments:

Post a Comment