On the importance............................

 

.................of merging the longer view with a focus on the here and now.

Michael Wade's Substack is up and running.  Tune in!

Never crossed my mind.................

 

I wonder what Earth will be like 88 million years from now.

-Elon Musk

On volatility, debt, and endurance..................

 I think this is the most practical way to think about debt: As debt increases, you narrow the range of outcomes you can endure in life.

-Morgan Housel

1,408...................................

 

........................................and counting!

Actually seems fairly long................

        The average human lifespan is absurdly, terrifyingly, insultingly short.  Here's one way of putting things in perspective: the first modern humans appeared on the plains of Africa at least 200,000 years ago, and scientists estimate that life, in some form, will persist for another 1.5 billion years or more, until the intensifying heat of the sun condemns the last organism to death.  But you?  Assuming you live to be eighty, you'll have had about four thousand weeks.

-Oliver Burkeman, Four Thousand Weeks: Time Management for Mortals

Steady as she goes...............

 Hard money in the long run is more sustainable than easy money in the short run.

-Ben Carlson, as he looks to John Candy as an investing role model

The hardest work.....................

      The biggest challenge in the stock market is not Mr. Market or Mr. Value.  The biggest challenge is neither visible nor measurable; it is hidden in the emotional incapacities of each of us as investors.  Investing, like parenting teenagers, benefits from calm, patient persistence and a long-term perspective and constancy of purpose.  That's why "know yourself" is the cardinal rule in investing.

     The hardest work in investing is not intellectual; it's emotional.  Being rational in an emotional environment is not easy, particularly with Mr. Market always trying to trick you into making changes.  The hardest work is not figuring out the optimal investment policy; it's sustaining a long-term focus—particularly at market highs or market lows—and staying committed to your optimal investment policy.

-Charles D. Ellis,  Winning The Loser's Game:  Timeless Strategies for Successful Investing

Volatility.................................

So, we live in a time of great uncertainty, brought about by great political uncertainty. Great uncertainty leads to volatility. Volatility means that stocks are more risky, and thus must pay a greater expected return to get people to hold them. The only way for the expected future return to rise, is for today’s price to go down. So we see a correction – mild so far, to compensate for the mild risk of holding stocks through a few months of ups and downs.

-John Cochrane, as excerpted from here

A radical idea in investing............

Charlie and I view the marketable common stocks that Berkshire owns as interests in businesses, not as ticker symbols to be bought or sold based on their “chart” patterns, the “target” prices of analysts or the opinions of media pundits. Instead, we simply believe that if the businesses of the investees are successful (as we believe most will be) our investments will be successful as well. Sometimes the payoffs to us will be modest; occasionally the cash register will ring loudly. And sometimes I will make expensive mistakes. Overall – and over time – we should get decent results. In America, equity investors have the wind at their back.

-Warren Buffett, from page 10 of this Berkshire Hathaway annual report