What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

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mevans154
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What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by mevans154 »

OK all you Bogleheads out there, I have a fun question for all of you...
What is your favorite Financial (Money Related) Quote, Analogy, Metaphor, or Funny Saying?

Here are a couple of my favorites:
1. "A fool and their money are soon parted" - W.C. Fields
2. "Be greedy when everyone is panicking, and panic when everyone is being greedy"
3. "I wish I had a dollar for every dollar that I had".

Next...
"Be greedy when everyone is panicking, and panic when everyone else is greedy"... Couldn't agree more!!!
lhl12
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by lhl12 »

"The best way to teach your kids about money is not to have any."
BahamaMan
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by BahamaMan »

"More money has been lost reaching for yield than at the point of a gun” is a popular financial quote that was said by Raymond F. DeVoe, Jr., of Legg Mason Wood Walker Inc., in February 1995.
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jmndu99
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by jmndu99 »

Ein­stein said: “Those who under­stand inter­est earn it, those who don’t, pay it.”
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by linenfort »

I made all my money selling too soon.
- JP Morgan
TomCat96
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by TomCat96 »

"Markets can stay irrational longer than you can remain solvent"-Keynes
lhl12
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by lhl12 »

"What you have inherited from your father, you must earn in order to possess." - Goethe
Pacific
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Pacific »

There is more than one road to Dublin. -- Taylor Larimore
lhl12
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by lhl12 »

"Interest never sleeps nor sickens nor dies; it never goes to the hospital; it works on Sundays and holidays; it never takes a vacation; it never visits nor travels; it takes no pleasure; it is never laid off work nor discharged from employment; it never works on reduced hours; it never has short crops nor droughts; it never pays taxes; it buys no food; it wears no clothes; it is unhoused and without home and so has no repairs, no replacements, no shingling, plumbing, painting, or whitewashing; it has neither wife, children, father, mother, nor kinfolk to watch over and care for; it has no expense of living; it has neither weddings nor births nor deaths; it has no love, no sympathy; it is as hard and soulless as a granite cliff. Once in debt, interest is your companion every minute of the day and night; you cannot shun it or slip away from it; you cannot dismiss it; it yields neither to entreaties, demands, or orders; and whenever you get in its way or cross its course or fail to meet its demands, it crushes you."

- J. Rueben Clark, Mormon Church
lhl12
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by lhl12 »

"What difference does it make how much is laid away in a man's safe or in his barns, how many head of stock he grazes or how much capital he puts out at interest, if he is always after what is another's and only counts what he is yet to get, never what he has already? You ask what is the proper limit to a person's wealth? First, having what is essential, and second, having what is enough."

- Seneca
lhl12
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by lhl12 »

"Those people who were really smart and shrewd lost a lot of money. The people who weren't really smart and shrewd got wiped out."

- Former Treasury Secretary Robert Rubin referring to the bear market of the early 1970's.
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nisiprius
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by nisiprius »

Here are three. If you don't happen to know the author, I will leave it as an exercise to perform a Google search on them.

"Successful investing involves doing just a few things right and avoiding serious mistakes."

"When all else fails, fall back on simplicity... When there are multiple solutions to a problem, choose the simplest one."

"Time is your friend. Impulse is your enemy."

And two more, from Taylor Larimore.

"When experts disagree it is often because it doesn't matter." <---Maybe this my very favorite.

"There are many roads to Dublin." (As already quoted by Pacific).

And then there's the quotation in my sig.
Last edited by nisiprius on Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:20 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen nineteen and six, result happiness; Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds ought and six, result misery.
Sconie
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Sconie »

Here are a few that I've always liked:

-"If you wait until you need cash to get cash, it's too late."

-"Sometimes it is not a matter of price and cost, but of value and trust."

-"You'll remember the quality long after you've forgotten the price." (Don't buy cheap stuff!).

-"Finance and investment experts were put on earth to make Gypsies and fortune-tellers look good."

-"Approximately 99% of the time, the single most important thing investors should do is absolutely nothing."---Jason Zweig
I know you think you understand what you thought I said but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant. - Alan Greenspan
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BTDT
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by BTDT »

Stay the course
If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians.
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blueblock
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by blueblock »

I know this sounds trite, but it is the single most important financial dictum that I ever took to heart: live below your means; invest the rest.
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BTDT
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by BTDT »

blueblock wrote:I know this sounds trite, but it is the single most important financial dictum that I ever took to heart: live below your means; invest the rest.
That is in no way "trite" and perhaps the best quote so far!
If past history was all that is needed to play the game of money, the richest people would be librarians.
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by cadreamer2015 »

Bulls make money, bears make money, pigs get slaughtered.
De gustibus non disputandum est
athan
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by athan »

Rich or poor, it's good to have money.
Angst
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Angst »

Caveat emptor.
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Gort
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Gort »

Save until it hurts, then save some more.
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jimmyq
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by jimmyq »

I love money. I love everything about it. I bought some pretty good stuff. Got me a $300 pair of socks. Got a fur sink. An electric dog polisher. A gasoline powered turtleneck sweater. And, of course, I bought some dumb stuff, too. ---Steve Martin
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MEA
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by MEA »

2. “Money has never made man happy, nor will it, there is nothing in its nature to produce happiness. The more of it one has the more one wants.” Benjamin Franklin
“Stay the course is the most important piece of advice I can give you.”-Bogle
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Dutch
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Dutch »

Show me the money! - Jerry Maguire
JimmyfromSunPrairie
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by JimmyfromSunPrairie »

"The bank owes me money instead of me owing the bank money"
Last edited by JimmyfromSunPrairie on Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:51 pm, edited 1 time in total.
rnitz
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by rnitz »

As both a creator of financial reports and a consumer of them, I've always been partial to: "Profit is an opinion, Cash is a fact."
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arcticpineapplecorp.
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by arcticpineapplecorp. »

Don't know the exact quote but something like "When the market goes people forget about risk and focus on opportunity and when the market goes down people focus on risk and forget about opportunity"

“If your outflow exceeds your income, then your upkeep will be your downfall.” – Bill Earle

"Most people don't plan to fail; they fail to plan" -- John Beckley

"Don't do something, just stand there"

"I started out with nothin and I still have most of it left" -- Seasick Steve

Don't put all your eggs in one basket.

Stocks help you eat well, bonds help you sleep well.

Investing is a marathon, not a sprint.

You can't have wealth without risk.

Risk and Return are inextricably linked. If you want high returns, you have to accept higher risk. If you want low risk, you have to settle for lower returns.
Last edited by arcticpineapplecorp. on Mon Jan 25, 2016 7:57 pm, edited 5 times in total.
It's hard to accept the truth when the lies were exactly what you wanted to hear. Investing is simple, but not easy. Buy, hold & rebalance low cost index funds & manage taxable events. Asking Portfolio Questions | Wiki
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patrick013
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by patrick013 »

Efficient Market Theory - you will know exactly why you lost
all your money the day after you lose it.
age in bonds, buy-and-hold, 10 year business cycle
Jcraz13
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Jcraz13 »

"In order to make money they didn't need , they risked money they did have and did need"

Warren Buffett , regarding the failure of Long Term Capital Management, described in Roger Lowensteins book.
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Kenkat
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Kenkat »

Money isn't everything - until you don't have any.

-- My Dad
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by jginseattle »

I recently came across this one. It's so grim that it's funny.

For all financial market participants, survival is the only objective that matters.

-Andrew Lo
peppers
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by peppers »

"Don't Count on It"
"..the cavalry ain't comin' kid, you're on your own..."
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cheese_breath
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by cheese_breath »

A penny saved is a penny earned.

Take care of the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves.

Penny wise and pound foolish.

If you would know the value of money, go and try to borrow some.

Too many people spend money they earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people that they don’t like.
The surest way to know the future is when it becomes the past.
mt
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by mt »

"Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure nineteen pounds nineteen and six, result happiness. Annual income twenty pounds, annual expenditure twenty pounds nought and six, result misery". Wilkins Micawber (Charles Dickens)
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Epsilon Delta
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Epsilon Delta »

cheese_breath wrote: Too many people spend money they earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people that they don’t like.
It's usually given as:
Will Rogers wrote: Too many people spend money they haven't earned to buy things they don’t want to impress people that they don’t like.
Not sure if your's was a typo or a somewhat different sentiment.
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Crimsontide
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Crimsontide »

"There's a sucker born every minute".
Topic Author
mevans154
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by mevans154 »

"So Lt. Dan invested in some fruit (Apple) company, and now he said we don't have to worry about money no more."
and I said: "That's good...one less thing." - Forrest Gump
"Be greedy when everyone is panicking, and panic when everyone else is greedy"... Couldn't agree more!!!
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KlingKlang
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by KlingKlang »

That costs money.
-- Babcia
Last edited by KlingKlang on Mon Jan 25, 2016 8:30 pm, edited 1 time in total.
EHEngineer
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by EHEngineer »

Found this on a ski lift. Not my favorite quote, but I think it adds to the thread.
Image
Or, you can ... decline to let me, a stranger on the Internet, egg you on to an exercise in time-wasting, and you could say "I'm probably OK and I don't care about it that much." -Nisiprius
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Svensk Anga
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Svensk Anga »

I liked this from Dr. Bernstein:

"The very best stock purchases make you feel like throwing up."
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patrick013
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by patrick013 »

A couple more:

If you can't pay for it in cash you don't need it.


Never buy something you cannot sell tomorrow for more money.


You marry for money, never love.
age in bonds, buy-and-hold, 10 year business cycle
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resurgemus
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by resurgemus »

"Plan your work; work your plan." That's my dad's saying. I use that in place of "have a plan" and "stay the course."
Domestic 42%, Int'l 21%, REIT 7%, Fixed 30%
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baw703916
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by baw703916 »

You make most of your money in a bear market, you just don't realize it at the time.
Most of my posts assume no behavioral errors.
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Davistax »

Money isn't everything, but it's way ahead of what's in second place.
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Fallible »

"Successful investing is all about common sense." John Bogle

"Investing is simple, but it's not easy." Warren Buffett
"Yes, investing is simple. But it is not easy, for it requires discipline, patience, steadfastness, and that most uncommon of all gifts, common sense." ~Jack Bogle
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by Boglegrappler »

Q, (whispered to the minister after the funeral):

"How much did he leave?"

A: "He left it all."


Apologies....not really a financial quote, but I like it anyway.
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David Jay
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by David Jay »

Keynes (above) is good.

I'll take Berstein (from "If you Can"):

“Act as if every broker, insurance salesman, mutual fund salesman and financial advisor you encounter is a hardened criminal.”
It's not an engineering problem - Hersh Shefrin | To get the "risk premium", you really do have to take the risk - nisiprius
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David Jay
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by David Jay »

nisiprius wrote:..from Taylor Larimore.

"When experts disagree it is often because it doesn't matter." <---Maybe this my very favorite.
I am updating my spouse survival (Dear Darlene...) letter this week. I told her to go to BH for advice. If they agree, do what they say. If they give you lots of different suggestions, it doesn't matter.
It's not an engineering problem - Hersh Shefrin | To get the "risk premium", you really do have to take the risk - nisiprius
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by jimb_fromATL »

One that is credited to Einstein is "Compound Interest is the most powerful force in the universe."

Another is John Bogle about staying the course: "Don't just do something ... stand there."

And the question: "How many people work at your office?"
and answer: "About half of them."

jimb
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by pkcrafter »

“the best kept secret in the investing world: Almost nothing turns out as expected.” -Harry Browne

Why is it "a penny for your thoughts", but someone always wants to "put their two cents in"?

Don't gamble; take all your savings and buy some good stock and hold it till it goes up, then sell it. If it don't go up, don't buy it. Will Rogers
When times are good, investors tend to forget about risk and focus on opportunity. When times are bad, investors tend to forget about opportunity and focus on risk.
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tarheel
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Re: What is your favorite Financial Quote or Metaphor??

Post by tarheel »

"In the absence of clarity, diversification is the only logical strategy" - Larry
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