Albert Einstein
“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simple. The five ascending levels of intelligence are: smart, intelligent, talented, genius, simple“
Jack Bogle
“The great paradox of this extraordinary age is that the more complex the world around us becomes, the more simplicity we must seek to realize our financial goals. Never underestimate the glory of simplicity or its proven effectiveness as a long-term strategy for productive investing. Simplicity is, indeed, the key to financial success. The key. I see indexing as simple and boring to say the least. Bored by the process but excited by the results. In Vegas, it’s the opposite. You’re excited by the process in the moment, but you’re bored by the results because you know exactly what it’s going to be. The more you bet. The more you catch, the more you lose. Investing should not rush you.”
Warren Buffett (Bogle)
“If ever there was a statue to honor the person who has done the most for American investors, the hands-down choice should be Jack Bogle. For decades, Jack has urged investors to invest in ultra-low-cost index funds. in his crusade. . . Jack is often ridiculed by the investment management industry. Today, however, he has the satisfaction of knowing that he has helped millions of investors realize much better returns on their savings than they would otherwise have earned. He is a hero to them and to me.”
Warren Buffett
“To invest successfully, you don’t need to understand beta, efficient markets, modern portfolio theory, option pricing or emerging markets. You may, in fact, be better off knowing nothing of it.”
Christine Benz, A WCICON23 keynote speaker
Simplicity is the greatest—but in my view, woefully underrated—quality when managing a portfolio.”
Mike Piper (on his one-fund retirement portfolio)
“One change my wife and I made was to move every dollar of our retirement savings into Vanguard’s LifeStrategy Growth Fund. It is now the only fund in our personal 401(k) and our IRAs. The primary reason we made the change was to protect against what I saw as the biggest threat to our investment success: me. More specifically, it’s my temptation to tinker that scares me. Because of my work, I am constantly reading about different investment strategies. Most, of course, are meaningless—nothing more than methods of using the stock and bond markets as lotteries. But still there are countless ways to invest is Reasonable and when I go to rebalance our portfolio, I am often tempted to make small changes. Most of these changes will probably be fairly benign, but my fears are:
- One day I’ll do something really stupid, or
- I’ll bounce back and forth between reasonable allocations, but do so at exactly the wrong time
My hope is that this automatically balanced, all-in-one-fund-type portfolio will keep me away from such temptations—both because there’s no need to make any trades other than buying more of the same fund, and because that fund is a clear reminder to myself that I’ll mess anything up. no I see two other advantages:
- It’s less work, and
- This puts my money where my mouth is, the whole point of this blog is to show that investing in a simple, hands-off way really is. to be able to Be very discreet.”
Rick Ferry
“Don’t assume that a complex strategy is better than a simple strategy. The only thing likely to add additional complexity is additional cost.”
Laura Doug
“A simple portfolio is actually the ultimate in sophistication. This almost always lowers costs (including taxes), simplifies analysis, facilitates rebalancing, simplifies tax-preparation, reduces paperwork and record-keeping, and enables caregivers and heirs to easily adopt portfolios when needed. After all, a simple portfolio allows the investor to spend more time with family and friends.”
Morgan Housel
“Simple almost always beats complicated.”
Jean Chatsky
“The problem with so much personal financial advice is that it’s unnecessarily complicated, often with the goal of selling you something you don’t need.”
Jonathan Clements
“Investing is simple. To be sure, you can make it ridiculously complicated.”
Bill Bernstein
“The more I get to know real people, the more I’m convinced the simpler the solution, the better the solution.”
JL Collins
“The more complex the investment, the less likely it is to be profitable. After all, they are expensive. At worst, they are a tool of fraudsters.
Benjamin Graham
“If you try to bring just a little extra knowledge and ingenuity to bear on your investment program, instead of realizing slightly better than normal results, you may well find that you do worse. In the stock market, the more elaborate and abstract the math, the more uncertain and speculative the conclusions we draw.”
Naseem Taleb
“Don’t be lured by complicated investment products made up of incomprehensible math.”
Henry David Thoreau
“Our lives are frittered away by details. Simplify, simplify.”
Michael LeBeouf
“Simplicity of investment does not create fees and commissions. That’s the problem with financial salespeople so they try to make investing seem complicated.”
Jane Bryant Quinn
“You shouldn’t buy something so complicated to convince an average 12-year-old.”
Scott McKillop
“People who don’t know better equate complexity with sophistication. But it really takes more sophistication to create an elegantly simple portfolio.”
I think this is enough to make my point clear. These respected investment experts say that sophistication and complexity don’t beat simplicity and low cost. The next time someone calls you and your investment strategies boring, simple, and unpredictable, know that you’re in good company. If you want to call me incomplete, I will answer, “Guilty as charged.”
But that’s not because I don’t understand how the financial world works; because i do
What do you think? What is the value of simplicity in your financial life? Have you ever been confused by a complicated product or investment? Comment below!
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