If You Can Quotes

“Would you believe me if I told you that there’s an investment strategy that a seven-year-old could understand, will take you fifteen minutes of work per year, outperform 90 percent of finance professionals in the long run, and make you a millionaire over time?   Well, it is true, and here it is: Start by saving 15 percent of your salary at age 25 into a 401(k) plan, an IRA, or a taxable account (or all three). Put equal amounts of that 15 percent into just three different mutual funds:   A U.S. total stock market index fund An international total stock market index fund A U.S. total bond market index fund.   Over time, the three funds will grow at different rates, so once per year you’ll adjust their amounts so that they’re again equal. (That’s the fifteen minutes per year, assuming you’ve enrolled in an automatic savings plan.)   That’s it; if you can follow this simple recipe throughout your working career, you will almost certainly beat out most professional investors. More importantly, you’ll likely accumulate enough savings to retire comfortably.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“Act as if every broker, insurance salesman, mutual fund salesperson, and financial advisor you encounter is a hardened criminal, and stick to low-cost index funds, and you’ll do just fine.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“The point here is that runs of 4 or more heads or tails are perceived as a nonrandom pattern, when in fact they are in fact the rule in random sequences, not the exception. Stock market participants frequently make this mistake, and an entirely bogus field of finance known as “technical analysis” is devoted to finding patterns in random financial data.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“Why the correlation between popular interest and subsequent low returns? Simple: Driving the price of any asset higher requires the entry of new buyers, and when everyone is invested in stocks, real estate, or gold, there’s no one left to join the party; the entry of naïve, inexperienced investors usually signals the end.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“Those who ignore financial history are condemned to repeat it.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“When all is said and done, there are only two kinds of investors: those who don’t know where the market is headed, and those who don’t know that they don’t know. Then again, there is a third kind: those who know they don’t know, but whose livelihoods depend on appearing to know.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“In the words of Fred Schwed, one of the most astute observers of the investment scene (and certainly the funniest): There are certain things that cannot be adequately explained to a virgin either by words or pictures. Nor can any description I might offer here even approximate what it feels like to lose a real chunk of money that you used to own.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“A quote often misattributed to Mark Twain has it that “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“Dieting and investing are both simple, but neither is easy.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“We tend to extrapolate the recent past indefinitely into the future; in the 1970s, investors thought that inflation would never end, whereas now most people think it will never occur again. The first viewpoint was proven wrong within a few years, and the latter viewpoint most likely will be soon.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“market history shows that when there’s economic blue sky, future returns are low, and when the economy is on the skids, future returns are high;”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“the best fishing is done in the most stormy waters.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly

“When, and only when, you’ve gotten rid of all your debt are you truly saving for retirement.”
― William J. Bernstein, If You Can: How Millennials Can Get Rich Slowly