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I am the managing principal of Capital Directions, LLC in Atlanta, a fee-only, independent wealth management firm with $700 million in assets under management. I have been an investment advisor for more than 15 years, working with wealthy individuals, retirement plans, endowments and trusts. I also write frequently on the subject of prudent investment management. I published my first book, The 12 Investment Myths, in April 2009.

 

Here are 10 things you should know about my investment worldview:

 

  1. I believe that stock investing is the only chance people have to amass the kind of wealth they will need to sustain them through retirement.
  2. I believe that everyday Wall Street and the media hand investors the perfect blueprints for investment failure.
  3. I believe successful investing is analytically simpler than people want to make it out to be, and much more emotionally challenging than people appreciate.
  4. I believe that passive management is a much better use of people’s money than active management.
  5. I believe effective diversification is the best means we have to control risk over the long run. I do not assert, however, that it is a magic bullet.
  6. I do not believe that buy-and-hold is dead just because we are in a terrible market cycle. The key is to be sure you are buying-and-holding the global capital markets – not just, say, AIG.
  7. I believe the supposed experts in the media know as much about the near-term direction of the stock market as my golden retriever.
  8. I believe most investors focus on things that don’t matter in the long run (hot performance and market gyrations) and ignore the things that really count in investing (emotional discipline, patience and faith).
  9. I believe most investors lack an understanding of the difference between bad risk (such as the risk that comes with being concentrated in just a few individual stocks or market sectors) and good risk (such as the risk that comes with being an investor in the broad stock market and rewards investors with higher returns than they can earn in bonds or cash).
  10. I believe it is exponentially harder to be a successful investor in today’s wired world because we are overwhelmed with a never-ending stream of problems, negativity and distress that make it very difficult to stay calm and focused on the big picture.

And that’s why I started this blog.

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www.Twitter.com/JackCalhounJr

Email Jack: Tranquilinvestor[@]hotmail.com