According to bestselling author Morgan Housel, adopting a simple approach to investment can also help you achieve your financial goals.
Speaking at the Moneycontrol Global Wealth Summit on March 7, Housel said that he has invested mostly in index funds. “I keep it as simple as possible. And the reason I do that is not because I think nobody can outperform the market. I think smart investors can, have, and will (outperform). So nothing against active investment, nothing in the slightest,” said Housel, who is also a partner at the Collaborative Fund and a board member at Markel.
However, the variable that he wants to maximise is endurance. “Over time, you will maximise the actual dollars of wealth that you accumulate. If I can be an average investor for the next 30 or 40 or 50 years, I know that I'm going to achieve all of my goals and then some... If you just say I am going to maximise endurance, strength, and longevity… I think that is more in your control,” he explained.
Housel, who is the New York Times Bestselling author of The Psychology of Money, recounted his unplanned drift towards the world of writing.
``I wanted to be an investment banker or a hedge fund manager, and I graduated in 2008. No one was hiring in 2008, everybody was laying off people. I submitted my resume to a large investment bank, and a week later, they hadn't responded, so I reached out. They said the entire HR department had been laid off,” narrated Housel.
Finding a job in finance then was not easy and he had no backup plan. “Out of desperation, not out of enjoyment or skill, out of desperation, I took up job as a finance writer. And I thought I would do that for six months or so before I found a real finance job. But I ended up just sticking with it,” said Housel, whose books have sold over eight million copies in more than 60 languages.
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He reiterated that his heroes are simple, ordinary folk. "The vast majority are ordinary people trying to do a little bit better, raising their family, living a better life. I think they have the most interesting stories, and so many of my heroes are just ordinary people that never get any attention, never get any press or limelight," he said.
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