130 Years of Wisdom in 3 Minutes

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Simple and short email this week my friend. We have been battling no power, 95F heat, and record humidity following hurricane Beryl on Sunday night.

To my fellow Texas, hope you are all doing well 🙏 

Quote

“A lot of financial mistakes come from trying to copy people who are different from you.” - Morgan Housel

130 Years Wisdom in 3 Minutes

Warren Buffett is worth $130 billion.

His mentor, Benjamin Graham, shared what he taught Warren in his book, The Intelligent Investor. I won’t blow smoke at you, the book is extremely dry and “boring” compared to other financial reads.

To save you the time and textbook reading…

Here are 10 simple lessons from the book to make you a better investor.

"The intelligent investor is a realist who sells to optimists and buys from pessimists."

Use the herd mentality to your advantage. When people are hiding under their beds, it’s probably a good time to buy. When they are jumping on the bed smashing their head against the fan, things might be overvalued.

"In the short run, the market is a voting machine but in the long run, it is a weighing machine."

Hold the S&P 500 for 10 years and your odds of a positive return are 94%. Enough said.

"Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

I’ve talked before about keeping some type of investing journal or notes based on how you react to market news. History is not guranteed to repeat, but it is the best data we have.

“Investing isn’t about beating others at their game. It’s about controlling yourself at your own game.”

Your own worst enemy when it comes to investing is sitting right in-between your ears. Don’t overthink it.

“People who invest make money for themselves; people who speculate make money for their brokers.”

Trading is hard folks. You have to be right twice. Once when you buy, and once when you sell. Incase you haven’t got the full story, here is how I lost over $1,000 trading options. (and made my broker a lot of money)

“Plant trees that other men will sit under.”

The dollars you invest today could help purchase a home in the future, pay for a kids college, or fund a new business that employs hundreds of people.

“Abnormally good or abnormally bad conditions do not last forever.”

To build on this, 99% of the time things are not as good or as bad as they seem. Stop overreacting, take a chill pill.

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“The investor's chief problem - and even his worst enemy - is likely to be himself.”

You call the shots. But try not to shoot yourself in the foot.

“You will be much more in control, if you realize how much you are not in control.”

We live in a time where a politician, CEO, or influencer (*cough cough Roaring Kitty) can send out a meme and move a stock over 50%. You have ZERO, I repeat, ZERO control over market moves.

“Intelligence has nothing to do with IQ or SAT scores. It simply means being patient, disciplined, and eager to learn.”

The older I get, the more this becomes true. Self education is what separates the men from the boys.

Conclusion

Benjamin Graham is one of the OG investors and would be 130 years old if he was still around today. Hopefully you found a couple of these lessons helpful and can refer back to his words of wisdom before doing something irrational.

If you didn’t like this piece, then you should probably let The Intelligent Investor keep collecting dust on the shelf.

Dusty books are dusty for a reason right?! ~ Cade

Chump Change Picks

Why Home Prices Will Crash In 2026 - Video by one of the finance YouTuber legends Graham Stephan discussing recent housing market data. Good news, the market might finally be cooling down a little bit depending on where you live.

SPYI Covered Call ETF Review - SPYI is a relatively new covered call ETF with a 12% dividend yield. While this sounds great, Austin put together one of the best posts I’ve seen on the risk/reward associated with these types of high yield investments.

Dollar Cost Averaging vs Lump Sum - Should you DCA or just dump your money in the market? The numbers say lump sum, but here is a great thread breaking down the details explaining why that is true.

Best Memes

I’ve booked way more hotels than Airbnb’s in the last year.

The jokes write themselves at this point.

Nothing in this email is intended to serve as financial advice. Do your own research. Thanks for reading, if you have any questions, comments, suggestions, etc. about the email don’t hesitate to send me a reply.