Investors, here's an excerpt from
The Intelligent Investor that really slaps you upside the head when we think to deviate from the rules in Investing 101...
Quote:
Nearly all the richest people in America trace their wealth to a concentrated investment in a single industry or even a single company (think Bill Gates and Microsoft, Sam Walton and Wal-Mart, or the Rockefellers and Standard Oil). The Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans, for example, has been dominated by undiversified fortunes ever since it was first compiled in 1982.
However, almost no small fortunes have been made this way - and not many big fortunes have been kept this way. What Carnegie neglected to mention is that concentration also makes most of the great failures of life. Look again at the Forbes "Rich List." Back in 1982, the average net worth of a Forbes 400 member was $230 million. To make it onto the 2002 Forbes 400, the average 1982 member needed to earn only a 4.5% average annual return on his wealth - during a period when even bank accounts yielded far more than that and the stock market gained an annual average of 13.2%
So how many of the Forbes 400 fortunes from 1982 remained on the list 20 years later? Only 64 of the original members - a measly 16% - were still on the list in 2002. By keeping all their eggs in the one basket that had gotten them onto the list in the first place - once-booming industries like oil and gas, or computer hardware, or basic manufacturing - all the other original members fell away. When hard times hit, none of these people - despite all the huge advantages that great wealth can bring - were properly prepared.
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Although it speaks about the un-sustainability of over-concentrating, it also shows that wealth is not about striking it rich, but is really about having the intelligence to grow money over time. I suppose that's the point GW keeps making regarding luck. Luck is certainly a part of the equation to get rich "quickly" and "easily"... but it's only the kindling. Turning riches into wealth takes intelligence and time.
Stay the course!
GW, I'm rooting for you on the 400 list!