Investing Cheat sheet

My favorite bits from:  "The Ultimate Cheat Sheet For Investing by James Altucher"

So why should anyone listen to me about investing? You shouldn’t.  The most important three words in investing is: “I don’t know”. When you go into a job you NEVER lose money. If you show up for two weeks, you get paid. You might get fired but they won’t take your money. The stock market TAKES your money on bad days. Sometimes it takes a lot of your money. We’re not used to the brutality of that and it can destroy a person psychologically, which makes one (me) trade even worse. I told you about: #1. Pick some stocks and hold them forever. Since “I don’t know” applies, it’s almost impossible to pick the right ones. E) What stocks should I hold? ( A friend of mine who knows Buffett told me my book was the only book that Buffett thought was accurate about him).  I would add to that, based on what Warren does. It seems to me he has five criteria: A company will be around 20 years from now. At some point, company’s management has demonstrated in some way that they are honest, good people. If you can get to know management even better. The company’s stock has crashed for some reason. The company’s name is a strong brand: American Express, Coke, Disney, etc. Demographics play a strong role.  G) SHOULD I PUT ALL OF MY MONEY IN STOCKS? No, because you’ll never know everything about a company. So use this guideline: no more than 3% of your portfolio in any one stock. no more than 30% of your portfolio in stocks  M) WHAT ARE SOME GOOD DEMOGRAPHIC TRENDS? The internet. Yes, it’s still growing.   Baby boomers retiring. They need special facilities to live in. They need better cancer diagnostics and treatments. Energy. The more people we have, the more energy we will consume. Go for energy sources that are profitable and don’t need government subsidies. Whenever you depend on the government, you could get in trouble. Temp staffing. Every company is firing people and replacing them with temp staffers. Batteries. If you can figure out how to invest in Lithium, then go for it. G, PART 2) WHAT IF WE ARE IN A BUBBLE? Some hedge fund manager (David Einhorn) just said we might be in a tech bubble. Back to rule #1: He doesn’t know. It’s just a headline. Bubbles don’t mean anything. We had an internet bubble in the 90s. Then a housing bubble. And if you just held through all of that, your stock portfolio right now would be about a percent from all-time highs. So ignore cycles and bubbles and ups and downs. H) MY FRIEND HAS A BUSINESS IDEA. SHOULD I INVEST IN IT? Probably not. But if you want a checklist, make sure these four boxes can be checked: The CEO has started and sold a business before.   • The company has revenues and/or profits. You are getting a really good deal.  I can say this: every time I have invested with this approach it’s worked miracles. And every time I have not invested in this approach it’s been a DISASTER.  J) WHAT ABOUT METALS AS A HEDGE AGAINST INFLATION? No, they have zero correlation with inflation. The best hedge against inflation is the US stock market since about 60% of revenues of the S&P 500 comes from foreign countries. K) WHAT ABOUT METALS LIKE GOLD? DON’T THEY HAVE INTRINSIC VALUE? No. But if you’re going to pick a metal, wait until the gold/silver ratio gets higher than it’s historical average and buy silver. L) WHAT ABOUT MUTUAL FUNDS? No. Use the criteria I describe above, pick 20 companies and invest. O) IF NO HOUSING AND ONLY 30% OF MY PORTFOLIO IN STOCKS, THEN WHAT SHOULD I DO WITH THE REST OF MY MONEY? Why are you in such a rush to put all of your money to work? Relax!  Cash is a beautiful thing. You can pay for all your basic needs with it. You can sleep at night knowing there is cash in the bank. I love a stress-free life. When I look back, the times when I’ve been most stressed is when I’ve been heavily invested and the times when I’ve been least stressed is when I had cash in the bank. Forget about it. And finally, write down 10-20 bad ideas a day. Every day give the world at least one more reason to whisper “thank you” to you. Say you own a painting you bought for $20K, and due to rosy conditions in the art market, it is now worth $40K. If you owned no painting, would you still acquire it at the current price?

My favorite bits from "The power of NO" by James Altucher

-By year three you;ve put in 5000-7000 hours of work. That's good enough to be in the top 200-300 people in the world in anything. By year three you will know how to make money.

-What is "it" ? How do I know what I should do ? Whatever area you feel like reading 500 books about. Go to the bookstore or library and find it.

- how to recognize an Abusive person : they try to make you feel guilty, angry, afraid, wrong. They try to make themselves the victim, they turn others against you.
How do I feel about myself when Iam around this person? Do I feel good about myself?
If the answer is no, you know you need to move away from the person. The key is not to engage.

-Letting our thoughts go and being present without naming what is happening all the time gives us a rest and the opportunity to let something else in.

-Be aware that you are making a shift from panic (lots of thoughts) to abundance (fewer thoughts)

-With each thought that comes up, label it as useful or not useful. If I worry about how much money I will have in five years or did at a party last night, this is not useful. What is useful then? Functional things - I need to pack a lunch for the kids right now.

-Sometimes we need rest and proper boundaries. Sometimes we need to do less. When we forget that we have rhythms and cycles just like nature does, we force things, overwork, burn the candle at both ends, and make poor choices as a consequence of exhaustion.

Keeping your stress level down is very important, so here are five things we can think of to say no to so that you can have centered and relaxed days:
 1 Say no to anything that gets in the way of your daily practices, no matter how IMPORTANT it pretends to be.
2 Say no to anything that prevents you from sitting in silence for some time, every day.
4 Do not talk to people who you know do not respect you or who put you down.

- I slide into depression if I forget my daily practice
I started to exercise everyday. I started to eat better. One item for breakfast. A healthy lunch. Tiny dinner. No snacks.
I started to sleep nine hours a night.
I broke off all ties with anyone it felt bad to be around.
I wrote down ideas very day for articles I should write and businesses I could start.
I had to surrender to the fact that I couldn't control everything. But I could be prepared.

-Try this today:
 Write down ten ideas for your job that you think will add above and beyond value.
 Write down the ten next steps for those ideas.

-In the Bhagavad Gita, Krishna tells Arjun that he needs to fight. He is saying that to reach your own divinity, you have to learn to say no and stand up for what is right for you in this moment.You need to learn who you are.

-Rule #1 : Do not do anything you don't want to do.
When you agree to do something you don't want to do, you will resent the person who asked you to do it. You will grow to hate the activity. it will drip like a burning candle into your heart until you're burning with hate for yourself.

-Say no to extra, unnecessary words. Don't say "yeah" in the middle of someone talking. Count to two before responding.
-Complaining is a no!
-If someone is trying to steal our energy, then of course we speak up and do what we can to stop it. We stand up for ourselves.