2011 Money Resolutions Worth Keeping
 

1. I will not confuse entertainment with advice.   This means I will turn off CNBC and read a book, (e.g. The Investment Answer by Dan Goldie) or risk compromising my long-term investment discipline.

2. I will not invest based on a forecast.  I understand that weather forecasting is more accurate that stock market forecasting. I will recognize that the urge to form an opinion will never go away, but I won't act on it because no one can repeatedly predict the future. It is, by definition, uncertain.

3. I will continue to save and stick to my investment discipline because time in the market is more important than timing the market.

4. I will not concentrate my investments in a few securities or even a few asset classes because diversification remains the closest thing to a free lunch in investing.

5. I will keep my cost of investing reasonable because costs are the best predictor of future performance.

6. I will not invest money, that I intend to spend in the next ten years, in the stock market because stock returns become more predictable over long periods of time (10-15 years) but are extremely unreliable over the short-term.