Investing intelligently is about controlling the controllable. You can't control whether the stocks or funds you buy will outperform the market today, next week, this month or this year; in the short run, your returns will always be hostage to Mr. Market and his whims.
But you can control:
The Challenge for the intelligent investor is not to find the stocks that will go up the most and down the least, but rather to prevent yourself from being your own worst enemy-from buying high just because Mr. Market says "Buy!" and from selling low just because Mr. Market says "Sell!"
if you investment horizon is long-at least 25 or 30 years-there is only one sensible approach: Buy every month, automatically, and whenever else you can spare some money. The single best choice for the lifelong holding is a total stock-market index fund. Sell only when you need the cash.
To be an intelligent investor, you must also refuse to judge your financial success by how a bunch of total stranger are doing.
The best way to measure your investing success is not by whether you're beating the market but by whether you've put in place a financial plan and a behavioral discipline that are likely to get you where you want to go. In the end, what matters isn't crossing the finish line before anybody else but just making sure that you do cross it.
- The Intelligent Investor, Benjamin Graham
