Ron Chernow Quotes

The beauty of diversification is it's about as close as you can get to a free lunch in investing.

Diversify, because that helps reduce risk. And you can diversify outside the United States. Some people would never invest in Europe - I think that's a mistake.

We have a broad range of investments. Anyone who invests in emerging markets around the world has investments in Russia. This is a tiny portion of our portfolio.

I think it is crucial to diversify one's portfolio.

Diversification is an established tenet of conservative investment.

There's no use diversifying into unknown companies just for the sake of diversity. A foolish diversity is the hobgoblin of small investors. That said, it isn't safe to own just one stock, because in spite of your best efforts, the one you choose might be the victim of unforeseen circumstances. In small portfolios, I'd be comfortable owning between three and ten stocks.

Wide diversification is only required when investors do not understand what they are doing.

I have plenty of investments that I wish I'd never made. But the model is to lose money on a lot of investments and then make 1,000X or 10,000X on an investment.

What I'm trying to say is that for the average investor, what I would encourage them to do is to understand that there's inflation and growth. It can go higher and lower and to have four different portfolios essentially that make up your entire portfolio that gets you balanced.

Here is a dirty little secret: Stock-picking is wildly overrated. Sure, it makes for great cocktail party chatter, and what is more fun than delving into a company's new products? But the truth is that individual stocks are riskier than broad indices.

Many follow a rule of thumb - no more than 5% in one stock. But that's not the entrepreneurial road to riches.

My view is that one should diversify broadly across different fund investments. However, it's tough for investors to try to pick the appropriate risk level that they should manage their funds at. Having a personal adviser would be helpful.

If the investor doesn't have enough time and skill to investigate individual stocks or enough money to diversify a portfolio, the right thing to do is to invest in exchange-traded funds that give you exposure to asset classes. It does make sense for the individual investor to think in terms of holding individual asset classes.

The best argument for mutual funds is that they offer safety and diversification. But they don't necessarily offer safety and diversification.

There are great municipal investments out there, but on a blanket basis you have to be really careful about knowing what cash flows are supporting your investments.

Children should be taught in school that you should have all kinds of asset classes in your portfolio. They should be taught what those asset classes are, and their advantages and disadvantages.

You've always got to think about having some fixed income in your portfolio as well as equities.

The reason we invest globally is because we think that's where a lot of the growth is happening: around the world.

Invest your money safely. Avoid the risky lure of spectacular returns; go for an investment that cannot lose its value. This is why I have put all my spare cash into buying not shares, but thousands of penny chews.

I don't think you should put all your money in one place. It must be invested in different investments.

The difference between success and failure is not which stock you buy or which piece of real estate you buy, it's asset allocation.

The main problems are insufficient diversification and the failure to pick age-appropriate strategies - that is, more aggressive when you're younger, and more conservative when you approach retirement. But even then you have to invest for growth.

When you diversify your mutual funds, you are diversifying something that is already diversified. Diversifying mutual funds is like taking high octane gasoline & adding water & then adding orange juice to it.

Diversification is something that stock brokers came up with to protect themselves, so they wouldn't get sued for making bad investment choices for clients. Henry Ford never diversified, Bill Gates didn't diversify. The way to get rich is to put your eggs in one basket, but watch that basket very carefully. And make sure you have the right basket.

Risk can be greatly reduced by concentrating on only a few holdings.