Paul Wolfowitz Quotes

You could lose hundreds or thousands one day on paper and gain it all back the next, and it has literally no effect on your immediate future, provided the money you have in the market is money you're investing for the long haul (meaning at least three to five years).

I'm not a money manager, but I can tell you what the conventional wisdom is. The younger you are, the more risk you can take on.

The last thing you want to do, unless it's a very unusual situation, is to invest money.

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

Investing is a business where you can look very silly for a long period of time before you are proven right.

Well, there's always risk in long-term investment.

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

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

Always keep your portfolio and your risk at your own individual comfortable sleeping point.

There's a tendency to look at investments in isolation. Investors focus on the risk of individual securities.

It is important for investors to understand what they do and don't know. Learn to recognize that you cannot possibly know what is going to happen in the future, and any investment plan that is dependent on accurately forecasting where markets will be next year is doomed to failure.

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.

I'm a very passive investor.

My advice to the average investor in 1988 is to be patient and think long-term. It will take 18 months for confidence to get better and, in the meantime, this is absolutely no place for short-term money.

If you are not making any mistakes, you are being excessively risk-averse. Investing involves risk, and that means you will occasionally be wrong. And although it is okay to be wrong, it is not okay to stay wrong.

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.

I haven't changed any of my investments since I've been in the Senate and haven't purchased any stocks since I've been in the Senate.

Never underrate the importance of asset allocation.

Unfortunately, slow and steady in any financial market is actually impossible.

Diversification has been, and balance, like Wellington, has been so drummed into me, it's part of my personality.

Regardless of what happens in the markets, stick to your investment program. Changing your strategy at the wrong time can be the single most devastating mistake you can make as an investor.

What I do for a living is so high-risk that I try to make sure my portfolio is as conservative as possible.

Well, the most important thing in investing is to know what you're investing in, and if you're confident in the outcome, it's important to stay true to your position.