TSI #19: Five habits that will make you a successful investor

Hello Stoic Investors,

Today I want to focus on how you can make better investing decisions by revealing five crucial habits developed by legendary investors.

Investors often enter the markets without the proper background.

Naturally, some of them experience the bitterness of it quite soon.

After all, they were trying to do the impossible - learn everything in one day.

However, if you desire to take the correct path and learn progressively, this article will put you on the right path. It is designed to batch legendary lessons into compressed, yet extremely valuable bullets.

Just by applying these five habits, you will be ahead of 99% of investors.

After all, remember this:

“The game of investing is a process of discovering who you are, what you're interested in, what you're good at, what you love to do, then magnifying that until you gain a sizable edge over all the other people. ”

- Legendary investor Li Lu (The Chinese Warren Buffett)

So let's jump into it. Here are five habits that will 10x your returns over your lifetime.

1.  Play the long-term game

There is a good reason why most billionaires are not short-term traders.

The stock market is just a mess in the short term, a simple combination of opinions of millions of investors.

It's relatively easy to find a solid investment. The hard part is acknowledging the fact that the majority of your returns will not be visible over the span of a few years.

2.  Do not trust analysts

Too many people have been tossed around the sea of other people's opinions.

Opinions that change daily.

This has a natural tendency to force you to make short-term plays, which usually don't turn out to be very profitable. Learn to trust your judgement, make mistakes, but keep advancing your knowledge as investor.

3.  Practice your mental strength

Drops of 10% or more are very common. There is also a good chance you'll get to experience crashes of 20% or ”wipe-outs” of 50% or more. When the time comes, you have to be mentally prepared. It will not be easy to watch your net worth shrink. However, the worst thing you can do at such times, is sell. 

“Unless you can watch your investments decline by 50% without becoming panic-stricken, you should not be in the stock market.” – Billionaire investor Warren Buffett 

4.  Know yourself

Every investment carries risk. The higher the risk, the higher the potential reward.

However, that does not mean every investment is suitable for everyone.

We are different human beings with a different perception of risk. Therefore, it is expected that we choose different paths to grow our wealth.

5.  Continue to learn

Warren Buffett reads 500 pages per day.

Mark Cuban reads for 3 hours every day.

Bill Gates takes a week off every year just to read.

Reading broadens your understanding, which is an integral part of investing. Never ever stop learning.

I promise you, that if you consistently practice these five habits, you will be better than most investors. Intelligent investors are worshiped not for their money (which is a nice bonus), but for their status of being able to outsmart most individuals.

So note down these great five habits and keep practicing them everyday:

• Play the long-term game
• Do not trust analysts
• Practice your mental strength
• Know yourself
• Continue to learn