Pimp Your Finances

I recently wrote about twenty mistakes that keep you from getting rich.  This week, I’ll take the opposite approach, and write about twenty rules that will make you wealthy. 

Last year, cnnmoney.com published a list of twenty financial rules that never grow old.  Each rule includes a related quote from a famous historical figure.  Here is their list and quotes – I went ahead and highlighted my favorites.

1. Be Humble

“When you do not know a thing, to allow that you do not know it – this is knowledge.”
- Confucius

2. Take calculated risks

“He that is overcautious will accomplish little.”
- Friedrich von Schiller 

3. Have an emergency fund

“For age and want, save while you may; no morning sun lasts a whole day.”
- Benjamin Franklin

4. Mix it up

“It is the part of a wise man to keep himself today for tomorrow and not to venture all his eggs in one basket”
- Miguel de Cervantes

5. It’s the portfolio, stupid

“Asset allocation…is the overwhelmingly dominant contributor to total return.”
- Gary Brinson, Brian Singer, and Gilbert Beebower

6. Average is the new best

“The best way to own common stocks is through an index fund.”
- Warren Buffet

7. Practice patience

“It never was my thinking that made the big money for me. It was always my sitting. Got that? My sitting tight!”
- Edwin Lefevre

8. Don’t time the market

“The real key to making money in stocks is to not get scared of them.”
- Peter Lynch

9. Be a cheapskate

“Performance comes and goes, but costs roll on forever.”
- Jack Bogle

10. Don’t follow the crowd

“Fashion is made to become unfashionable.”
- Coco Chanel

11. Buy low

“If a business is worth a dollar and I can buy it for 40 cents, something good may happen to me.”
- Warren Buffet

12. Invest abroad

“The world is a book, and those who do not travel read only a page.”
- St. Augustine

13. Keep perspective

“There is nothing new in the world except the history you do not know.”
- Harry Truman

14. Just do it

“It takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan.”
- Eleanor Roosevelt

15. Borrow responsibly

“As life closes in on someone who has borrowed far too much money on the strength of far too little income, there are no fire escapes. “
- John Kenneth Galbraith

16. Talk to your spouse

“In every house of marriage there’s room for an interpreter.”
- Stanley Kunitz

17. Exit gracefully

“Only put off until tomorrow what you are willing to die having left undone”
- Pablo Picasso

18. Pay only your share

“The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward.”
- John Maynard Keynes

19. Give wisely

“The time is always right to do the right thing.”
- Martin Luther King Jr.

20. Keep money in its place

“A wise man should have money in his head but not in his heart.”
- Jonathan Swift