21 best money tips ever
Some of the nation's leading business owners, investors, and thinkers share their thoughts on rebuilding your wealth.
5. Save (but don't invest) like me
Author of "A Random Walk Down Wall Street," which showed the folly of trying to beat the market
Best advice I can give: The first section of my new book with Charlie Ellis, "The Elements of Investing," is titled "It All Starts With Saving." If you don't put money aside now, you won't have money later on.
Best advice I ever got: In 1958, I was discharged from the Army and was handed a $3,500 check for accumulated leave I had not taken. I had just started a job at Smith Barney and knew absolutely nothing about money. The head of research there pulled me aside and said, "Don't spend it. Save it. Invest it."
When I was in the Army, I was a finance officer and worked with IBM machines. So I invested all my $3,500 in IBM stock. I still own it, and it's worth well more than a quarter of a million dollars.
The advice to save, and save early, is absolutely still great -- though I would never advise someone to follow my lead and invest in the stock of just one company. I was very lucky that I bought IBM. I could have just as easily bought shares of an Enron of the time.
NEXT: Stick with like-minded people
