20 timeless money rules

Money Magazine collected the best advice from some of the smartest investors (and other people) who have ever lived.

Don't follow the crowd
10. Don't follow the crowd
Fashion is made to become unfashionable.
--Coco Chanel


Or, as the legendary financier Sir James Goldsmith has said, "If you see a bandwagon, it's too late."

In the late 1990s, there was no more fashionable bandwagon for investors than Firsthand Technology Value fund. It returned 23.7% in 1998, but investors really piled into it after it rocketed an incredible 190.4% in 1999. But by then, the bust of 2000 was about to unfold, and Firsthand was soon to become as passé as plaid trousers. The result was a chilling example of the perils of following the herd: While the fund posted a respectable 16% annualized gain over the four years through 2001, the average shareholder in the fund actually lost more than 31.6% a year.

Confucius

Friedrich von Schiller

Benjamin Franklin

Miguel de Cervantes

Gary Brinson, Brian Singer and Gilbert Beebower

Warren Buffett

Edwin Lefevre

Peter Lynch

Jack Bogle

Coco Chanel

Warren Buffett

St. Augustine

Harry Truman

Eleanor Roosevelt

John Kenneth Galbraith

Stanley Kunitz

Pablo Picasso

John Maynard Keynes

Martin Luther King Jr.

Jonathan Swift
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Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes. All times are ET. Disclaimer. Morningstar: © 2018 Morningstar, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Factset: FactSet Research Systems Inc. 2018. All rights reserved. Chicago Mercantile Association: Certain market data is the property of Chicago Mercantile Exchange Inc. and its licensors. All rights reserved. Dow Jones: The Dow Jones branded indices are proprietary to and are calculated, distributed and marketed by DJI Opco, a subsidiary of S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC and have been licensed for use to S&P Opco, LLC and CNN. Standard & Poor's and S&P are registered trademarks of Standard & Poor's Financial Services LLC and Dow Jones is a registered trademark of Dow Jones Trademark Holdings LLC. All content of the Dow Jones branded indices © S&P Dow Jones Indices LLC 2018 and/or its affiliates.