Investment Principles

VFP Investment Principles

1)     Before we invest, we need to know why we are investing. What is our end goal? A return on investment should mean a return on life.

2)     What is our required rate of return? Inflation gradually erodes the purchasing power of our money into the future. At a minimum we invest to counteract this risk.

3)     Investing success is measured in decades not years, time in the markets not timing the markets. Time dilutes volatility.

4)     When we invest, we become part owners in some of the best businesses around the world, many of which we continually purchase goods and services from.

5)     We invest in assets that appreciate, provide an income and a growing income over time.

6)     No one has a crystal ball. Anyone who attempts to predict the next best, asset class, industry, fund manager or country is guessing or lying. We invest in what has always worked, not what seems to be working now.

7)     Successful investing is about investment returns not investor returns. Resisting our flight instinct during temporary market declines is critical to achieving investment returns. We are the masters of our own fates.

8)     Tune out the hysteria of the herd and ignore the financial media. History doesn’t repeat itself, human nature does.

9)     If investment markets (capitalism), governments (democracy) collapse, we will have much more immediate problems on our hands than money.

10) We tend to recall what is most recent in our minds. This is not an accurate representation of the progress capitalism has contributed to our standard of living over the long term. Progress is gradual but profound and like investing, compounds over many years. Our standards of living have and are getting better over time. The world is far from perfect, but optimism never hurt anyone.