Joe Wiggins reflects on his ten beliefs about investing. For me, survival is the most important one.
Survival is the most important and neglected goal for all investors.
Investors rarely talk about survival, but it is the most important aspect of any strategy. It should define whether we make a particular investment and how it is sized. We should always avoid creating situations where there is a meaningful risk of complete disaster (being wiped out) or where we are unable to withstand spells of poor performance. The best investment is the one we can stick with for the long-run, not the one with the highest potential return. If we don’t survive, nothing else matters.