I'm into my 3rd day replacing the carpet in my house for hard wood floors. One thing I learned pretty early on is that nothing replaces experience, no matter what activity you are into (investing, driving, cooking, etc) nothing makes up for experience. I got pretty frustrated the first few hours, and I thought it would take me a long time, but once you get EXPERIENCE, it goes very smooth, this however does not mean I'm not tired as a dog.
Since I want to link this event with some end of the year reflexions I've been having, if you do an analogy, in investing is the same thing, the more experience you have the better you become, unfortunately we do not have an eternity to learn how to be better investors by ourselves, in the long run every body is dead. So how can you learn without going through the painful process of losing money? Read from the experts, I like reading Warren Buffet's annual reports, and I also subscribe to a couple of news letters from experienced people (not to say old). I also like reading anything that comes my way, I figure picking other people's brains is a good way to make up for personal experiences. For example I have learned from John Mauldin and other people, that the stock market move in cycles that last up to 30 years from top to top. I could have learned this from my own experience but by the time I realize this, I'm 30 years older.
So, is youth wasted in the young? I do not know, after all somebody's got to do the learning and make the mistakes along the road.
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