Investing Gems: Do not invest too much time

Once in a while I get the urge to do something with the few savings that we have sitting in the savings and retirement accounts. Something aggressive, creative or opportunistic. I always go back to sanity by reading a few bookmarks.

Here is an article in the San Francisco magazine that is the sanity check. I have that article saved locally so I would not have to worry about it disappearing from the web. The folks at Aperio Group who are mentioned in the article now have a website which is called Transparent Investing. They have a basic investing guide which is simple enough for do-it-yourself investing and detailed enough to appease the engineering minds (for example, it accounts for the fact that people have taxable accounts and retirement accounts).

I was reminded of these because of an anectode from Warren Buffett:

One shareholder asked a question along the lines of ‘how should I study investing in order to build wealth in my spare time?’

Buffett replied that, for most people, the bulk of their income is going to come from earning power in their chosen profession. Therefore, from the standpoint of building wealth, free time is better spent sharpening one’s professional skills rather than studying investing.

If you like your profession, and you enjoy doing what you do (like I enjoy what I do for a living), then read the articles and stop worrying about investing.