Why Investing is so Hard #3

"A man alone has no goddamn chance" said Hemingway (or words to that effect.) Actually, in the world of investing, a man alone has some advantages:

*No arbitrary benchmark to meet (quarterly or monthly or in-house), so you can have longer-term time horizons and different goals
*You can enter or exit a position without impacting markets unless, of course, you are really, really rich.
*There is no public scrutiny of your holdings and no disclosures required--other than your immediate family-- so you don’t have to worry about someone taking your ideas or justify yourself to a boss or a shareholder.
*You don’t have to limit yourself to just the largest stocks or worry about position size (this is huge).
*Cost structure, fees, and taxes are within your control.
*You can reverse errors without professional consequences – you don’t get fired for admitting a mistake.
*You can have longer-term time horizons and different goals--a huge advantage.
*You know they're lying and can act appropriately.
*You can enter the start-up/angel market (although it's tricky because, of course, it's restricted)

Jack Bogle, a man from the fire who developed Vanguard, has developed a strong following. (He recently even said some positive things about the Occupy movement.) He has a rather cynical approach to investing. His followers are legion and usually well informed. In fairness, there are a lot of approaches to investing and his is popular because it opposes the "business of investing".
Generally his philosophy is this:
Develop a simple workable plan
Invest early and often
Never bear too much or too little risk
Never try to time the market
Use index funds when possible.
Keep costs low
Diversify
Minimize taxes.
Beware of people trying to sell you something.
Stay the course.