Sir John Marks Templeton was an American-born British investor, banker, fund manager, and philanthropist. In 1954, he entered the mutual fund market and created the Templeton Growth Fund (One of the largest Mutual Fund player globally). In 1999, Money magazine named him “arguably the greatest global stock picker of the century.
Sir John Templeton’s 16 rules of investing:
- Invest for maximum total real return (i.e., return on invested dollars after taxes and after inflation)
- Invest – don’t trade or speculate
- Remain flexible and open-minded about types of investment
- Buy low
- When buying stocks, search for bargains among quality stocks
- Buy value, not market trends or the economic outlook
- Diversify, in stocks and bonds, as in much else, there is safety in numbers
- Do your homework or hire wise experts to help you
- Aggressively monitor your investments
- Don’t panic
- Learn from your mistakes
- Begin with a prayer
- Outperforming the market is a difficult task
- An investor who has all the answers doesn’t even understand all the questions
- There’s no free lunch
- Do not be fearful or negative too often