Create Good Habits to Stay in the Know

My favorite investing story is that of my father buying municipal bonds that yielded 15 to 20% at a deep discount in the early 1980’s. It is hard to believe that interest rates were ever that high, as we have become accustomed to today’s low rates that have been with us for so long now. Those bonds provided steady tax free income for many years for my parents until they were eventually called.

Dad’s birthday was in June, so I decided to write about him. He was a wise man, and a disciplined and empowered investor. He was able to spot a once in a lifetime opportunity simply by paying attention to what was going on in the economy and the financial markets. He developed a simple yet consistent way to stay informed that required little time: He read Barron’s weekly at the library during his lunch break, scanned the Wall Street Journal, and watched Louis Rukeyser on Wall $treet Week every Friday night.

It is amazing how much easier it is today to stay informed! Now we can listen to both radio and television shows on our phones, view thousands of financial websites, get Barron’s either online or delivered, and still have the more traditional ways to access information. Sometimes it is just too much information. Avoid analysis paralysis; Chose a few sources for reliable investing information and read them consistently.