What is the number one rule in investing? (2024)

What is the number one rule in investing?

Warren Buffett once said, “The first rule of an investment is don't lose [money]. And the second rule of an investment is don't forget the first rule.

1 – Never lose money. Let's kick it off with some timeless advice from legendary investor Warren Buffett, who said “Rule No. 1 is never lose money.

Warren Buffet's first rule of investing is to never lose money; his second is to never forget the first rule. This golden rule is key for long-term capital protection and growth. One oft-used strategy to limit losses in turbulent markets is an allocation to gold.

Principle 1: Low Price to Earnings

Stocks with low price/earnings ratios historically have outperformed the overall market and provided investors with less downside risk than other equity investment strategies.

Rule #2: Never forget rule #1.” This is perhaps one of the most famous Buffettisms, and it emphasizes the importance of protecting your capital. Buffett is known for being a value investor, which means he looks for undervalued companies and buys them at a discount.

Key Takeaways

The 90/10 strategy calls for allocating 90% of your investment capital to low-cost S&P 500 index funds and the remaining 10% to short-term government bonds. Warren Buffett described the strategy in a 2013 letter to his company's shareholders.

In investing, the 80-20 rule generally holds that 20% of the holdings in a portfolio are responsible for 80% of the portfolio's growth. On the flip side, 20% of a portfolio's holdings could be responsible for 80% of its losses.

Over the decades, Buffett has refined a holistic approach to assessing a company—looking not just at earnings, but its overall health, its deficiencies as well as its strengths. He focuses more on a company's characteristics and less on its stock price, waiting to buy only when the cost seems reasonable.

The 7% stop loss rule is a rule of thumb to place a stop loss order at about 7% or 8% below the buy order for any new position. If the asset price falls by more than 7%, the stop-loss order automatically executes and liquidates the traders' position.

According to this principle, individuals should hold a percentage of stocks equal to 100 minus their age. So, for a typical 60-year-old, 40% of the portfolio should be equities. The rest would comprise high-grade bonds, government debt, and other relatively safe assets.

How does Warren Buffett value a company?

Buffett follows the Benjamin Graham school of value investing which looks for securities with prices that are unjustifiably low based on their intrinsic worth. Buffett looks at companies as a whole rather than focusing on the supply-and-demand intricacies of the stock market.

Do you know the Rule of 72? It's an easy way to calculate just how long it's going to take for your money to double. Just take the number 72 and divide it by the interest rate you hope to earn. That number gives you the approximate number of years it will take for your investment to double.

You need more money than ever to enter the ranks of the top 1% of the richest Americans. To join the club of the wealthiest citizens in the U.S., you'll need at least $5.8 million, up about 15% up from $5.1 million one year ago, according to global real estate company Knight Frank's 2024 Wealth Report.

One simple rule of thumb I tend to adopt is going by the 4-3-2-1 ratios to budgeting. This ratio allocates 40% of your income towards expenses, 30% towards housing, 20% towards savings and investments and 10% towards insurance.

The rule of 70, also known as doubling time, calculates the years it takes for an investment to double in value. The calculation is commonly used to compare investments with different annual interest rates.

Warren Buffet's 2013 letter explains the 90/10 rule—put 90% of assets in S&P 500 index funds and the other 10% in short-term government bonds.

The 70/30 rule is a guideline for managing money that says you should invest 70% of your money and save 30%. This rule is also known as the Warren Buffett Rule of Budgeting, and it's a good way to keep your finances in order.

Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett has regularly recommended an S&P 500 index fund. The S&P 500 has been a profitable investment over every rolling 20-year period in history. The S&P 500 returned 1,800% over the last three decades, compounding at a pace that would have turned $450 per month into $983,800.

The mutual fund 15x15x15 rule simply put means invest INR 15000 every month for 15 years in a stock that can offer an interest rate of 15% on an annual basis, then your investment will amount to INR 1,00,26,601/- after 15 years.

What is the 50% rule in investing?

The 50% rule is a guideline used by real estate investors to estimate the profitability of a given rental unit. As the name suggests, the rule involves subtracting 50 percent of a property's monthly rental income when calculating its potential profits.

The term “2000 investor limit” refers to a restriction imposed by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on certain privately held companies that wish to avoid registration and reporting requirements under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934.

“One bequest provides that cash will be delivered to a trustee for my wife's benefit,” he wrote. “My advice to the trustee could not be more simple: Put 10% of the cash in short-term government bonds and 90% in a very low-cost S&P 500 index fund.”

Top Warren Buffett Stocks By Size

Apple (AAPL), 905.6 million. Coca-Cola (KO), 400 million. Kraft Heinz (KHC), 325.6 million. Occidental Petroleum (OXY), 248.1 million.