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First of all, if you make 10% a year on your investments, you need to pay yourself on the back. It doesn't "Suck". Warren Buffet, one of the single greatest investors to ever live, has only averaged 20% out over all the years. However, he accumulated in key areas, diversified into a few areas he could track well, and hit a few home runs. He's now a billionare. So far, YTD, I've made 98% on my money.
But that's this year. Next year I might make 6%. If you can average 10% - you are staying ahead of inflation and taxes - and you are doing very well. The absolute worst thing a new person can do is set their sights too high. They start dreaming of billions of dollars, their eyes get bigger than their stomache. They start buying into claims and dreams of 1000% returns, HYIP garbage, and the like.
Associated with this is the problem of putting all of your eggs in one basket. You might hit a home run. You might not. But then, that isn't the way a good business operates. A good business doesn't expose itself to uneccessary risk, and protects itself, from itself. If you put all of your eggs in one basket, you're not conducting business. You are gambling. You're hoping for one thing to do well. It might, it might not.
Experience teaches an investor that we are our own worst enemy. Psychology is the reason the markets move as they do. They move based off fear. And based off Greed. And I have yet to meet the individual investor who has perfect control over his emotions when investing. I'd bet ya ten dollars to the hole in a donut Warren Buffet himself doesn't have perfect control over those emotions. And experience teaches any investor that the idea of "put your eggs in one basket" - is a poor one. You might hit a home run? But in the long run - you'll end up in the poor house. Mathematics all but guarantees it, and it's been proven again and again in mathematical theorum after mathematical theorum. Gambling houses have literally based their wealth off those theorums.
Don't get me wrong. I'm not trying to knock ya. I understand what you're saying, and I used to believe it. But time and experience have taught me how to build wealth in the markets.
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