• Failure to diversify adequately. Employer stock purchase plans, super star mutual funds or stocks, and a lack of understanding have led many an investor into a position of having all (or most) of his or her eggs in a single basket. You must diversify in a manner consistent with your objectives. Some studies indicate that over 90 percent of your long-term investment performance is driven by your diversification and asset allocation decisions, so be careful to avoid looking only at return.
• Failure to seek competent, objective counsel. Our society promotes the need for expertise, then chastises those that seek to use it. We are told that seeking help is a sign of weakness. If one is ill, he or she quickly seeks medical assistance. When our automobile doesn't run, we quickly seek out a good mechanic. Yet when it comes to our financial present and future, we often try to do it all ourselves.
• Failure to begin. Procrastination turns attainable goals into impossible ones. The longer we wait to establish meaningful personal goals and implement a realistic plan to accomplish them, the greater the difficulty we will have achieving success. The best time to start was yesterday, but today is better than tomorrow.
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