David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Readers Share Stories of Teachers Who Made a Difference A few weeks ago, I shared a story with newsletter subscribers about the high school math teacher who changed my life. Mrs. McReynolds believed in me when I momentarily stopped believing in myself. She encouraged me to keep studying advanced math after poor performance on a test left me devastated and discouraged about moving forward with a subject I loved. I also posted the story...
1 day ago • 3 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Photos courtesy of Wini Lao Photography Becoming a Transformed Investor It’s been a big week. I’m thrilled by the positive response to Stay Calm and grateful for the opportunity to share the book’s lessons. As a special thank- you for being a subscriber, I wanted to share one of my favorite stories from the book: A few core principles have guided me throughout my life: sound scientific evidence and the discipline to stick with your plan...
15 days ago • 5 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Today’s the Day to Stay Calm Today’s the day. Stay Calm is officially out. I wrote the book because I wanted to showcase the science and mindset that can help us stay calm in investing and life. I hope it helps more people understand how public markets really work so they can have a better investment experience. At its core, investing is about managing uncertainty. And that’s something we all understand simply by living our lives....
17 days ago • 3 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Bonus Edition: The Calm Before Stay Calm The official publication of my book Stay Calm is nearly here—a moment I’ve been anticipating for years. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to help people feel calmer and more confident about investing. Ahead of the book's release tomorrow, I want to share a sneak peek with subscribers: Stay Calm isn’t a book about how to invest. It’s a book about how to think about investing. It’s not about...
18 days ago • 5 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Who’s Your Mrs. McReynolds? During my senior year of high school, I was taking calculus from a teacher named Mrs. McReynolds. She was middle-aged and no-nonsense, and I was doing well in her class until the last week of the fall semester, when I came down with the worst flu of my life. I could barely get out of bed. But I had to take the calculus final on the assigned date or lose my chance at earning college credit. I took the test in...
29 days ago • 5 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Be a Long-Term Investor in Life After 50-plus years in finance, I’ve come to believe that the same habits that make a good investor make for a good life. Start with seeing the opportunity in uncertainty. In investing, returns provide compensation for taking on the financial risks of uncertainty. Risk and reward are directly related. In many ways, the same is true outside the market. We move to a new city, change jobs, get married, and...
about 1 month ago • 5 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Patient Trading in Life A while back, I took a friend on a tour of our global headquarters in Austin. As we walked the trading floor, my friend was struck by the state of calm he found there. Nobody was rushing or screaming. Nobody looked upset. If you didn’t know what you were looking at, you might have thought not much was happening at all. But a lot was happening. These traders were doing something we’ve practiced since the very...
about 2 months ago • 6 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm A Great Way to Start Investing Public markets are one of humanity’s greatest innovations. I think we should celebrate them more. Over the past 100 years, the S&P 500 has returned about 10% a year on average, which means investors have basically been able to double their money every seven years.¹ Let’s say you have a 42-year time horizon, from when you start investing to when you plan to retire. That’s six separate periods of seven...
2 months ago • 5 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Exercise Judgment I went to work out one morning and saw that the market was down 2%. When I came back, the market was up 2%. So, what’s the investment lesson? Don’t forget to exercise! You want an investing plan that allows you to stay calm during mornings like that. You can’t control financial markets, but you can control how you react to them. Then you can focus on things that matter to you, like exercise for me. The market roller...
3 months ago • 4 min read
David BoothAuthor of New York Times bestseller Stay Calm Why I Wrote Stay Calm I grew up in Kansas with Depression-era parents, plainspoken people who never trusted investing in the stock market. In their minds, investing was for insiders. Not for people like them. When my dad passed away in 1985, my brother and sister and I went to his bank and opened the family safe deposit box. Inside was $15,000 in cash, more than 15% of everything my parents had. Dad grew up watching banks fail. He...
3 months ago • 5 min read