I've watched families navigate decades of volatility: crashes, recoveries, euphoria, panic. The ones who preserve wealth across generations don't have secret information or perfect timing. They follow simple rules, consistently.
February has 28 days. To ring it in, here are 28 guiding principles that have stood the test of time regardless of market activity.
1. The market rewards patience, not prediction.
Most noise isn't information. The constant stream of commentary, analysis, and breaking news creates the illusion that staying informed means staying ahead. It doesn't. The market moves on fundamentals that reveal themselves slowly, not on headlines that change hourly.
2. Focus on what you can control: Costs, discipline, diversification, behaviour.
You cannot control returns. You cannot control when recessions arrive or when bull markets end. But you can control how much you pay in fees, how consistently you invest, how broadly you spread your risk, and how you respond when fear or greed takes hold.
3. You don't need to beat the market. You just need to capture it.
The obsession with outperformance drives investors towards complexity, higher costs, and ultimately, disappointment. Capturing market returns through low-cost, diversified portfolios has built more wealth over time than the pursuit of alpha ever has.
4. The simplest portfolio is often the smartest.
Complexity rarely adds value. It adds cost, confusion, and opportunity for error. A straightforward allocation across global equities and bonds, rebalanced systematically, has outperformed the vast majority of elaborate strategies.
5. Volatility is the price of admission.
Don't demand returns without accepting the ride. Equities deliver premium returns over time, because of fluctuations in the short term. If you cannot stomach the volatility, you don't deserve the returns.
6. Time in the market matters more than timing the market. Always.
Missing just the 10 best days over a 20-year period can cut your returns nearly in half. Funnily enough, the best days often follow the worst ones – so it’s hard to capture them after getting cold feet on the downswing. Staying invested through the chaos is what separates wealth-builders from market-timers.
7. Diversification is a dark horse.
Its power is revealed over decades, not days. When one asset class stumbles, another steadies the ship. The benefit isn't dramatic in any one year, but over a lifetime of investing, it's the difference between weathering storms and being swept away by them.
8. Your plan should be built on evidence, not emotion.
Especially when emotions run high. When markets crash, fear whispers that this time is different and worse than any before. When markets soar, greed tells you that you're missing out. Evidence and decades of market history tell a different story – a much more trustworthy one.
9. Chasing performance is a tax on impatience.
Last year's winners become this year's laggards with predictable regularity. By the time a fund or strategy appears on a "best performer" list, the opportunity has usually passed. Avoid getting swept up in the furore.
10. The market has already priced in what everyone knows.
You don't need to outguess it. If information is public, it's already reflected in prices. Your edge as an investor isn't superior information, it's superior behaviour.
11. A disciplined strategy beats a brilliant prediction. Every time.
Predictions fail. Discipline endures. The investor who follows a consistent plan through all market conditions will outperform the ‘strategist’ who tries to predict turning points.
12. Your behaviour matters more than your products.
Panic is more expensive than fees: selling in a downturn locks in losses, while buying at market peaks locks in mediocre returns. Managing your behaviour by staying calm, and staying invested, matters far more than optimising your expense ratio by a few measley basis points.
13. You don't need the perfect moment.
The moment you start is perfect enough. Markets climb over time. Waiting for a correction before investing often means waiting forever. Start now. Adjust as you go.
14. Rebalancing is the quiet hero of long-term returns.
It forces buy-low, sell-high. When equities surge, rebalancing trims them back. When they crash, rebalancing buys more. It's counter-intuitive, uncomfortable… and extraordinarily effective over time.
15. The best portfolios feel boring.
Boredom is not a bug, it's a feature. If your portfolio keeps you up at night with excitement, you’re probably taking on unnecessary risk. Wealth is built slowly, quietly, and without drama.
16. Markets recover more often than they collapse.
History is your friend. Every bear market in history has eventually given way to a new bull market. Crashes feel permanent in the moment. They never are – as the adage goes, “this too shall pass.”
17. Ignore headlines.
They're written to sell attention, not build wealth. Financial media thrives on urgency and alarm. Your portfolio should thrive on patience and perspective.
18. Compounding works best when you don't interrupt it.
Let time do the heavy lifting. Albert Einstein allegedly called compound interest the eighth wonder of the world. But, it only works if you leave it alone – every time you exit the market, you reset the clock.
19. Costs compound too.
Costs compound just like returns. Pay for advice that adds value, not for products that don't. The difference between value and waste always reveals itself in the fullness of time.
20. Bad days don't destroy portfolios. Bad decisions do.
Markets fall. That's normal, and things will swing back the other way. Selling during the fall, abandoning your plan, or fleeing to cash – those are the decisions that inflict permanent damage.
21. Not every risk deserves a reward.
Factor premiums do. Stocks are riskier than bonds, so they should deliver higher returns. Small-cap and value stocks have historically outperformed over long periods. These are risks worth taking. Concentrated bets on individual stocks or sectors? Not so much.
22. Your portfolio should be built around you, not around the news cycle.
Your goals, your time horizon, and your risk tolerance should dictate your allocation. Not the latest economic forecast or geopolitical crisis.
23. You don't need to predict the future.
…But you do need a strategy that survives it. Robust portfolios aren't built on forecasts. They're built on diversification, discipline, and the recognition that uncertainty is permanent.
24. Stay invested, stay diversified, stay disciplined.
The rest is commentary. If you do these three things consistently, you will be fine. Better than fine, in fact. You'll be wealthier than the vast majority of investors who spend their lives chasing the next opportunity.
25. Wealth isn't created in moments of excitement.
It's created in years of consistency. The investors who succeed aren't the ones who make brilliant trades or perfectly time the market. They're the ones who show up, year after year, regardless of conditions. Consistency compounds.
26. Your worst investing day feels catastrophic. Your best investing decade feels inevitable.
Perspective matters. In the moment, a 20% drawdown feels like the end. Twenty years later, it's a footnote. Keep the long view. Stay the course.
27. Successful investors are more patient than ‘smart’.
Intelligence helps, but temperament wins out every time. The ability to sit still, to do nothing when everyone else is panicking or euphoric, is worth more than any financial qualification.
28. Markets don't care about your timeline. Build a plan that doesn't care about the markets.
You might need money in five years for a house deposit or in thirty years for retirement. The market will do what it does regardless. Structure your portfolio around your needs, not market predictions, and you'll sleep better through every cycle.
Remember: Markets will always be chaotic. Your response doesn't have to be.
Follow the rules (and seek professional advice)
These principles work. But they work best when you have someone in your corner who isn't conflicted by commissions, product sales, or institutional agendas.
Seek independent, impartial advice that puts you first and foremost. You are the sun, not the moon: your financial plan should orbit around you, your goals, your circumstances. Not around what someone else needs to sell.
Nick Stewart
(Ngāi Tahu, Ngāti Huirapa, Ngāti Māmoe, Ngāti Waitaha)
Financial Adviser and CEO at Stewart Group
Stewart Group is a Hawke's Bay and Wellington based CEFEX & BCorp certified financial planning and advisory firm providing personal fiduciary services, Wealth Management, Risk Insurance & KiwiSaver scheme solutions.
The information provided, or any opinions expressed in this article, are of a general nature only and should not be construed or relied on as a recommendation to invest in a financial product or class of financial products. You should seek financial advice specific to your circumstances from a Financial Adviser before making any financial decisions. A disclosure statement can be obtained free of charge by calling 0800 878 961 or visit our website, www.stewartgroup.co.nz
Article no. 442