Wise & Wealthy: The meaning of life and the best investing books

Welcome to Wise & Wealthy: A weekly newsletter full of proven ideas to become smarter and wealthier. I send this every Monday.

#146 – October 14, 2024

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5 best investing books

I’m usually skeptical about books or articles with titles like, “How I Made X Dollars…” But Nicolas Darvas’ book, How I Made $2,000,000 in the Stock Market, is a bit of an exception.

Darvas was not a professional investor; he was a dancer. He was a self-taught investor who actually made a lot of money by trading stocks.

One of the best lessons from this book is simple: Develop a system that works for you, and stick to it.

Investing is truly a personal thing. You must have a strategy that fits your personality.

Darvas’ book details his “Box System” for identifying stocks poised for growth. Whether or not his system will also work for you doesn’t matter as much as the strategy he teaches about developing your own investing system.

Even when others doubted him, Darvas was confident with his strategy and executed consistently. This allowed him to make money in the stock market. He said:

“There are no good or bad stocks, there are only rising and falling stocks.”

Darvas’ story proves that you don’t need to be a Wall Street insider to succeed in the stock market. What you need is a clear, well-defined system and the discipline to keep executing.

In my latest article, I talk about 4 other investing books that I found to provide timeless advice.

5 Enduring Investment Advice From the Best Investing Books


One interesting thing

In a recent podcast, Harvard professor and author, Arthur C. Brooks and Tim Ferris talked about how most people suspect that finding meaning in life can be challenging if you don’t know where to start.

So it’s easier to break it down into three parts:

  • Coherence: The key is to create (or follow) a belief system that corresponds to your personal values. In my case, I rely on philosophy as my anchor, specifically Stoicism.
  • Purpose: This is about finding a goal or direction for your life. This dictates what you want to achieve in life. To me, this means usefulness.
  • Significance: This is about feeling like your life matters and that you’re making a positive difference in the world.

When you combine coherence, purpose, and significance, you get a good picture of what a meaningful life can mean to you.


Thanks for reading! I hope you found this edition of Wise & Wealthy useful.

All the best,

Darius

Join the 7-day Stay Centered challenge

I’ve created a one-week email course that you can do together with a group. It’s called Stay Centered, and it will help you to reclaim focus and live a meaningful life.

When you’re centered, nothing can hurt you. You will have inner peace no matter what happens.

How to unlock Stay Centered

You can join the challenge for free. Every day, you’ll receive a short email with a small challenge that inspires you to live better. 

I highly recommend sharing it with your friends so you can go through the program together. I did it with my team, which was a lot of fun. 

Join here: dariusforoux.com/stay-centered

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