Warren Buffett’s Top 4 Tips For Everyday Investors

And rightfully so. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway investment portfolio has averaged staggering annual returns of20% per year since 1965 — doubling the average annual return of the S&P 500 over the same period. In other words, every $100 invested with Buffett then would be worth $910,000 today.

With a track record like that, it may be worth looking at some of Buffett’s sage investing advice to see how we might improve our own portfolio performance. Here are a few of our favorite lines from Buffett over the years:

1. “Our favorite holding period is forever.”
It may not be trendy or sophisticated, but buy-and-hold investing — Buffett’s favorite strategy according to Berkshire Hathaway’s 1988 letter — may be one of the few strategies actually proven to consistently make money over the long term. The proof comes from an Oppenheimer study , which found that the S&P 500 (commonly used as a benchmark for the stock market) never suffered a loss over any 20-year period going all the way back to 1950. The extensive study also showed short-term investing can be a bad idea, as the S&P 500 lost money 16 times in a one-year-period since 1950.

2. “If a business does well, the stock eventually follows.”
Don’t just buy stock if you want strong returns. Buy shares in a business you’d be proud to own, and be prepared to reap the rewards. Much of Buffett’s investing success has come from buying well-managed companies with solid economic moats (i.e. lasting competitive advantages), consistently high return on equity (ROE), and low debt (see Berkshire’s full criteria on page 23). He admires companies with leaders that readily admit mistakes, have the interests of shareholders at heart, and own a large portion of the company shares themselves.

3. “Investment must be rational; if you don’t understand it, don’t do it.”
Buffett advocates owning established companies with household name brands and understandable business models. One look at Berkshire Hathaway’s portfolio should illustrate this point, as well-known and simple companies like Coca-Cola (NYSE: KO ), American Express (NYSE: AXP ), and Wells Fargo (NYSE: WFC ) continue to be some of its largest holdings. And for good reason: Buffett has made more than 10 times his original investment on each of those stocks according to his firm’s report .

4. “Diversification is protection against ignorance. It makes little sense for those who know what they’re doing.”
Yes, it’s true that Buffett recommends that non-professional investors buy shares in diversified, low-cost S&P 500 index funds to avoid risk. But how can you beat the broader market when your portfolio is the market?

In his ‘Lebron James’ analogy , Buffett says, “If it’s your game, diversification doesn’t make sense. It’s crazy to put money into your 20th choice rather than your 1st choice . It’s the ‘LeBron James’ analogy. If you have basketball phenom LeBron James on your team, don’t take him out of the game just to make room for someone else.” In other words, if you know an industry well (or work in it), you may have a better-than-average chance of spotting a good company and thus a potentially market-beating stock.

The Takeaway
While not every investor can buy shares of Berkshire Hathaway (each share costs as much as a home), profiting from Buffett’s wisdom is simple. Buy well-managed companies with wide moats, understandable business models, and in industries that you know well.

Learn from the man himself and try to adapt his principles to form a sound, profitable investing strategy.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.