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Weekend Reading: Rule #1 of Building Wealth: Play Defense with Your Money

This article appears as part of Casey Weade's Weekend Reading for Retirees series. Every Friday, Casey highlights four hand-picked articles on trending retirement topics and delivers them straight to your email inbox. Get on the list here.
Weekend reading playing defense with money Weekend reading playing defense with money

Weekend Reading

A defense-first mentality is what often sets NBA Championship teams apart from the rest. For you, this same mindset can be applied to wealth-building.

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How to play financial defense: As Warren Buffett says, it comes down to never losing your money. That doesn’t mean taking zero risk, but rather, taking a calculated approach with your investment choices. Above all, playing defense with your portfolio requires the ability to be mindful, simply by following several simple steps, such as:

📌 Never put all your money on the line: Gambling everything means a probability of losing everything, and that isn’t necessary for financial growth.

📌 Diversify: Beyond diversified assets, think of this as creating multiple ways to build wealth (stock market, properties, a business, etc.)

📌 Adopt a philosophy for simple living: Replace greed or the need to compare with a focus on mindfulness and feeling at peace with what you have.

📌 Be skeptical: Take every ground-breaking financial success story you hear with a grain of salt. “Easy money” isn’t the norm in unpredictable markets.

Your wealth and the pace it grows isn’t based on big returns, but rather, how much you manage to preserve. As you’ve heard me say, “It’s not about the gross, it’s all about the net.”