Words to Live By

Principles, mantras, and lines Derek Johnson returns to. The ideas that shape how he works and lives.

Stop thinking about purchases in terms of the monthly payment. If you can't pay cash, you can't afford it.

Investing should be more like watching paint dry or watching grass grow. If you want excitement, take $800 and go to Las Vegas.

Years from now it won't matter how much it cost. You'll just be glad you went.

If you can't buy it twice, you can't afford it.

We only live once. Wrong. We only die once. We live every day.

Spending money to show people how much money you have is the fastest way to have less money.

If you can't pay cash for an item, you can't afford it. Don't let monthly payments become a way of life for your family.

Thinking big takes the same amount of effort as thinking small.

The first rule of compounding: Never interrupt it unnecessarily.

The stock market is a device for transferring money from the impatient to the patient.

Don't look for the needle in the haystack. Just buy the haystack.

Live like no one else, so later you can live like no one else.

If you double the number of experiments you do per year, you're going to double your inventiveness.

Your margin is my opportunity.

What you think you become. What you feel you attract. What you imagine you create.