“…in a growing economy the speed of travel improvements is crucial to the evolution of land and house prices….”

I want to remind you that the BTSX/BDOW is simply a strategy: you can follow it exactly or adapt it for your own personal needs/comfort-levels. After all, maximizing returns is rarely the sole reason people invest or choose one investing strategy over an other.

Absolutely nothing. Just sitting back and sticking to my plan.

I'm lucky enough to have had life experiences that have given me the knowledge of the things I need to do so satisfy both ends of the happiness-satisfaction spectrum. But I think I've mismanaged maintaining balance in striving to reach financial independence.

I often find myself stuck between a rock and a hard place: I crave routine when not in one, and a break from it when I’m settled into one.

"The positive performance of the overall market is attributable to large returns generated by relatively few stocks."

In the year 1800, the United States had less than 2% of it's population living in cities. Today, it's more than 80%.

I think you could put me in a ditch anywhere financially and my reaction would be: well, how do I get out of this? It would just be a detour to the eventual destination of retirement. 

And that's just a mental thing? As in that's how you think?

Yes.

The information contained in a hundred other books that cover the styles of investing that Market Masters profiles can be distilled down into this one book.

Here's an article about investing that takes 5 minutes to read, but leaves its readers with more than a lifetime's worth of investing books.

You can take a lot away from this little book. I'll leave that bit to you. But here's three things I took away that can really help in an investing context.

If you aren't where you want to be, just truthfully answer this one small question.

This part of my life... this little part, is called 'the happyness of pursuit'.

If you want stability and consistency in your portfolio and returns over time, then crafting an Investment Policy Statement should be your biggest priority.

"How the hell does this guy win? He hits like a caveman who found a tennis racket!"

The answer isn't clear, but it is easy.

The Wikipedia article on economic bubbles has an interesting section at the bottom about identifying asset bubbles, where it lists the characteristics of a bubble.

Any market exists because of a supply-demand dynamic. If you want to understand the market dynamic, you have to understand where the supply and demand comes from, and how external factors affect them.

If your goal is to be a successful investor, you have to get inside a successful investor's head.

I believe in good decision making, and empowering people to make good decisions for themselves. Such decisions are context driven, but cannot be made without some sort of an analytical mindset.