I have a friend whose last name is Smart. He and I often exchange greetings. He says to me, “be wise” and I say to him “be smart.” Both of us laugh, because we are just weird. The truth about investing is that many are not smart nor are they wise. Most lack common sense because they keep making the same mistakes every year.

One of my favorite tools is the old-fashioned hardcover book. Some of the investing titles on my home office bookshelf are Investing at Level3, The Ultimate Dividend Playbook, Dividends Don’t Lie, the Little Book of Big Dividends and The Little Book of Common Sense Investing. If you have never read a book about investing, then I encourage you to read The Little Book of Common Sense Investing by John Bogle. The second one should be James Cloonan’s Investing at Level3. I wrote a blog on the Level3 topic. Dividend-growth is a great strategy, but only if you get the fundamentals right. Read some books, take some notes and compare your written investment plan with the principles taught in the books.

The third book has nothing to do with investing. Most of the books in my library are not related to investing in this life but are about the thoughtful investment of this life for a much bigger ROI. One of my favorite authors is Warren W. Wiersbe. He wrote a series of Bible commentaries called the Be Series. Each commentary tells the reader to Be something. Be Joyful. Be Right. Be Mature. He also wrote Be Wise, and that is the book Mr. Smart and I think about when we do our Sunday morning greeting. We both want to be wise not only about this life but the one to come. The book subtitle is Discern the Difference Between Man’s Knowledge and God’s Wisdom.

Be Wise by Warren W. Wiersbe