Christopher Manske > Quotes

“Perception trumps reality. People react to what they think is occurring, which isn’t necessarily the same thing as what’s truly happening.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“Once you know how an illusion is performed, you cannot go back to being tricked by it.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Think a little differently from the herd and see things they can’t or won’t.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“Mother Nature convincingly suggests that those who stay scared and run with the herd are more likely to stay alive. As investors around you behave irrationally and the news describes a miasma that will last for years, it’s easy to lose sight of your well-laid plans. It’s tempting to join the herd…”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“When you buy a bigger house, another luxury car, or a fancy boat, you are showing people that you used to have money.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“If you reinvest dividends, which can often be a very smart investment move, you will no longer get to see on your statement what you originally paid to buy the position. Instead, our dividend profit masquerades as principal in a very powerful illusion that affects almost every investor.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Deception and misdirection are acceptable in a magic show, but they are not at all appropriate in the arena of finance. The way we look at our investments and what we see when we examine our portfolios are both important because our view determines how well we
navigate toward our financial goals.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“It’s impossible for anyone keeping up with current events to believe that the future will be completely free of problems.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“We’re conditioned that our success (and our neighbor’s) is best measured by looking at our possessions. Those possessions influence perception, and because a certain perception earns us status, we chase the proof of wealth rather than wealth itself.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Magicians the world over love to make people’s money disappear because it’s an easy way to raise tension and arouse curiosity”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“When you give your money to a restaurant or a retail store, the goods you get in return might show others something of your financial means, but it also depletes your wealth. You’re showing people that you used to have money and now you have something that costs more money.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“There are specific ways the system actually is rigged and distorted so that our perception of our money is manipulated, very similar to how a stage magician does illusions. And also, like those stage tricks, these
financial manipulations are easy to see through with just a little bit of education and focus.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Wall Street works hard to make sure we focus on growing our net worth, but is that truly our goal? Is “more and more” really the answer, or are you being tricked into being a consumer who asks the wrong questions?”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“We, the people, should take more responsibility for doing things the hard, proper way instead of the easy, inaccurate way.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“The profession of journalism is an important one and considered by many to be a mandatory component of a free society. Will you get access to the brightest minds and greatest reporters for free? Perhaps, but if we hope to continue to see their best work, society needs to support them properly. Be a paid subscriber.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“Money made by our own effort is limited by how
much time, energy, and attention we can give to a task along with what other people will pay for us to do that task. Making money in this firsthand fashion is hard on us because we run our own personal rat race.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“By keeping enough cash to cover at least one month of your typical spending, you’ve created enough liquidity to weather every crisis situation that has occurred so far in modern history.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“In our race to show off our wealth, we are more like a rat on a wheel consuming material goods while trying
to keep up with the Jones family.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“A portfolio can only be “seen” as the data representing the holdings in each account, which means that your monthly investment statement is not actually your portfolio of stocks and bonds. Instead, the investment
statement is more like the wrapper or costume between you and your money.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Anything that is taxed by the government, like a house or car, will forever require income to keep it in your life. This means that when we dream of living in a
fancy mansion with chandeliers, we’re really yearning to fill our life with additional cost and financial burden.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“What stops people from thinking ahead and getting ready for the possibility of crisis? The majority of people surely understand the importance of preparation…”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“Just because brokerages disclose a convoluted
web of profiteering doesn’t mean it’s appropriate. It just means they are hiding these questionable practices in plain sight with a mountain of compliance language that no one will ever read.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“If you’ve ever thought that it shouldn’t be so hard to examine your investment portfolio or hold your financial advisor accountable, you’re right. The system distorts your view of your money in the same way that a magician stacks the deck against the audience. It’s not evil or bad, but once you know how the magician does the illusion, you simply cannot be tricked so easily anymore. And once we all are in on the trick, the
financial industry will need to improve, because the old, tired illusions won’t work anymore.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“The way we measure the cost of something should change so we aren’t measuring the purchase price alone. We all need to be more aware of the cost of maintaining our lifestyle.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“If society sees a crisis, then there is one… even if there’s not.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“Occasionally, the “eyeball” approach to measurement is both imprecise and truly problematic, though we might not know that until it’s too late.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Wall Street treats all crises the same despite the fact that people react to the threat of war very differently from other crises like disease, systemic medical incompetence, or the failure to maintain a country’s transportation infrastructure.”
― Christopher Manske, The Prepared Investor: How to Prevent the Next Crisis from Affecting Your Financial Independence

“Treat debt the same as a really sharp sword. Use debt sparingly for well-thought-out reasons. Maintain debt properly. Aim to retire your debts at a reasonable point in the future.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Homes, and other purchases like it, supposedly prove to our community that we have money, but many times these purchases are just signaling to others that we used to have money.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS

“Most people believe, “My lifestyle is about the same every month. Our savings are fixed. We make a salary, so what we earn is fixed. And lastly, what we spend is fixed.” But the truth is that no one reading this book has a robotic life filled with endless repeating loops
where they get paid the exact same amount of money every single month for decades on end. We all have fluctuations in our income.”
― Christopher Manske, Outsmart the Money Magicians: Maximize Your Net Worth by Seeing Through the Most Powerful Illusions Performed by Wall Street and the IRS