--- title: Five rules to remember when investing - The Hustle description: Morgan Housel shares five rules to remember during a turbulent market. image: https://media.hubspot.com/hubfs/Imported%20images/TheHustle+HubSpot_Lockup.svg --- # Five rules to remember when investing ![Morgan Housel](https://53.fs1.hubspotusercontent-na1.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/HubSpot%20Media/Blog%202021/Images/Nav/Optimized/TheHustle_Icon_Dark.svg) [Morgan Housel](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/morgan-housel) [Morgan Housel Twitter profile ](https://twitter.com/MorganHousel) Published: May 20, 2022 Updated: October 11, 2023 This is, [by some measures](https://www.cnn.com/2022/05/02/investing/stocks-sell-may-go-away/index.html), the worst start of a year in the stock market since the Great Depression. ![Five rules to remember when investing](https://media.hubspot.com/hubfs/Imported%20images/TheHustle+HubSpot_Lockup.svg) A big index like the S&P 500 is down ~20%, which is bad but not unprecedented. Plenty of tech stocks are down 50%-80%, which is calamitous. A few things stick out in my mind to keep it in perspective: - **About once a decade, people forget that bubbles form and burst about once a decade.** It’s always been like this and always will be. Optimism overshoots, bubbles burst, memories fade, and the process repeats. - **There are three legal investment strategies:** You can be smarter than others. You can be luckier than others. Or you can be more patient than others. Know your edge and how hard it is to maintain. - **Few things are as valuable in investing as room for error.** People who don’t have room for error in their investments may earn higher returns than you this year or next year. But they are more likely to be wiped out, or give up, when they come across an inevitable surprise. - **Your lifetime results as an investor will be mostly determined by what you do during wild times.** Building wealth doesn’t require a lifetime of superior skill. It requires pretty mediocre skills — basic arithmetic and a grasp of investing fundamentals — practiced consistently throughout your entire lifetime, especially during times of mania and panic. Easier said than done, but then again — so is everything in investing. Topics: [Investing](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/tag/investing) ## Follow us on social media prev next - ![Move over, stocks — alternative investing apps are here](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/2048432289-httpsthdaily.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.comfinal_size-Alternativeinvesting_20231009220444.webp) ### Move over, stocks — alternative investing apps are here - ![The Dow index got a makeover. What does it mean?](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/994075186-image2.1.webp) ### The Dow index got a makeover. 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Now, it’s expanding.](https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/hubfs/The%20Hustle%20News/Assets/Images/304104139-Clearco-Founders.webp) ### Clearco created a new way to fund ecommerce businesses. Now, it’s expanding. Pop up for Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Subscribe to The Hustle Daily Newsletter Get the 5-minute news brief keeping 2.5M+ innovators in the loop. Always free. 100% fresh. No bullsh*t. JOIN FREE ### 100% Free CRM Nurture and grow your business with customer relationship management software. Signup for a free account Close modal ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@type" : "BlogPosting", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Morgan Housel", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/author/morgan-housel" }, "datePublished" : "2022-05-20T06:15:04.000Z", "headline" : "Five rules to remember when investing", "image" : [ "https://media.hubspot.com/hubfs/Imported%20images/TheHustle+HubSpot_Lockup.svg" ], "mainEntityOfPage" : { "@id" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/news/05202022-morgans-musings", "@type" : "WebPage" }, "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject" } } } ``` ```json { "@context" : "https://schema.org", "@id" : "#article", "@type" : "NewsArticle", "author" : { "@type" : "Person", "name" : "Morgan Housel", "url" : "https://hs-sbup.thehustle.co/author/morgan-housel" }, "dateModified" : "2023-10-11T20:04:23+0000", "datePublished" : "2022-05-20T06:15:04+0000", "headline" : "Five rules to remember when investing", "image" : [ "https://media.hubspot.com/hubfs/Imported%20images/TheHustle+HubSpot_Lockup.svg" ], "publisher" : { "@type" : "Organization", "logo" : { "@type" : "ImageObject", "height" : 112, "url" : "https://fs.hubspotusercontent00.net/hubfs/53/assets/hubspot.com/web-team/WBZ/Blog%202021/Images/Logos/HubSpot%20Logo%20112X112.svg", "width" : 112 }, "name" : "HubSpot", "sameAs" : [ "https://www.facebook.com/hubspot", "https://twitter.com/hubspot" ], "url" : "https://www.hubspot.com" }, "speakable" : { "@type" : "SpeakableSpecification", "xPath" : [ "//title", "/html/head/meta[@name='description']/@content" ] } } ```