Patience. Who has any of that anymore, especially when our own government illustrates that we should be able to have anything and everything we want immediately! Credit cards have allowed people to spend money they don't have, while easy banking/lending allowed people to buy houses they surely couldn't afford. Of course we know the rest of that story. Furthermore, our government, and many other governmental bodies around the world, have been living in a utopian bubble that assumes everything can be borrowed and paid for later, with some still not fully beyond that thinking yet.
When it comes to governing bodies, I believe that common sense and patience have disappeared. The definition of patience per Wikipedia: 'It is the state of endurance under difficult circumstances, which can mean persevering in the face of delay or provocation without acting on annoyance/anger in a negative way; or exhibiting forbearance when under strain, especially when faced with longer-term difficulties.'
Fortunately, I think many investors have been forced to rethink their household finances and re-learn how to be patient with what they want in the long term. Those who have and continue to live comfortably today are mostly those who have been patient in life. They don't spend what they don't have and they don't purchase what they can't afford.
As advisors, we must continue educating our clients and provide lessons on patience within the investing world. Many people think wealthy investors have a silver bullet insight into how to "get rich quick," but in reality, most wealthy individuals have endured tough times through extreme patience and emotional control. The wealthy investor understands the need to be patient about the marketplace and makes educated investment allocations or trading decisions, not quick trades that try to time the market. Their decisions are not get- rich-quick-driven, but strategically risk-based and targeted to achieving specific goals, rather than just becoming wealthy. They understand the logic of taking extra risk in order to possibly achieve higher long-term growth during specific market conditions. But most of all, they understand the need for patience! They don't try to predict the future; they just participate in the present and wait on a great opportunity so they can take advantage of the future.
As illustrated by the graph below, the average total return of the S&P 500 from March 1928 to September 2011 was roughly 9.39% per year. However, when broken out between capital
