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Section 6
Managing By Media
On April 11, 2008, The Wall Street Journal ran the last of more
than 1,000 columns about personal finance and investing
written by Jonathan Clements. He was interviewed by Tess
Vigeland, a well-known reporter for financial publications and
TV. A few of Clements’ answers highlight what I consider one
of the major problems for individual investors trying to build,
preserve, and pass on wealth. I call it “managing by media.”
(I’ve placed the parts of the answers I consider the most
insightful in bold type).
Vigeland: “You wrote 1,009 columns. Were there any
trends in personal finance that surprised you either
when they came along or when they went away?”
Clements: “One of the things that I tell people is there
are basically only 20 personal finance stories,
which means that I’ve written each of those
stories 50 times and this, of course, is one of the
reasons why I thought it was time to give it up. I mean,
eventually readers were bound to notice. In terms
Chapter 4: The Most Common Investor Mistakes
