I have been investing for 11 years now. But I owe a lot of the progress I've made to these people:
**Charles Ellis** (Winning the Loser's Game)
The comparison of tennis to the game of investing really stuck with me. In professional tennis, the winner is the one with the winning shots. In amateur tennis, the winner is the one who makes fewer mistakes and returns the balls. So I learned that, as an amateur investor, the goal is to minimize costs, taxes, and fees. I learned that index funds are the game that I should be playing.
**Benjamin Graham**
Warren Buffett studied Benjamin Graham's books and was later a student of his as well. I learned a lot about Mr. Market in Graham's book *The Intelligent Investor*. I thought for some time that an intelligent investor is one who picks the right companies, but instead it meant having the mental upper hand and staying calm through turbulent times. This helped me to not sell, but rather buy in market corrections.
**John Bogle**
John Bogle founded the first index fund nearly 50 years ago and made low-cost investing on autopilot possible for me.
Who influenced your investment journey?