I went to mall again during this weekend. There are many malls in St. Louis, the closest (to my home) also the most expensive one, is the Plaza Frontenac. When I first visited there years ago, I was amazed to see the price tags of stuff there, things such as Boss, Gucci, stores like Saks Fifth Ave., and Nieman Marcus. It made me think St. Louis is not a small town. The shopping experience is in deep contrast to other malls such as Galleria, which is meant for average people.
Anyway I only buy stuff at one store at Frontenac, that’s J. Crew., and I only buy when things are on sale and I found they fit me well. For instance, today I bought a broken-in zip fly chino for 14.99 (plus 1.14 sales tax), the listed price was 64.50.
I think same principle can be applied to investing in stocks. We should buy quality stocks that we can understand (just like the clothes fit us), and we should have the patience to wait sometime (e.g., Memorial Day sales), before pulling the trigger. That way we will not over pay for the trendy or hot stuff.
Inpulsive buying, especially buying the new items when they come out, usually means over pay. In some cases, we could buy the stuff that does not fit us. Unlike clothes, you can not return the stocks to the broker when you found you made a mistake 🙂