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CRNA1109 (65.81)

Time and lessons

Recs

7

August 28, 2012 – Comments (5)

My intention was to keep a running blog and put my thoughts etc to paper as it were. Unfortunately, I've been busy and its been a few months. Not much time in the grand scheme of things really but I have to say I have definitely learned a few lessons!

 Reading some of the posts on different stocks has been very educational and also very amusing. Some of the people here are freaking sharp as a tack and very instrumental in helping me learn the proper way to invest. Others are down right laughable when they slam MF for a rec that they purchased as a BBN and it dropped and they sold. Clearly its MF's fault.....??? Whatever. Apparently they didnt buy into the whole long term buy/hold and fecal matter happens part of it. I mean hey, I look at my CAPS page and it has these little quips at the top. Of course I have picked my own stocks and also some of MF's core and BBN stocks. At the beginning, one of my picks shot up fast. One of my BBN's sank.....fast. My CAPs page says "your stock #$% is up , your stock %^& is your worst performer( worst being the BBN pick, best being mine). WHAT CAN YOU LEARN FROM THIS!? I'd say I learned that even a blind hog can get a nut! I got lucky? Well. I made a educated guess based on what I learned here, applied it and won out. Fast forward a little bit, that pick is still up nicely but my MF picks are now my best (and worst) picks.One of my BBN's is about to give me my first 100% gain in fact. Overall, I'm ahead and I'm happy.

 Lesson learned, I jumped the gun too many times to start with. I'd buy a stock and it'd decline. I'd buy again. In retrospect, I did that too many times and too fast. I should have let it fall more than I did. Now I have a hard fast rule, unless it drops 10% or more, I won't make a second purchase of it. And once I have it as a certain amount of my portfolio, I wont add again. I made too many quick buys and a couple of my stocks are overweight bc of that.  One reason I did that to start with was b/c I had 60 days of free trades and it didnt impact me to make the buys but I definitely would like a do over on a few of those buys. Color me educated.

 Since starting a portofolio, I have scoured MF for educational reading and done the same on ETRADE and Schwab. I highly recommend Peter Lynch for reading as well. Outdated to be sure but timeless advice. Yea the stock examples are ancient but the principles still apply.

I worry about retirement, that is what really pushed me towards getting into the market and becoming a MF SA member. I think, JMO here, that it is important to save for retirement but also to get rid of debt prior to retiring. Since graduating at 40 with my Masters, I have the dreaded student loan debt to deal with. I also picked up credit card debt to get by for a little bit as well. The credit card debt is thankfully all gone. The wife and I have paid her student loans off and her car and are now working on my gargantuan loans. My goal, to max out our 401ks, plus what we can to our IRA's on the side while trying to put extra on my student loans. I dont mind a house note in retirement but not anything else. By then my house note will be awful small anyway.  I'll do my best to keep a running entry going here. I think it'll be interesting to see how things progress and maybe it'll keep me honest and true to my goals. We shall see.

5 Comments – Post Your Own

#1) On August 28, 2012 at 10:19 PM, awallejr (80.13) wrote:

Well I wish you luck. It does seem you at least have a plan.  Being 40 does change things for your investment strategy I would think since you would be less speculative than say in the 20s.

I can make suggestions but in the end I am just anonymous to you, so what I say take as merely a point for you to do further DD if you so desire.

I am basically a "yield" guy.  I like creating a core holding that spits off yield which I then reinvest to spit off more yield. I also like to devote about 10% to gold or other minerals.  I then devote another 10% to speculative stocks.  The rest is in yield.

Over the years I have been a big fan of MLPs, BDCs, reits, cefs.  They consititute the bulk of my portfolio.  I will just rattle off a bunch for your perusal:  PVR, SDRL, PSEC, HTGC, GGN, BX, JPS, MPW, MMLP, BBEP, BWP, AGNC, ARCC, FIG, MCGC, NCT, DHY.

For gold I really like SAND, but have holdings in speculative mining stocks such as TC, ALXDF, CDY.

As for speculation I leave that to you since there are plenty of choices out there.

Best of luck.

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#2) On August 28, 2012 at 10:25 PM, CRNA1109 (65.81) wrote:

Thank you sir. Your's is exactly the kind of response I would hope for if I got one. Feedback and guidance. I have actually been investing since the 20s. I am pretty much obsessed with retiring comfortably. Funny you should mention yield b/c I have been leaning more and more that direction. I have always been a mutual funds kind of guy. I just thought I could do better on my own. That thinking brought me here.

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#3) On August 28, 2012 at 10:48 PM, awallejr (80.13) wrote:

Well if you don't have the time, mutual funds or etfs are viable options.  But If you want to stock pick, spread your holdings over at least a dozen equally for your core holding so you don't get crushed should one of your picks sour.

By all means devote a small percentage to speculation with the expectation it will hit or crash since in the end we all want to hit that major home run.  But with patience you will see how a yield portfolio does grow as that tortoise in the race. You just need to always monitor your picks.

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#4) On August 28, 2012 at 11:38 PM, rd80 (99.11) wrote:

Sounds like you're doing the right stuff - paying down debt, goal to max out retirement investments.

I'm a big fan of dividends, particularly growing dividends.  Provides a double dose of compounding - once from the dividend growth, then another shot from reinvesting.

Be careful going after yield.  It's become a popular theme and many (not all) quality yield plays have been bid up quite a bit.  There are still some values in the stuff awallejr mentioned along with some non-traditional yield plays like industrials and tech.  Financials are also still scary enough to offer up some decent buys.

Anyway, hope it doesn't take another six months for your next entry.  The blogs and stock pitches make a great interactive investing journal - although it can mean your dumbest investment arguments get preserved in posterity for all to read.

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#5) On August 29, 2012 at 10:37 PM, HarryCarysGhost (99.77) wrote:

Hi CRNA,

I think your on the right track.

One book I like to read once a year is The Intelligent Investor by Benjamin Graham. Never seems outdated since the principles stil apply.

In response to your later blog-

http://caps.fool.com/Blogs/first-time-to-hit-100/758348

From my own experiences, if I had a speculative stock double, I would always sell half.

But heres the rub- I've had long term stocks double and have left them alone.

So it really just boils down to what was your thinking when you bought, and has it changed?

 (editors note- I stopped doing the 10% spec part of my port for the simple reason that it stopped working for 2011)

Cheers.

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