Have questions about how I invest? This FAQ document might be able to answer the most common questions. If you have questions not answered here, please try sending me an email via the Contact page.
Why do you list your investing ideas in monthly posts?
Most small investors really lack a good source of investing ideas. For starters, most people don’t have the time to sort through thousands of publicly traded stocks looking for good investments. They rely almost entirely on the investing media to provide “pitches”.
This is a huge problem for investors seeking to realize good returns — the investing media like CNBC, the Wall Street Journal, or even the Financial Times cover the same 100 well-known and extremely well-researched stocks (or funds) over and over again.
You’ll rarely find any fat pitches in popular media.
This is one of the reasons why I believe in keeping fresh pitches coming every month — Without plenty of pitches I’ll never have good stuff to swing at!
What about Index Funds? Don’t you invest in Index Funds?
I do! Roughly half of our holdings are invested in index funds. When prices make sense, investing in index funds is a very good idea. At other times (like right now), index funds can be overpriced, and do not represent an intelligent investment.
Doesn’t investing in individual stocks result in underperformance?
That depends entirely upon the individual investor. Our performance record stands on its own — I’ve easily bested the S&P 500 over the last 10 years.
We don’t try to market time or any of that nonsense. I can’t predict the future. I simply invest in good companies and hold them for a very long time.
Over the long-term, my results have been very satisfactory.
What if I’m not interested in buying individual stocks ?
If you’re not into purchasing individual stocks — don’t worry. Individual stocks, bonds or preferred shares are not for everybody. I get that. Even in my own portfolio we hold a large percentage in index funds.
I only do one ‘investing idea’ post per month, so I’ll be back to posting about other personal finance topics soon enough. If you want other kinds of posts, please see the Archives.
Where do your investing ideas come from?
These ideas are derived a number of different sources — Some ideas come from small investing blogs I follow. Others come from small hedge fund 13F filings and stock screens. I also gather ideas from podcasts, news articles written by like-minded investors, and occasionally I’ll even pull ideas from message boards like Corner of Berkshire & Fairfax (although this is rare).
Are you buying shares in these stocks? Should I buy shares?
Do not consider any of these investing ideas as a solicitation to buy shares. I’m not endorsing or advising anyone purchase these investments for themselves. These are merely investing ideas that I’m considering. Just because I write-up a investing idea does not mean I’m investing.
I may or may not put money into these investing ideas. Some investing ideas may require additional research, or need to have certain questions answered before anyone should invest in them.
Please do your own research or use your financial advisor before you invest. Also, see my disclaimer page.