Well hello, and welcome to another Weekend Reading edition. I hope you had a great week.
In case you missed it, I published an article from a fan of this site who wrote about why she chose passive investing to grow her portfolio. I also shared my Canadian dividend stock investing portfolio returns in this post, including some of the challenges that come with benchmarking a portfolio.
Enjoy these articles and your weekend. Do come back and invite some friend next week, when I will profile another investor on his way to financial freedom.
I found this interesting…Warren Buffett has most of his portfolio in just six stocks: IBM, Coca-Cola, Wells Fargo, Phillips 66, American Express, and Kraft Heinz.
If you want a better deal just ask!
Written by female financial planners, here is a Women & Money ebook. It’s free – check it out.
Scott Adams posted an article about Trump and climate change.
Michael James on Money shared his review of Pensionize Your Nest Egg.
Minimalist Cait Flanders killed her blog (name) and is moving forward (with a new blog name) – her own.
Dividend Growth Investor shared the importance of revenue growth.
Dividend Earner discussed the best credit card stock.
Big Cajun Man said bad financial planners can actually help.
Our Big Fat Wallet learned some lessons.
Million Dollar Journey told you how to create a stock watchlist using Google spreadsheets.
$25,000 Dividends continues to march towards his goal.
Here are some dividend cuts and raises thanks to Roadmap2Retire.
Thanks for the mention, Mark, have a good weekend!
Best Dan!
Thanks for mentioning the ebook. Have a great weekend!
Same to you!
Thanks for the mention, Mark! Appreciate the support with the transition 🙂 Happy Weekend!
Best wishes!
It’s funny how different types of investors try to claim Warren Buffett as one of their own. He isn’t a dividend investor. He prefers to own businesses that can retain revenues and put them to greater use than paying them back to shareholders. Such businesses are hard to buy at reasonable prices, so he does what he can. He isn’t an index investor, even though he advocates index investing for most people. He probably wouldn’t think much of the elaborate portfolios of many index investors anyway. He talked about owning just the S&P500 along with T-Bills.
Thanks for the mention.
Not really. He simply likes blue-chip stocks and has historically bought them a great valuations. I would argue BRK.B is something like an index though. A very successful one at that.
Enjoy your weekend 🙂
Thank you for the mention Mark!
Have a nice weekend!
DGI
Hey DGI — in case you missed my further comment on the BTSX thread: regarding frontier markets…what’s your view on them? Any plays, pure or indexed, that you find interesting? Thanks.
Hi SST,
Frontier markets are challenging, because they don’t have the liquidity that developed markets investors are taking for granted. In one market I have looked at, I may be able to move their index by a lot if I just bought $100,000 worth of stock. (bid ask spreads could be huge) But you can find interesting companies in certain sectors like agricultural land, which wasn’t available in the US for a while.
Share prices are very unpredictable in frontier markets. I would say that a company paying a dividend and doing so for years is a sign of good corporate management. Value situations are possible there – like liquidation, buyouts etc. I have observed a small tobacco company just pay super high dividends for years, before getting bought out for a multiple of original price.
You also have currency issues – frontier currencies usually go down against dollar over time ( some are pegged to USD or EUR, and then the peg is broken)
The major shareholders might be involved in self-dealing, or they may be abusing rights of minority shareowners. For example, a major shareholder might issue shares “at par” to increase the capital – but not everyone would have the right to buy shares so you would lose out.
Investment costs are high. Some taxation systems could be opaque – you may sell at a gain, but your whole proceeds could be taxable ( or at least it used to be the case in some)
Based on my research, VXUS or VWO do not own any Argentina etc. So an investor who thinks they own “the world” don’t own Argentina, Nigeria, Romania, Jordan, Vietnam. Who knows, one of these countries could be the next big thing. Or not. But most investors don’t own those countries.
I have lived in one frontier market for a long period of time. And may retire there one day ( living expenses are super cheap, and country is much more stable and safe than others that most people on the interwebs talk about). You may email me at my name at gmail dot com for more information.
Best wishes!
Buffett — not suprising at all. He’s the guy who espouses owning just a few really good stocks (the ’25-space punch card’; BRK holds 44 stocks). Or Munger, Buffett’s partner, who agrees to bet heavily on just a handful of big ideas (although it’s almost certainly no longer either of them making the investment decisions at BRK). The Gates Foundation has about 95% of its money in just 10 stocks (with nearly 60% of it in Berkshire!).
But their level of ownership is completely different than anything the average retail investor will experience. With modern “ownership” defined as holding 10% of outstanding shares, the Buffett’s of the world have the ability to influence the companies in their portfolio; the rest of us just have to rely on our ability to save more. 😉
Absolutely not SST and this is caution to something you have written about here….don’t copy him. If the average investor kept 70% of their portfolio in 6 stocks, although they have a chance at market outperformance, with such few holdings they might have some major disappointments with a buy and hold and never sell strategy.
Buffett’s biggest asset is the enormous purchasing power of BRK.
Thanks for the inclusion this week, and remember that no matter how lousy the plan, if you keep revising it, it might turn into a good plan (but you must keep reviewing it). Have a great weekend.
Best BCM!
Thanks for the mention Mark.
Hope you are enjoying this weather…have a great weekend
Best
R2R
Best wishes!