Looking for learnings

Hi everyone,

I am fairly new to this amazing group and have been soaking up as much information and shared knowledge as possible. Like many others I wish I had discovered this board long ago. (I’ve had a MF Stock Advisor subscription for many years so I’m kicking myself for not having come to this group sooner!)

I have been managing my own portfolio for a number of years now and recently had to sell my home. So I know am sitting on what for me is a rather large chunk of cash representing approx. 50%+ of my portfolio.

About six weeks ago, I started to slowly implement Saul’s strategy (and have done very well by it! Thanks Saul!). I have created a target portfolio of stocks and allocations and am currently working on getting my portfolio of over 30+ stocks down to a dozen or less. A scary proposition!

I imagine there are many other folks on this board who went through this process and I was hoping you could share your own learnings and wisdom on how you went about reaching your target/current portfolio of stocks. For example, did you slowing accumulate your current position for each equity in your portfolio (the one third/one third/one third) approach? Did you consider stock price at all (and wait for better entry points? If you had stocks (not in your ideal portfolio) that were in a loss position, did you sell at a loss to redeploy the $s to buy stocks?

I realize this may be OT for this board but I also know this would be the only group with members who have gone through what I am going through now, so please reply directly to me rather than the group if you are willing to share your experiences and learnings in building out your ideal portfolio.

Like Saul when he first started out, my goal is to make this my ‘job’ (I love this stuff!), to live off my investments so that I can avoid getting sucked back into the corporate grind and spend more time where it matters, with my family and teenage son (while he still wants to spend time with his mom!) and trying to figure out how I can best give back.

Thanks so much to Saul and all of you who contribute to this board! You really do make a difference in peoples’ lives.

Rita

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Rita,

This is off topic for our board. Saul lays out fairly well in the knowledge base, his rationale for buying or selling.

I think if you have read Saul’s knowledge base, you would have gleaned the idea that every day, so to speak, you ought to ask yourself whether the thesis for your investments has changed? If not, why would you sell. If it has than, you ought to determine if the change is negative.

Good luck.

Gordon

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Welcome to the board Rita. Portfolio management is Off-Topic for this board as our subject is analyzing and discussing high growth stocks.

However, so you won’t go away empty handed, what many on the board have done, and which makes sense, is selling your lowest convictions stocks, and adding the cash to your highest conviction stocks, and keep doing that until you are at the size portfolio that you want… And read the Knowledgebase, all three parts, at least a couple of times.

Best

Saul

A link to the Knowledgebase for this board is in the Announcements panel that is on the right side of every page on this board.

For some additions to the Knowledgebase, bringing it up to date, I’d advise reading several other posts linked to on the panel, especially “How I Pick a Company to Invest In,” and “Why My Investing Criteria Have Changed,” and “Why It Really is Different.”

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Thanks so much Saul.

I actually printed out much of your knowledge base so I will go back, read it and then re-read it again! This time with detailed notes. ;))) I also printed the letter you sent to your daughter.

Saul, I do actually remember reading that (about selling lowest conviction stocks) somewhere so thanks for the reminder.

Gord, thank you for your reminder as well.

Rita

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Rita -

Welcome.

I’d also recommend searching past messages on or around the first of every month to find the numerous monthly portfolio reviews you’ll find on this board, starting with Saul’s. It’s how I learned until I gained enough confidence to start posting them myself. All his reviews can be found in one place by clicking the “Additional Information” link to the right. At that link you can also access a sheet with the most rec’d posts from this board. I can tell you first hand poking around there is great reading.

I’m obviously a bit biased, but I’d also recommend taking a look at the intro from my very first write up (https://discussion.fool.com/stocknovice39s-end-of-year-portfolio…). It mirrors your story almost exactly, so pretty much anyone can do it if you’re willing to put in the time.

Good luck, take it slow and enjoy the journey.

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