Sorry for the off topic post, but I’ve gotten more emails from board members in the past week or so than ever before. Just wanted to respond as I won’t have time to do so individually.
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To those of you that have offered appreciation for the board managers, I want to pass this on to the other board managers. We deal with the unpleasant sometimes, so know that you are appreciated by more folks than you realize!
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More than one person has offered to help in some way. (I will throw this to Saul – if ever you’re thinking of adding more board managers, let’s discuss. Some are willing.) Others have offered to do something to show your appreciation – my response would be to please donate to your charity of choice in honor of Saul, if you like.
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I have had a bunch of questions about my portfolio and especially the cash position. I’ll try to remember to add a “frequently asked questions” section to my portfolio review in the future. But in brief:
a) YES, the 0% return from cash held is included in the overall return I list. But there are so are many other things that affect the return, like at what share price I add and trim shares. Because of that, I’ll never be able to fully “show my work” or prove that I got the return I claim. I do try to be as transparent as possible, but it’s only a monthly update, not a real-time tracking.
b) Please don’t email me asking if I think stocks are expensive or it’s better to hold some cash. Or how I think about re-deploying it or if it’s a judgement call. I get a lot of emails like this and I have no idea what you should do. It is a judgement call, of course, and you have to decide for yourself. I always hold at least some cash, and sometimes a lot (when it builds up and I don’t have things I want to buy – and I deploy it when I find things to buy). Many others don’t hold any cash at all. The closest thing to advice I’ll say is this: You will never time it perfectly anyway, so just use your judgement and do what helps you sleep at night.
- I want to thank everyone that has sent an anecdote about how they have learned from me, or the board in general, and how the board has changed their life. It has changed mine too. We all tend to get out of this what we put in, so the best appreciation is sharing something you’ve taken time to work on thoroughly, if you can. If not, it’s always ok to keep lurking.
Thanks everyone, and sorry for the OT post.
Bear