Saul’s portfolio at the end of December 2024.
I’ve said the last time that I’ve greatly, greatly, reduced the percentage of my portfolio that is in stocks, in investing. It’s now down to maybe 10% or so with the rest in other instruments, most of which I can’t touch the funds in them. And I admitted that I pay much less attention to my stocks, so please don’t follow what I am doing. I’m truly “retired !” Therefore I am really abbreviating my end of the month summary and may cut it to once every three months
My actual year to date growth, if I removed the cushioning of all the cash which is permanently out of the market and not invested, was approximately 37.8%. (In other words say I have $100 and $50 of it is invested in stocks. Now it rises $10 to $110. If you include the cash it looks like up 10%. But if you consider that that $10 rise was from just the $50 in stocks the stocks were up 20%.) Many people on the board have done a lot better than I did.
So here’s what my postions look like now at the end of December :
Since August, I’ve been giving them as clean percentages of my invested stock positions which means that they add up to 100%. This excludes the cash part of my portfolio which is now by far most of my portfolio.
I closed NU and MNDY and am down to five positions.
Axon 35.8%
Samsara 26.8%
Nvidia 17.9%
Amazon 17.9%
Sentinel 2.4%
I’m an old guy and each month I take more and more money out of my investing portfolio and put it into our **permanently-**out-of-the-market pool . This means I’m constantly investing less and less of our total assets, and if one position gets up to 30% of my portfolio, for instance, it’s a lot fewer dollars than 15% of my portfolio was even six months ago, because I’m investing less. Therefore I worry less, and am more comfortable.
I have kept a permanent safety fund out of the market that I could live off for several years if necessary, and I feel everyone who does not have a secure regular source of income should do the same. I have gradually added to it over the last several years, moving some funds gradually from my investing pool to my out-of-the-market pool.
FINISHING UP
Let me remind you first, that I have NO IDEA what our stocks will do next month. I’m terrible on predictions. I try to focus on the businesses of our companies.
You should never try to just follow what I’m doing without making up your own mind about a stock . First of all, you may have a completely different financial picture than I have. Different age, different income, different assets, different debts, different expenses, different financial and family responsibilities, etc.
Besides, in these monthly summaries I’m giving you a static picture of where I am currently, but I may change my mind about a position during the month. In fact, I not infrequently do, and I make changes in the position. I usually don’t announce these changes until the end of the month, and if I’m busy or have some personal emergency I might not announce them even then. And besides, I sometimes make mistakes, even big ones! Don’t just follow me blindly! I’m an old guy and won’t be around forever. The key is to learn how to do this for yourself.
THE KNOWLEDGEBASE
Since I began in 1989, my entire portfolio has grown enormously. If you are new to the board and want to find out how I did it, and how you can try to do it yourself, I’d suggest you read the Knowledgebase , which is a compilation of my “words of wisdom”, and definitely worth reading, (a couple of times), if you haven’t yet. It’s on the panel to your right.
I’m sorry that this is very short, but I have explained the reasons carefully.
Saul