How many stocks in a portfolio?

[ChadR]

I'm a buy and forget investor. As evidenced by my 61 different stocks that I own ( I actually had to go count because I had no idea how many I had, just knew that I wasn't up to triple digits yet). I'm sure by the time I hit retirement and start living off of my dividends, I will have over 100 different stocks. I came to realize that I spent too much time stressing over sells and most of the time, I was better off by not selling the stock. Once I buy a stock, I don't look at their quarterly reports unless I am looking at them as a candidate to make an additional purchase of them. Is this the best route for everyone? No, but it is the best route for me.

Could I have a larger portfolio value if I had only invested in 10-12 stocks? Maybe, but I know that I would be under a lot more stress at night worrying about it, and I don't want to lose anymore sleep than I have to. And I plan on living off of the dividends and not my net worth so I'm not too worried about portfolio value.

Good article by Chuck Carnavale.