DGI For The DIY

[fenders53]

(03-02-2021, 09:05 AM)EricL Wrote:

(03-02-2021, 08:41 AM)fenders53 Wrote:

(03-01-2021, 12:07 PM)EricL Wrote:

(03-01-2021, 11:41 AM)fenders53 Wrote: Always a good read.  It will be more fun with DRP shut off.  I would even be on board with your no trim policy if it was done with some upper limit of sanity.  You use Fast Graphs and know what that means.  If you have forgotten the market will remind you eventually.  

I'll do my best to keep sanity in check, but I've learned over the last fifteen years that I've made many more mistakes selling good companies than buying them.

It's one thing to have a giant nest egg you need to protect at retirement, but in accumulation stage like me, I'm learning that cutting winners back isn't the best way to maximize returns.

You only need to find a couple MNST, NFLX, AAPL, CMG, AMZN, etc. over the years to do well. But constantly trimming them off is counterproductive.

I've trimmed what's turned out be 36 shares of AAPL and nearly half my MSFT position over the last several years in this portfolio A few replacements have fared okay, but not nearly as well as those two. I think this new approach will help keep me from making that mistake again, while still allowing me to scratch the itch to tinker with my quarterly purchases.

I hear what you are saying.  We all have a few sells we regret if we've been in this game for long.  I try to trim gradually if it's a winner, and I am learning to get out of denial and trim losers much faster.  That acceptance can be even harder for some of us.  That's been my biggest mistake.  

But as I have stated before our opinions are jaded by about the longest bull market in history, or whatever happens to occur next.  I ran with MSFT during it's true growth period and trimmed nothing, then I eventually wished I had trimmed it 15yrs earlier than I did and put it in just about any Aristocrat.  I had 15 years to get back into MSFT after they showed signs of finally turning it around.  My real lesson was valuation matters eventually.  All that said, hindsight is 20/20, and I am just stirring conversation because you take the time to share your portfolio with us.  I could just give you an obligatory "Congrats" but I actually track what you are doing.  I'll enjoy watching you add to your port.  It doesn't matter if it's just a few shares.  The decision process has the same value IMO because it matters to you.

Thanks, I always appreciate the feedback and discussion from you. That's why I started writing about my journey, as a way to help others following along, but also to learn more myself through discussion with people who've been doing it a lot longer than I have.

I've decided to write a book but I am going to wait until I am 85yrs old.    I've figured out you need to be about as old as Buffet to see it all.  I thought I had seen it all, then in just a few years some stiff tariffs, a pandemic, zero rates in the US, and people dressed for a Halloween Frat party taking over the US Capitol for awhile.  What's next lol?  I'll never stop learning, and to be honest I learn more from younger people now.  Folks my age tend to be WAY too set in how they think things oughta be in this world, and miss the bus on the future.  I still converse with the old Army Colonel that got me started investing many decades ago.  I spent months trying to convincing him to just adjust his "port lean" a bit for political reality and not cash out when Biden's election appeared extremely likely to me.  Thankfully he didn't cash out, but that was hard work.  I owed him that much.  He trimmed some winners and regrets it now.  He's now interested in some renewables recommendations after they tripled.  Us boomers are annoying sometimes.