02-05-2017, 11:38 AM
The best investment strategy is the one you feel most comfortable doing, in other words, there really isn't a right or wrong way of investing. Personally, I have invested in ETF's, passive managed funds, active managed funds, mutual funds, sector funds, and various types of dividend and non-dividend paying stocks. When I was younger I liked dividend paying stocks such as XOM, PAYX and VZ; however, I did not realize how much I preferred that type of investing until I sold those stocks and went strictly to various mutual funds/ETF's. It took me years to move back towards individual stocks. Today, I use a mixture of mutual fund/ETF type investments in my 401k-plan, because I have no choice of the matter, and my ROTH, IRA and Individual Brokerage account consists of all individual stocks with three non-dividend paying stocks (BRK.B/MKL/SWIR) and one suspended dividend paying stock (CALM). CALM pays a dividend of 1/3 of the profits, if the profits are not up to par it will suspend until profitability is sufficient to resume, basically, CALM is like a commodity. When I retire, things might change, but I will most likely be 100% in individual stocks, it's what I like and what I enjoy doing. My strategy might not be right for most but it seems to work for me, and that's the only thing that matters.
For instance, here are some of my investments and their returns not including dividends:
Railroads:
NSC +32.11%
UNP +19.91%
CNI +11.37%
Auto Industry:
F +3.41%
GM +17.75%
MGA 14.12%
Banking Industry:
TD +26.82%
BMO +36.35%
BNS +27.52%
CM +26.85%
RY +27.22%
WFC +19.40%
Why did I invest in these particular company's? Well, let's look at banking, I had no investments in banks, something I wanted to add to my portfolio when I got back into DGI. Through research, Canadian banks were really interesting and proved to be solid investments but I couldn't seem to find the ONE to invest, so I picked what came to be the top five Canadian Banks and divided that money between them instead of investing in just one, everything pointed to BNS or TD at the time but I just didn't feel comfortable allocating all the money into just that one stock, so, the money got equally divided. I added WFC after the account fiasco, it worked out. Same goes for the auto industry, my favorite is MGA. And railroads, same thing, couldn't decide between UNP and NSC, all my research pointed to UNP but once again, I couldn't muster the gonads to put all my money into UNP so I divided equally to UNP and NSC, then added CNI last year. For the most part, my due diligence would have left me lagging if I invested in the "One" company. I'm not saying this is the way to go, but it works for me and it's what I feel comfortable with doing at times...I don't do this with every industry.
For instance, here are some of my investments and their returns not including dividends:
Railroads:
NSC +32.11%
UNP +19.91%
CNI +11.37%
Auto Industry:
F +3.41%
GM +17.75%
MGA 14.12%
Banking Industry:
TD +26.82%
BMO +36.35%
BNS +27.52%
CM +26.85%
RY +27.22%
WFC +19.40%
Why did I invest in these particular company's? Well, let's look at banking, I had no investments in banks, something I wanted to add to my portfolio when I got back into DGI. Through research, Canadian banks were really interesting and proved to be solid investments but I couldn't seem to find the ONE to invest, so I picked what came to be the top five Canadian Banks and divided that money between them instead of investing in just one, everything pointed to BNS or TD at the time but I just didn't feel comfortable allocating all the money into just that one stock, so, the money got equally divided. I added WFC after the account fiasco, it worked out. Same goes for the auto industry, my favorite is MGA. And railroads, same thing, couldn't decide between UNP and NSC, all my research pointed to UNP but once again, I couldn't muster the gonads to put all my money into UNP so I divided equally to UNP and NSC, then added CNI last year. For the most part, my due diligence would have left me lagging if I invested in the "One" company. I'm not saying this is the way to go, but it works for me and it's what I feel comfortable with doing at times...I don't do this with every industry.