Share and Share Alike: My Leap Into Baby Oil
I have started the year by purchasing some more shares for my growing portfolio: healthcare superpower Johnson & Johnson (JNJ). That means in my share portfolio I now have (in order of purchase, from 2004):
- Internet shares (Google: GOOG)
- European fund (Vanguard European: VGK)
- Emerging world markets fund (Vanguard Emerging: VWO)
- Local and expanding gourmet burger chain (Burger Fuel: YUM… or BFW)
- Baby oil and (much) more (Johnson & Johnson: JNJ)
Apart from shares, I also have a bit of cash in a freshly-opened retirement fund and some gathering interest in a term deposit account. No property yet. I was especially inspired and impressed by NY blogger Madame X’s reporting today of her annual net worth. She has almost $200K in her retirement fund now! That would make for a great night in St Tropez, right P Diddy?
As for my shares, I’m happy with them all so far. Each one has increased, one more dramatically than the rest (GOOG). BFW has gone down, but that was always the riskiest one as I invested as soon as it floated on the market last year. We’ll see; I didn’t invest much and I see it as a long-term thing, as I do with all my share purchases. The burgers are oh-so-tasty and their investor prospectus figures looked good (plus I get free fries and drinks now).
I am no expert in investing but the two sites I read most are Motley Fool, which has lots of user reviews of shares and easy to read articles, and Google’s finance pages, which have message boards, balance sheets, live updates, a news feed and handy links to related articles.
And my sage advice to anyone interested in investing in the market is: learn how to read the numbers and analyse the long-term trends (Learn To Earn by Peter Lynch is a good book to get started with). Don’t put all your eggs in one basket, and don’t just hand over your hard-earned funds to your other half/broker you found in the Yellow Pages/random person on the street to invest for you because it “looks too hard”. If I, one of those arty Aquarian types, can learn how to do it then so can you!
What shares do you have/have you had?
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Wednesday, January 9th, 2008 at 10:36 am
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I own shares in Barclays (huge British Bank). They’re not doin gtoo well at the moment. Wish I had google shares :S
January 9th, 2008 at 10:40 amYeah, I wish I had more!
When did you buy your BB shares?
January 9th, 2008 at 11:23 amThat’s a pretty nice portfolio you have there. I’ve been a fan of the Gardner brothers ever since they started their radio show. They were so funny and witty. Motley Fool is a great site, I even have a jester cap.
I also like the advice of Suze Orman and Dave Ramsey just for personal finance and being thrifty and staying on track.
January 10th, 2008 at 9:39 amTake some time to study the Yale endowment’s portfolio spread and asset allocation. Their CIO, David Swensen is a whiz and way ahead of his time. The endowment went up 28% in the last fiscal year.
January 10th, 2008 at 3:37 pmAbout 2 months ago, part of a scheme they offered.
January 11th, 2008 at 1:32 amI’ve heard good things about CTRIP, but my main two picks are here.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:13 pm