FinanceDude
Give me a museum and I'll fill it. (Picasso) Give me a forum ...
- Joined
- Aug 3, 2006
- Messages
- 12,483
From Fundalarm:
David Snowball, new-fund guru and proprietor of the FundAlarm Annex, has agreed to bare his portfolio this month, as well .....The document file that David originally sent me was named "David's stupid portfolio strategy," and I have to say that took me by surprise, since I don't always (indeed, never) associate "David Snowball" with "stupid"......But what David really means by "stupid portfolio" -- well, here's what David means, in his own words:
By David Snowball:
My portfolio is designed to allow me to be stupid. It’s not that I try to be stupid but, being human, the temptation is almost irresistible at times. If you’re really smart, you can achieve your goals by taking a modest amount and investing it brilliantly. My wife suggested that I ought not be banking on that route, so I took the road less traveled. Years ago, I used free software available from Fidelity, Price and Vanguard to determine how much I needed to invest in order to fund my retirement. I used conservative assumptions (long-term inflation near 4% and expected portfolio returns below 8%), averaged the three recommendations and ended up socking away a lot each month.
Downside (?): we needed to be careful with our money – our cars tend to be fuel-efficient Hondas or Toyotas that we drive for a quarter million miles or so, I tend to spend less on new clothes each year than on good coffee (if you’re from Pittsburgh, you know Mr. Prestogeorge’s coffee; if you’re not, the Steeler Nation is sad on your behalf), our home is well-built but modest and our vacations often involve driving to see our families or other natural wonders.
Upside: well, we’ve never become obsessed about the importance of owning stuff. And the more sophisticated software now available suggests that, given our current rate of investment, we only need to earn portfolio returns of about 6% in order to reach our long-term goals.
And I’m fairly confident that I’ll be able to maintain that pace, even if I am repeatedly stupid along the way.
It’s a nice feeling.