It has been quite a while since my last post, so apologies to those who are regular readers. I have been on holiday, a wonderful trip to the UK.
For regular readers, the holiday was made possible by the sale of my hotels, which generated enough of a return to let me take a portion of the profit and indulge in this trip. I have written before that investing is about more than just making money, and that it is best to have balance, and doing something special and enjoying life when your finances allow is also important. I did reinvest the rest of the profit into some stocks which will hopefully in time generate their own returns, and perhaps finance another holiday.. I should also mention that the holiday was also possible thanks to the fantastic generosity of family in the UK, which meant most nights we had accommodation provided by them.
In terms of my portfolio I have continued to add to my property holdings, including my property development company, my residential letting business and self-storage business. These purchases are not showing much in the way of capital profit, but I believe I have secured a pipeline of future income. I plan to hold all of these businesses for a very long time.
The market has also thrown up what I believe will be shown to be massive bargains in years to come. I bought a share called Grand Parade Investments, at a fraction of its intrinsic value. The share has two components, gaming and restaurants. The price I paid was less than what the gaming assets are worth, so thrown in for free were valuable restaurant brands such as Spur, Burger King and Dunkin Donuts. There was also an office block in a prime position. I have written about this stock before, and while the price is now less than my average holding, I am happy to wait for the values to be appreciated by the market. I believe this is a classic case of buying a dollar for 50 cents! Note though that this is a small cap and in a risky sector, so do your own homework!
There have been a few other small purchases, and some sales to fund the purchases, but the nature of this blog is evolving to becoming more a sounding board to myself and hopefully others, as to my investment thoughts. I find it useful to read past posts in order to collect my thoughts and review my thought processes at a certain time. An added bonus would be for others to find it useful, and hopeful to interact with me about their own ideas and thoughts.
Investing lessons for July 2017:
As per the title of this post, going on holiday actually saved me quite a lot of money. Let me explain. The share I have discussed above, Grand Parade Investments, was selling cheaply while I was away. Had I not been away (and vowing not to look at my portfolio while away), I would most likely have found a way to buy it. In the three weeks I was away, it got significantly cheaper and in the month since I have been back I have bought a fair amount at much lower prices than when I was away. Hence my point that going on holiday actually saved me quite a bit of money.
The take away for me is that when we stop looking obsessively at our portfolios and looking for things to do, we do better. It comes back to patience, and waiting for our best ideas to come to us, rather than us chasing them. It is hard to do because we feel we have to be busy all the time and that we are not being productive when we take a day off or go on holiday. Maybe I am just trying to justify my next holiday, or to go surfing for the day, or visit Dunkin Donuts for their delicious coffee..
but I will leave you with a quote from Warren Buffett:
“Lethargy bordering on sloth remains the cornerstone of our investment style”
Well, I would not go that far, I want to keep working hard finding investment ideas, but the point is that he is referring to the fact that they do not actually trade much, although he actually works incredibly hard finding things to invest in.
Let me know if you have any suggestions for future posts.