CSCO and fishing
Someties I think I should put it all in CSCO, cancel my Si subscription, and go fishing. What a company!
DS,
This fits with my question from last week: why do we feel compelled to risk by searching for new and unproven gorillas rather than simply staying with proven investments that we KNOW (as much as we can KNOW such things) will make us rich?
I received many answers from the idea that (1) the technology life cycle is much faster than it used to be and so we have to continually find new opportunities;to (2) it's fun to keep looking. A friend forwarded my question to her uncle, who has been in the investing business for a long time. His response:
"I think the need to search, to investigate, to find, to succeed, to be smart helps us assure ourselves that we can survive. I don't think it is a matter of money. I think that it becomes an intellectual exercise aimed at continually reassuring ourselves that we can do something to help us survive.
We are all looking for the ultimate investment. In the end, I think a continual stream of income, dividends, is what we want. It is sort of knowing that we have created something that will feed us, that will eliminate the need to go out searching for food every day, which trying to find new companies may be but in another form."
I tend to agree with most of what her uncle was saying in terms of our motivation to keep searching for new investments. My own conclusion (which is less a conclusion than a work in progress) is that while it is our nature to keep searching, that this may be one of those times where we would be better served to "control" our nature and go with what we intellectually have learned (that we only need a few gorillas and that they will continue to grow, and ensure us a steady stream of resources that will help us to survive). As it is our nature to panic when things are going down, or get overly exuberant when going up, we are best served when we "temper" our nature (isn't that part of why Warren Buffet has been so successful?)
In short, I think that the "psychological" side of investing is often overlooked in favor of the financials and valuations. However, if we can master the "psychological" as well, we are that much better off.
Dr. Id (who is trying to be less Id-like in his investments...as Freud said, "where Id was, let Ego be")
p.s this post will probably reinforce Techboy's decription of me: thread shrink..as if we needed one!
p.p.s. Maybe this is my own sour grapes because I didn't buy any of that damned CREE! <g> |
