Greetings!
INTRODUCTION AND SEEKING ADVICE
I discovered and read The Gorilla Game in February of this year. I found this message board soon after. Thank you. You are all very generous with your time and knowledge.
I'm 36 years old and just now starting to invest. I had lived a bit of a bohemian life (on-the-cheap international travel, bookstores, coffee shops, Volkswagen bus, yadda yadda) until I found the love of my life--who happened to have three children. Since then, over the last four years, I've been pursuing a career in technology that has included work as a web developer and technical writer. I desperately love my wife and stepchildren and am pleased with my career.
I scraped together my first $10,000 and invested it during the last days of March this year. I don't have to tell you that my baptism by fire has really tested me. Do I really believe, and more importantly understand, my investment strategy? Do I understand GG and LTBH sufficiently? What kind of risk can I withstand? Can I, in good conscience, risk my family's money with these investments?
In some ways I feel lucky to have my initial, meager portfolio drop 40% within weeks (Did I really just type that?!?). I had to face the above questions directly and immediately. Honestly, I felt ill for several weeks. But over time, reevaluating my assumptions, reading intently to the wise and thoughtful discussion on this board, I've come to feel quite comfortable with my investment strategies. I feel less attached to the dramatic swings in stock price. My portfolio is still in the red, but I'm worried about where my next chunk of cash will go, not if I made the right decisions.
SEEKING ADVICE:
I currently own CSCO, GMST, INTC, JDSU, QCOM, SEBL and SUNW. Over then next year, my plan had been to invest 20-25% of my income into some of these and/or perhaps up to 7 new stocks. I would decide on a monthly or quarterly basis as the money became available.
Well, I just recently took a job working for Intel. Intel has a typical employee stock purchase plan: employees can purchase stock, using 2-10% of their income, at a price that is 85% of the publicly-traded stock price at the beginning of the plan period, OR, 85% or the publicly-traded stock price at the end of the plan period, whichever is lower.
Before accepting this job at Intel, I was leaning towards investing more in QCOM and JDSU and exploring companies in the Next Generation Networking sector. Now I'm wondering if the 15% discount in Intel stock justifies weighting my portfolio more heavily towards Intel? Or, should I follow my original investment strategy?
Thanks, sincerely, for all the knowledge and emotional support that you all unknowingly have given me over the last five months.
darbyc
("Darby" is a nickname from my college days, I'm also known as "Stan Burnett") |
