darbyc,
My response to your post is likely to raise more questions than answers, but I'll try to be helpful.
I feel that I need to respond to my portfolio in some way because I am not planning on being actively involved with it for the next two years.
I think before we can give you an appropriate response, we need to know what you mean by not being "actively involved." Not knowing your response, I will mention that if you're not willing to commit the time to remain abreast of the fundamental news about a company and its industry, you shouldn't be invested in a common stock. If that's the case, I think you should sell your stock and put your assets in an S&P 500 index fund.
Before you come to that conclusion I want to remind you that remaining abreast of the important fundamentals doesn't necessarily require as much time as most of us might think. If you're better at intuitively understanding the ways of technology than this carpetologist, you won't need to wade through message after message sorting everything out. Instead, you'll only need to glance at the headlines of 95% of the press releases and carefully read the entire text of the remaining 5%.
Even though I don't know how you feel about all of that, I'll respond to the options you presented with the hope that you're given something to think about before making a decision.
Do absolutely nothing. ... Come back to my portfolio in a few years.
Because technology adoption changes so fast and because valuation of stocks changes so rapidly, I think that's a dangerous proposal. A decision to own common stock requires at least a minimal amount of periodic re-evaluation.
index fund. This is maybe where I should have been all along. Accept my loss as an education.
It's possible that you should have been in an index fund all along, but the decision to buy those technology stocks in March 2000 isn't necessarily the indicator. And I don't think a loss itself ever provides an education. If you know why you would or wouldn't make the same decisions again given similar circumstances, you've recieved the education. If you don't know why you would or wouldn't want to make the same decisions again, the experience probably hasn't been very educational. Ironically, if that's the case, you're probably right that the loss has been the only educational aspect and that you probably should be invested in an index fund.
Try to evaluate my portfolio, sell the stocks I'm not comfortable with and put that money into an index fund. This option worries me since I may currently lack energy, time, and confidence to make anything but a gut decision.
Your ability to be honest with yourself (and us) is admirable. With that kind of integrity, I'm confident that your ultimate decision about what to do with your portfolio will be in your best interest in the long term.
An idea that might be worth considering: Sell all but one stock. You probably have at least a vague notion about which one of all the stocks you own will prove to have the most control over its value chain over the coming years. Re-evaluate that. Of all the stocks you own, decide which one you would select if you were allowed to only own one stock. Maybe keep all of your current shares, maybe only some of them. By keeping just one stock, you eliminate almost all of the time needed to follow your current portfolio. Yet the decision to keep one stock provides you the opportunity and motivation to continue sharpening your investing skills in the event that later in life you'll want them to use them to a greater extent.
Good luck and let us know if we can be of more help.
And congratulations on your decision to become an educator! I hope your new career proves to be exciting!
--Mike Buckley |
