Badon: Sounds to me that you are a believer in and student of the internet... and that your instincts are to structure your portfolio around that concept. I think that makes sense, especially if you can consider your inheritance as "found money" -- not necessary for mortgage payments. In your shoes, depending upon the size of the inheritance, I would consider a group of stocks (I wouldn't call this terribly diversified because it will be concentrated in the internet and you have to be prepared for the ups and downs that implies). Some suggestions (these are my biases and current holdings): AOL, WCOM, QWST, LVLT, TGNT, CMGI, EMC, and MSFT. This is a blend of big caps that should do well with just the expansion and growing demand on the internet (WCOM and MSFT), a big cap King Kong (AOL) that could still face some volatility, some relatively "small or mid caps" who are providing huge/advanced bandwidth for the exponential growth potential (QWST, LVLT, TGNT), another "infrastructure stock" (EMC) and then the speculative, low cap potential grand-slam (CMGI).
You may look like a hero if you "put it all" on CMGI and everything works out perfectly, but that is a highly risky move. With the above suggestion (or some variant), you are putting all your eggs into one rather narrow and specialized basket (the internet and telecommunications), and you should watch that "basket" carefully. But unless there is a major market and sector correction, you should be well served if your time horizon is 5+ years.
Buy and Hold is far and away the best investment strategy if you can develop the discipline. JMHO. |
