I was ruminating today on the 25% increase in value my portfolio has had this last month, and it made me take a look at my overall success in the market this last 7 years. A little "DD" provided me with some surprises.
First off, I am sure that many people on these boards have done much better, both dollar and percentage wise, than I have, and could buy and sell me many times over. So please do not look upon what follows as a competition, I know "the first liar doesn't have a chance!"
I started off in January of 1993 with a small investment into my virgin 401k, which I used to buy into the Qualcomm IPO. I sold this for about a 2 and 1/2 bagger, bought MSFT and INTC, and parlayed that into Cisco, Dell, AOL, and now, back into Qualcomm.
I have been in and out of about 35 stocks, selling the losers quickly, and riding some small winners, until I learned last year to ride the Gorilla's and Kings. I have added money each year to my 401K, but the amount invested is nothing compared to the returns. I have had the huge advantage of not paying taxes on my investments, and have been fortunate enough to start out investing into the greatest Bull market the world has ever seen.
The most amazing thing to me was to discover that I have made more money in the market this year than I had in my portfolio at the end of 1997, after 5 years of investing! This really brought home the truth of the adage about compounding your investments. I thought that the percentage return each year might be of interest.
1993--46%
1994--100%
1995--26%
1996--195%
1997--40%
1998--120%
1999 to present--73%
I can remember confiding to my "full service broker", in 1992, the amount of money I had to invest, and my goals. She could barely contain her laughter. I will reach my first major goal this year, a goal I had as a dream 6 years ago, a goal I thought then that I could not possibly reach until 5 years from now.
I write this for the benefit of those of you who are starting out where I was, 6 years ago, and wondering if you can reach your goals. I know, when what you have to start with is small, that the hill to climb seems very high. But, after those first few years, my experience is that it starts getting easier and easier! Good luck to all of you!
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