The 11 stocks for 10 years portfolio continues to do very well. It consists of stocks I would be comfortable putting away for 10 years. I look for companies with a history of large positive cash flow, that seemed likely to continue that trend.
In fact it is doing so well I am a bit worried about the valuation of some of the stocks. Or, in the case of Apple, I was heavily weighted in it and it has risen so much that, combining those two factors, it is now 20% of the portfolio. That seems excessive, so while I still like Apple – at these prices, I will sell a bit of that position.
Since April of 2005 the portfolio Marketocracy calculated annualized rate or return is 8.75% (the S&P 500 annualized return for the period is 8.55%). Marketocracy subtracts the equivalent of 2% of assets annually to simulate management fees – as though the portfolio were a mutual fund. Without that fee the return beats the S&P 500 annual return by about 220 basis points annually (10.75% to 7.55%). I also often have a bit held in cash, 5% now, for example which lowers the return.
Since the last update I have added to the Abbvie position (part of the former Abbot which was split into two companies in 2013) and sold off Tesco. I will sell TDF from the fund (I include it in the table below, since I haven’t sold it all yet, I am waiting to get a bit better price).
The current stocks, in order of return:
| Stock | Current Return | % of sleep well portfolio now | % of the portfolio if I were buying today | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Amazon – AMZN | 556% | 8% | 8% | |
| Google – GOOG | * | 18% | 15% | |
| Apple – AAPL | 131% | 20% | 16% | |
| Danaher – DHR | 126% | 9% | 9% | |
| Templeton Dragon Fund – TDF | 120% | 2% | 0% | |
| PetroChina – PTR | 88% | 4% | 4% | |
| Intel – INTC | 78% | 8% | 8% | |
| Toyota – TM | 65% | 8% | 12% | |
| Abbvie – ABBV | 43% | 5% | 7% | |
| Cisco – CSCO | 31% | 4% | 4% | |
| Templeton Emerging Market Fund – EMF | 29%*** | 5% | 7% | |
| Pfizer – PFE | 25% | 5% | 5% | |
| Cash | – | 4% | 5% |
The current marketocracy results can be seen on the Sleep Well marketocracy portfolio page.
Related: 12 Stocks for 10 Years, Jan 2014 Update – 12 Stocks for 10 Years – 12 Stocks for 10 Years: January 2012 Update – October 2012 Update – 12 Stocks for 10 Years, Oct 2010 Update
I make some adjustments to the stock holdings over time (selling of buying a bit of the stocks depending on large price movements – this rebalances and also lets me sell a bit if I think things are getting highly priced. So I have sold some Amazon and Google as they have increased greatly. These purchases and sales are fairly small (resulting in a annual turnover rate under 2%).
Monsters Inc received power from children’s screams. So the company hired monsters to go scare children to get more screams and create more power.
The current political parties in the USA (Republicans and Democrats) seek to scare their donors into providing cash “donations.” It is even worse, in many ways, than if those parties sold favors to get things done. At least then there would be an incentive for the parties to deliver successful prizes to those paying for influence.
But the parties have become like Monsters Inc. They only seek to increase suffering in order to get what they want (in the case of the Republican and Democrats, cash, and in the case of Monsters Inc, screams).
The damage to the economy from decades of two political parties seeking to increase fear so they can get more cash while neither cares about the damage they do is enormous. We really need to throw out those that have been destroying the country for their own petty interests.
Throwing out the parties that have proven they don’t care about the country won’t result in people that agree on tactics but at least we should elect people that seek to aid the country and refuse to destroy the country in order to hope in doing so they can hurt the other political party more than they are hurt. As long as we keep electing the type of people that don’t care about the damage they do we are going to keep paying a high price.
Occasionally (and much more than occasionally at the state level, it is harder to make excuses about failing to deliver on what people paid for at the state and local level) they do give in and give those paying them lots of cash what those that paid thought they bought. But most of the time they try to avoid doing so as that slows down the flow of money.
Related: USA Congress Further Aids Those Giving Them Cash and Risks Economic Calamity Again – Adding More Bailouts for Politicians and Bankers is Not the Correct Strategy – Anti-Market Policies from Our Talking Heads and Politicians – We Need to be More Capitalist and Less Cronyist
I have been giving loans through Kiva for many years now. I enjoy the opportunity to help out entrepreneurs around the world. And the web site is well done to give you a psychological boost – photos of the entrepreneurs, stories on what they will do, etc..
I often have difficulty finding real entrepreneurs (many of the loans are for things like education, fixing up their house, buying motorcycle/car, etc. that may well be very important but are not really related to entrepreneurship in most cases). That is fine, in this session I had 3 loans to entrepreneurs and 2 loans for solar energy solutions for people’s homes. Improved energy, cooking or water access are some things I am happy to lend to that are not entrepreneur related. Though usually the water loans are – to an entrepreneur that will sell clean water to a neighborhood and sometimes the solar energy ones are, though not in this case.
Kelly in Medellin, Columbia is starting a shoe business.
The write-ups on Kiva are often fairly well done; targeting those interested in making loans. Kelly’s:
She works as a saleswoman in different shoe stores in the municipality of Medellin.
She wants to start her own business making and selling shoes of all styles. She wants to start this activity because she has the desire to generate the resources she needs to support herself and her education, in addition to helping with expenses at home.
She is a young, very disciplined entrepreneur. She is requesting a loan to buy a wide range of materials such as leather, soles, adhesives, and fabrics. With these elements, she can start this business and improve her quality of life.
I often screen the data on delinquencies and defaults for the partner bank in making loan decisions. It isn’t because I am worried about losing my loan (I just re-lend what I get paid back). But if I lend to organizations that are having more failures I increase their supply of money to make loans which don’t seem to be working out for borrowers as well as another lender). I want my money going to help people, not get people into a mess.