Joseph Sangl’s Current Investments

It has been over three years since I provided an update on the investments that I hold.   Anyone who has attended a Financial Learning Experience has heard me say that it is important to INVEST money and to do so every single time you are paid money.

At the end of our live events, I am regularly asked or emailed the following question:

“What mutual funds do you recommend?”

My answer is always, “I don’t recommend mutual funds.   I can only tell you the investments I own.   In general, they have worked well for me.   The investments you choose are up to you.”

So today, for those inquring minds who want to know …   I am publishing some of the mutual funds/investments that I own.   Click the image to see a larger version.

JI

I have went even further in my analysis this time to indicate my portfolio diversification.   Over the past several months, I have been writing and speaking to the fact that I am diversifying my investment portfolio to include land and real estate.   The portfolio below indicates some of those decisions.

JIAllocation

NOTES

  • As you may have noticed during the latest recession, a rising tide will lift all ships and a lowering tide lowers all ships.   If you have market funds, you saw this happen.   There were many great companies that retained profitability throughout the market downturn, but their stock value was pummeled due to the overall market conditions.   While I have been greatly diversified in my investment choices, I was diversified WITHIN the stock market.   This is one of the reasons that I have made a focused effort to diversify my holdings beyond the open market.
  • I believe it is important to maintain margin.   Cash on hand is essential to the long-term success of any effort – personal, small business, or large business.
  • Some of these funds are not open to the general market, which is why they do not have a “Ticker Symbol”, but I am able to invest in them through my previous employer’s 401(k) plan.
  • One reason I hold so many mutual funds is because of a variety of 401(k), 403(b), Roth IRA, and 529 holdings   – each plan has different mutual fund selections available.
  • I do not “eat, sleep, and breathe” the stock market on a daily basis.   I update my net worth once per month, but rarely jump in and out of funds.   Day trading is definitely not for me.

Investment Junkies:   What are your thoughts on my portfolio?   What are some key funds that you really like that have worked well for you?

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8 Comments

  1. Jack on March 30, 2011 at 3:48 am

    I am a big fan of the Fidelity Select Funds. The ones that have worked well for us have been Fidelity Select Canada (ficdx), Fidelity Select Medical Equip and Systems (fsmex), and Fidelity Select Leisure (fdlsx). Fidelity is easy to work with and does not require a huge amount of money to get started investing.



  2. Randy on March 30, 2011 at 4:14 am

    I like your mix. I have a few questions:

    1) Looks like you included your house and some land in your net worth. How do you value those? Do you see the house as an investment? (That could be a full week’s topic by itself)

    2) How much of your stock portfolio is individual stocks vs mutual funds? (percentage)

    3) You have a small number of individual stocks. Are these recent purchases or long term?

    4) You said you included 401k, 403b, etc, what percentage of the stocks & bonds does this represent? I see these funds as less liquid. You can’t use 401k as an emergency fund (and I suspect you don’t)

    Thanks for all that you do



  3. Greg on March 30, 2011 at 5:24 am

    Thanks for giving us this look at your investment mix. While I have a degree in business, it’s not in finance, so I use an investment adviser. That has been one of the best decisions I have ever made.

    @Randy

    For net worth, we value our house minus the principal loan balance. Again, it’s net. This is an item we can liquidate if necessary.

    While the majority of our investments are IRA, Simple IRA, 401k rollover, we do maintain funds in an investment account focused primarily on equities which we can liquidate if necessary. We also have a significant chunk of our emergency fund spread between Money Market and CD’s to preserve capital (maintain a minimum emergency fund balance) while having high liquidity.



  4. Jamey on March 30, 2011 at 6:24 am

    From quick glance I see what seems to be a very nice array of investments. I do see that you have 2 financial stocks (BAC & WFC). To help diversify I would swap one for a nice dividend yielding stock for the long term and since you have several “growth” options already I would look into a high yielding drug manufacter (or any other as long as not in a sector you already have!) to help further diversify! Keep up the good work!! Also, I’m sure there are many places (ones fin. advisor / broker) but Yahoo is a great place to input your holdings so you can see all at once. You need to adjust at times (stock splits, etc) but gives you a great perspective on what you hold, gain/loss, transaction dates, etc.) I like as very simple for the average person! Since you only check your portfolio once a month is there a plan in place if say one of your individual stocks takes a tumble this week? Sorry so long!!



  5. Randy on March 30, 2011 at 7:44 am

    Greg, you said “we value our house minus the principal loan balance.”

    How do you value it? I’ve looked at zillow and other tools. Value based on purchase price? We’ve learned in recent years it can certainly go down. And do you factor in selling costs? With realtor fees, that can be significant.



  6. Jamey Henslee on March 30, 2011 at 4:59 pm

    Very nice array of investment choices, ones that we all can simulate without regards to how much investment capital we may each have. I’ve owned American Funds as tend to have a lower entry point & fund managers seem to had have longer tenures – something important when evaluating mutual funds.



  7. BJ on September 26, 2011 at 7:13 am

    What are your thoughts on gold, silver, etc. How does someone with zero experience get started in such comodities?



  8. Alan Balsiger on September 26, 2011 at 7:28 am

    Have you ever considered selling covered calls on the stocks you own? It is an addtitional way to supplement your income on stocks you already own and if you do get called out, you just buy back in on a pull back. It is also a great way to offset losses when the market is going down and you still want to hold onto your stocks. God Bless you for all you do!!!!



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