• I have been through the highs and lows of the markets since the late 1990’s and with each major gyration I gain personal insight.  Just as I feel it is an important job of parents to help their children identify, appreciate and focus on their inherent strengths, I also feel that investors must work within the realm of their personal strengths and beware of their personal challenges.  Ultimately, happiness & contribution matters not money!
  • A few salient points have become clear and recently reconfirmed:

1) I love to buy low! 

  •  I missed out on full participation of the recent commodity bull market (since early 21st century) because I could not bring myself to buy into the momentum.  This is also the reason I have started buying stocks to hold until the next peak!?

2) I love dividends!  

  • The idea of waiting out the market to return to a peak is made much, much easier with a nice dividend return.  In fact I am well on my way to dividending my way above the poverty ine in Canada - if all goes well, I will earn enough money from my dividends to keep my family above the poverty level, forever.   With dividend growth that beats inflation, this portfolio should be kept about poverty for decades to come.  I am not really worried about hitting the poverty level as I have a great bond-quality job as well as comprehensive insurance policies.   A recent figure I came across proposed that the ‘Cost of Subsistence’ in Canada is about $23,000 for a family of four.  This is terribly low but I suppose the bare minimum to provide food, shelter and clothing. 

3) I love to swing for the fences!

  • I am not a gambler by the conventional definition - devastating social and physical consequences resulting from the habit of gambling but I am not scared of taking financial risk with huge rewards dangling like a carrot in front of the me.  In this category, I have made some mistakes and had some successes.  Like anything the more you do something the better you get.  While the bulk of my recent investments have been in blue-chip dividend paying stocks I must admit I have also bought a few tickets for a home run.  
  • For example a recent purchase has been in Uranium One, Inc (UUU-Toronto).  Not only was this stock recently under $1.00 (I bought for $0.70) but it is actually a viable company with a product (205 million lbs of Uranium annually) and revenue (~ $148, 184,000).  UUU has been trading as high as $18 in the past 2 years.  This certainly does not mean that it will climb back to those lofty heights but the recent ‘non-renewable’ energy scare will most likely result in many countries fortifying their alternate energy sources while oil prices have dropped.  As J. P. Morgan once said ” I buy my straw hats in the fall”.  Recent reports suggest that up to hundreds of new nuclear reactors are poised to come online in the next two decades.   Even John McCain set a campaign goal of 45 new US reactors by 2030.  Now, he just may not be the next leader but statements like these give the US citizens time to pause and contemplate this possibility. The fact remains that a brief taste of 150 dollar oil will encourage diversification of energy sources.

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