I want to be able to support my family and put my two kids through college without having to go completely broke while still facing years, maybe decades, of life. But I don't make enough money. Yes, I mostly max out my 401k and avoid debt but it's not going to be enough. Not even close. I need to win the lottery.
And since that's not going to happen, I pick stocks. Now, before you think I'm naive or stupid or both given that stock pickers typically underperform the market over time, let me just say straightaway that my 401k is in low-cost (under .5%) index funds and that the money I buy stocks with represents maybe 30% of my total. If I lost it all I would be very bummed but my future would not change much. Less than not enough is still less than enough.
I've been picking stocks for over 15 years (and will be at it for years to come) and in that time I've learned a lot of valuable and often painful lessons, read gobs of articles and books, checked the market obsessively every sing damn day and not gone broke (believe me, that's worth somethßing!).
But picking stocks is a lonely game. So I'm starting this blog in the hopes of adding a bit of community to my little stock picking operation, as well as to chronicle my thinking and keep my hindsight honest, as I have a bad habit of forgetting my failures and maintaining crystal clear memories of my wins.
I will share what I've learned and what I'm betting on, and I hope to find a few readers who will do the same. I hope you enjoy the writings to come. And I hope I don't die in a trailer park outside of Tuscon.
