Passive investment

A very successful medical colleague of mine was lamenting how our colleagues are totally uninterested in their investments. They are happy with the meagre returns from super funds where the managers take a big chunk off the profit. This apathy costs them a lot of money but there is also total indifference to this apathy!

I looked at my stocks and what I bought recently. If I had been passive, I would have lost a lot. A lot relatively to what I have made. Yet after digesting ASX data, combing through websites and churning out the buys, I have no takers. Perhaps it is the mistrust of my non-financial background. Yet looking at how my GSJBWere and MSSB portfolios following the GFC, the returns have been so bad that I might have earned more changing them into bonds during the GFC.

For the time I have spent on managing my stocks, I have learnt a lot on how to read announcements/reports and how to assess tipsters. This knowledge is very valuable. And it has been extremely rewarding. Yes, I now earn more from the ASX than anaesthesia, in spite of the market falling by a few percentage over the last 12 months. I am not a day trader and I rarely sell. And sales are sometimes enforced to make cash for SPP at cheaper buy price.