Rambling On Investing -- August 25, 2023

Locator: 45473INV. 

The blog has really made a huge impact on my understanding investing.

I flip-flop on many things, as I learn more, but hopefully, most of my changes are evolutionary. The "flip-flops" are revolutionary, and can end up being good or bad. "Evolutionary" for me tends to mean "improving." 

Years ago, a writer was updating Warren Buffett's holdings but instead of giving us a dollar amount of each of his holdings, she -- and I do recall it was a "she" -- provided the number of shares of various companies that Warren Buffett held, and then totaling up all the shares of all the holdings.

I thought was ridiculous. Combining all the shares of all the companies.

I still have trouble with that, but updating his portfolio with number of shares vs dollar worth now makes a lot of sense to me.

If I'm told Buffett had $40 million worth of XYZ in 2020 and then $30 million worth of that same company, XYY, in 2023, I don't know if he sold some XYZ or if XYZ had come down in value, or a combination of the two, or even something else. But knowing that he had four million shares in 2020 and then three million shares in 2023, gives me another data point.

I was thinking about that, now that I have a very, very structured plan buying certain equities twice a month, every month, regardless of what the market is doing, though I do make exceptions, and instead of buying on the scheduled day of Tuesday, for example, I might wait until Thursday, to invest, after certain events have transpired.

But I digress. As I was saying, I was thinking about tracking number of shares, as well as the dollar value, as having some practicality.

I talked about this a few days ago when I talked about "time value of money."

I was happy this morning at the open when I bought shares in some company when they opened lower for the day. An hour later, I was feeling great when that stock had turned green and I thought I had made a brilliant "trade." But then, two hours later, the stock "tanked" they say -- but it bothered me not at all.

I have a 30-year horizon; this company is first-rate and will do very, very well over time. It is unlikely that I will ever sell it and the shares will go to our grandchildren. Of course, I want to do as well as I can with investing, and it would have been nice to have bought the shares an hour later when they were less expensive, but twenty years from now, our grandchildren will be thrilled with the shares they inherit, and won't wonder how much I paid for them. 

But if the shares close in the "green" today, I will be thrilled. And if I remember I will update this note. LOL.

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Southern Living Vs Texas Monthly

We live in Texas and have a granddaughter in college in Nashville, TN.

Over the years, I have become very fond of Tennessee. I will never leave Texas, but I certainly hope to spend more time in Tennessee.

New subscription: Southern Living.

For what I'm interested in, I prefer Southern Living to Texas Monthly.

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Banking

I've written several blogs on banking, etc, and the new technology.

I went to Amazon.com to purchase a subscription to Southern Living. Amazon.com no longer offers subscriptions to that magazine.

However, in the process of subscribing to Southern Living on line, I was offered the opportunity to pay using my Amazon.com account. So, through Amazon.com, I subscribed. Truly amazing. The "stretch" of these companies is amazing. I assume there was an ApplePay option, also, but don't recall. But now, not only does Amazon get a very, very, very small cut of the subscription price I paid, but Amazon.com now knows a bit more about me. 

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Old Photographs

It's a shame we didn't see these photographs until after our parents had died.

I would have loved the backstory: the what, why, when. Sometimes the "who." Always, "who was the photographer?"

Dad was born in 1922, in the farmhouse on the homestead, just a mile or so south of Newell, SD. When he left home at age 20, he never returned home except for very short visits. Photography was very rare at this time; the family was very poor and hiring a photographer would have been a big deal for special occasions.

One assumes:

• seventeen or eighteen years of age, high school graduation; or, alternatively,
• twenty years of age, on his way to sign up for the US Coast Guard

Dad served in both theaters during the war, first: many Atlantic Ocean crossings, home-stationed in Boston, pier 13, USS Wakefield. Then, fewer Pacific Ocean crossings but spent more time in Asia than Europe.

From his biography:

In 1942, Dad received a letter in the mail with a return address from the US Selective Service.

Dad did not open the envelope; he did not want to go into the army. Instead he visited the Belle Fourche Navy recruiting station.

Dad was sworn into the United States Coast Guard, November 6, 1942.

 “I went on active duty December 23, 1942, and was assigned to Coast Guard Boot Camp in St. Augustine, Florida. The folks took me to Rapid City, South Dakota. Then I took a road bus to Omaha, Nebraska. I took the train from Omaha on December 23, 1942, and arrived in St. Augustine, Florida on Christmas Day 1942. I stayed in the Ponce de Leon Hotel during boot camp.”

Can you imagine a 20-year-old kid born and raised in Newell, SD, having never left the town or the farm, and then all of a sudden finds himself in St Augustine, FL? And from there to Boston. Wow.

Life is too short, but on the other hand, one can see and do a lot in one's lifetime.

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