Confessions of a Loser

     Just like some Catholics occasionally feel the need to go to confession, I now feel the need to come clean with my readers. I'm not a very good investor. I don't own Amazon, Google, Facebook, Netflix, Bitcoin, Apple, or any other superstocks that have made millionaires overnight. While doing my year-end tax planning, I had no trouble finding some embarrassing losses in my portfolio that I used to offset the gains that I realized during 2017. I also keep lousy records of my investing activity, especially concerning my total yield from holdings. I have been way too conservative with my money for way too long. This means that I have held too much in cash which has hardly paid anything for a long time. Over the past several years, I have used a couple of full service brokers who charged me an arm and leg to sell me some lousy mutual funds that under performed the market. I have also bought several pricey Unit Trusts that almost always lose money. I have even put a modest amount into an Annuity out of desperation just to get a slightly higher yield than banks offered. Needless to say I don't even understand everything about this Annuity that I should. I did own Facebook briefly but I sold it for a modest profit. If I just held it, I would have a very large gain. When it comes to Apple, I thought that the ipad was the stupidest thing I ever heard of. I could go on and on but you get the idea. You don't have to be a genius to be an investor. You don't even have to be above average in intelligence. You just have to follow a few simple rules that I have laid out in some previous posts to succeed as an investor. I hope others can learn from the mistakes that I have made, but the most important point I'd like to make is "Don't be afraid to make your own mistakes".  One other thing, even after all these blunders,  I still enjoy a pretty comfortable retirement. The fact is that only about 52% of Americans own stock. These are the people who are enjoying the huge gains that stocks are racking up right now. Without the dividends and growth that I have reaped from stocks, I would probably be working still, if an employer would even have me. The bottom line is that if an idiot like me can retire early, stay retired, be debt-free, and have a retirement income similar to my working years, you can too.