David Gardner: Conclusion No. 3: “Foolish investing is manageable, even easy.”
It's one thing to talk about numerical performance and how well we all have done together by
being Foolish investors; investors acting by definition over the long term.
The opposite of traders. True investing. And it's another thing to think about our real biggest losers.
But here's a profound, important truth for me about Motley Fool Stock Advisor,
whether you've been a member for years, you just joined, or you're thinking about joining in the future.
I sure hope we are delivering to you an experience that is manageable, even easy.
And what do I mean by that?
Well, think about what Tom and I have done, now, for 200 months in a row.
We've simply raised our hand, once a month, and we've said, "Buy this."
Now some people may have listened to one of the brothers and not the other.
Some people may be acting off both of the brothers' advice, and a lot of people,
no doubt, are doing some of each.
But in each case, whether you just listen to one brother or two, or even if you skipped
a month, all we are asking you to do is save your salary [hoping you're a net saver].
Whether you want to do it every two weeks and buy one brother's pick that week and then
one brother's pick in your IRA the next two-week increment, or just once a month, that's all
you're having to do, and that is a profoundly wonderful truism to share with you.
That in a world where so many people think you have to be very active.
They think investing is complicated, so they make it complicated.
Instead, we're there just raising our hand lazily, once a month, for years and years
now saying, "I'd buy this, this month and you can, too."
And so I think what we're delivering -- I hope what The Motley Fool is delivering to you,
through this service and some of our others -- is simplicity. Ease of use.
Just open up a brokerage account, deposit some money in it, divide it by 12 if you like,
and then once every one of the next 12 months raise your hand and buy along with us,
or if you're an ongoing saver [and God bless you if you are because it's a great thing
to be], then every two weeks or so sock it in to the most recent pick. It's as simple as that.
Now I do want to reflect a little bit more on this point before getting to Conclusion No. 4,
because I want to say to you that there are some interesting handicaps that Tom and
I have had when you think about that outperformance we've generated now over almost two decades.
For example, professional fund managers who I think would love to have annualized performance
like the numbers I've been talking about this podcast, professional managers can act whenever they want to.
When Tom and I published a pick, we'd basically decide on it, then we'd tell our staff,
and there's a publishing machination that you go through and several days later it shows up.
We have no real control over what's happening in the market over those several days.
And further, every single month we're making a new pick for you.
We can't say, "I don't want to pick anything. The market looks high to me this month."
Or, "I love where the market is right now. I'd like to pick four." No.
Instead Tom and I kind of, through the system that we co-developed with our hands somewhat
intentionally tied behind our back, we're only allowed to raise our hand once a month on your behalf.
And so while what I'm saying to you may sound like a handicap, and I think a lot of people
who are professionals in this field would say there are clear handicaps to how the Gardners
operate Motley Fool Stock Advisor, I'm also here to tell you that in our weakness is our strength.
Because while on the one hand you might think, "Well, they can't act nearly like active fund
managers would or wealth managers or money managers who are competing with them."
Instead, I think, we've benefitted immeasurably from the discipline of having to come up with
a new best idea every single month through good markets and through bad.
I'll just focus briefly here on 2009.
The market was so bad in 2009 that I didn't even want to make each of my monthly picks.
I was having the experience -- maybe you were around or maybe you've had this similar experience
in life -- where anything I did within the next 30 days it was down 25% or more.
It was horrific.
From one month to the next, from mid-2008 to mid-2009, I felt like I was being riddled
by gunfire with every single new pick that I made. It didn't feel good and I didn't want to keep doing it.
And yet I did, because that's the way we've built the machine of the Motley Fool Stock Advisor
and as a consequence I, and perhaps you, can now look back at the actions that
we were taking in 2009 and see, "Wow! That was such a great time to be buying."
So there's something to double underline, here, about the benefits of regular, committed investing.
About not worrying where the market is.
About just looking and saying, "What's the best company that I've found this month to add my funds to?"
Sometimes we re-add back to the same company we may have recommended months or years ago,
so it's not always a new idea.
Most of the time, over those 200 months, it has been new ideas and for most of them we
hold them for at least five years, if we can. Some a lot more than that.
But it is that regular discipline. I'm a baseball fan. It's an exciting time of year if you're a baseball fan.
It's fun to watch the postseason, and I know I've used this analogy a lot on Rule Breaker Investing
podcasts in the past, but I really appreciate the discipline of having to step
back into the batter's box time after time over the course of a season, or a career,
which is what baseball batters must do.
They must step, by themselves alone, into the batter's box and keep swinging.
Every single time, whatever the score is, whether their team is winning or losing.
So what looks like a handicap and what truly is handicapped in a lot of ways vs. other
active professional managers has, in fact, been a great strength and it's a strength
that suits you because it's much easier than being highly active.
Than guessing the market. Than jumping in and out.
So Conclusion No. 3 reads Foolish investing is manageable, even easy.