I was an actuary for 22 years and decided to retire early at the age of 43. I moved to Italy for a while and then came back to the states and got serious about investing. I did not have a career in investing and have never been compensated to give investment advice. However, I do have a passion for investing and possess a decent understanding of probability and risk. Like Benjamin Franklin who once advised that ‘an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure’, I think the most promising approach to investing starts with avoiding unnecessary risk by assessing opportunities upfront and exercising restraint. I have tried several different approaches to trading stocks and options and sampled the strategies of over a dozen investment services. The experts make mistakes; I’ve made mistakes. My biggest mistakes were trusting the experts. You’re lucky – I’m no expert.
You don’t need an MBA or a CFA. You don’t need to be an economist or work for a hedge fund. Folks, sound investing boils down to this:
- Save all the money you can
- Buy the stocks of great businesses that pay dividends
- Reinvest those dividends
That’s the outline. On this site, I will do my best to fill in the details. I will show you what I am doing and share what I have learned. You can choose to follow along or periodically check this site just for your amusement. Because in between providing the reasons and details of the investments I am making, you’ll also find musings on related matters.