Biggest regrets of the older posters here?

[Partner24]

Well, I've discovered about Buffett when I was about 21 years old. The first stock I every bought was FFH in 2003. I guess what I regret was to focus too much on things like FFH, MKL, BRK and the likes. I should have took a closer look at very small businesses...cheap, growing, under the radar like PDRX. But that being said, things could have been far worse than owning FFH, MKL and the likes!! It's far from being a big regret.

 

Also, I don't regret about saving a lot when I was in my 20's and had less expenses than now (kids, house, etc.).

 

 

 

 

[cobafdek]

I don't think in terms of regret when I think about the past.  I guess it's just my mental makeup:  I made mistakes and experienced "bad outcomes," try to learn from them, and leave it at that.  For me, mistakes don't reach the emotional intensity of becoming "regrets."  That would be the way to neurosis.

 

A minor one might be not keeping a diary.

 

But I did the next best things, perhaps.  I kept a chronological list of all the books I read and movies I saw, and quotations I liked.  So it's a kind of intellectual diary of sorts.

 

Here's some insight on this "regret" question, interestingly from a trashy novel I read in my 20s (The Dream Merchants by Harold Robbins):  a brash young man asked a Wise One how to gain the wisdom so necessary in order to avoid the foolish mistakes of youth.  "Impetuous young seeker after knowledge," he said gently, "you can learn to avoid the mistakes of youth by living to a ripe old age."  The young man thought this over and at last he got to his feet and thanked the Wise One for answering his question.  For it was the truth the Wise One had spoken.  A mistake is not recognized until it has been made and passed.  For a mistake recognized before it was made would not be made and therefore would not be a mistake.

[Liberty]

But I did the next best things, perhaps.  I kept a chronological list of all the books I read and movies I saw, and quotations I liked.  So it's a kind of intellectual diary of sorts.

 

I did the exact same thing. I find it very useful. I've also been keeping an investing journal for almost a year and that has been great too.

[mcliu]

But I did the next best things, perhaps.  I kept a chronological list of all the books I read and movies I saw, and quotations I liked.  So it's a kind of intellectual diary of sorts.

 

I did the exact same thing. I find it very useful. I've also been keeping an investing journal for almost a year and that has been great too.

 

Why do you guys typically put in your investing journal? Is it to write down your investment thesis for a particular investment, or just general investment thoughts?

[cobafdek]

I've also been keeping an investing journal for almost a year and that has been great too.

 

Damn, I should have thought of this idea, too!  Keep it up, regardless of whether you start a formal public blog, which you should seriously consider doing.  Guys like oddballstocks, NeverLoseMoney, Ragnar, Glenn Chan (and others I apologize for not coming to mind immediately), will look back 10 or 20 years from now at a remarkable body of work they are producing.  Maybe some of their early stuff might be embarrassing, but more important will be the evidence of their intellectual growth over time - very valuable to look back on, definitely no regrets for them keeping these "journals."

 

Another minor regret:  from Day #1 of the birth of my son, I snapped a photo of him every day for the first 100 days.  I don't know why I stopped.  I could have done what one father did:  he took a portrait photo of her daughter's face every day of her life from birth to (?)college.  He posted on the web the entire result of thousands of photos, sequentially chronologically flipping in time-lapse fashion.  Very cool.  Oh well, I missed that opportunity.  At least I quit my overnight moonlighting job that paid $100K/year, so that I could be awake during the day when he was a toddler.  That was a potential regret avoided.

[james22]

Consider military service.

 

It's not something you can easily do later in life.

[Uccmal]

In my 20s:

 

I wish I had more hot sex with attractive women who came my way, but was too clueless to notice because I was a nerd. 

 

Otherwise, I had a throughly misspent youth, as it should be.  Really got started at 31 with 20 Grand in student debt. 

 

No real regrets.  I am a product of my experience, strength, and hope.

[PatientCheetah]

In my 20s:

 

I wish I had more hot sex with attractive women who came my way, but was too clueless to notice because I was a nerd. 

 

Otherwise, I had a throughly misspent youth, as it should be.  Really got started at 31 with 20 Grand in student debt. 

 

No real regrets.  I am a product of my experience, strength, and hope.

 

Me too, I had similar experience. So clueless when opportunities were presented to me, they were always so obvious in retrospect :(

[Liberty]

I did the exact same thing. I find it very useful. I've also been keeping an investing journal for almost a year and that has been great too.

 

Why do you guys typically put in your investing journal? Is it to write down your investment thesis for a particular investment, or just general investment thoughts?

 

I can't speak for others, but I mostly write down investment theses and updates on how things are evolving, I put URLs for interesting things I find, notes on conference call transcripts/audio, investor days, interesting excerpts from articles and blog posts, thoughts on overall strategy and portfolio construction, try to understand past mistakes, etc.

 

I also put related tickers in each paragraph and highlight the key words so that it's easily searchable and skimmable.

[Travis Wiedower]

No real regrets.  I am a product of my experience, strength, and hope.

 

I'm still in my 20s but this has always been my outlook. Sure I've made plenty of mistakes but at the time I thought I was making the best decision and that's all I can do. Look back objectively, learn, do better the next time.

[vinod1]

Why do you guys typically put in your investing journal? Is it to write down your investment thesis for a particular investment, or just general investment thoughts?

 

I have been maintaining an investment diary since mid 2011. I try to capture my thought process - why I bought or sold a stock, what else I have researched, what I am thinking about the macro, why I sized the position at the level that I did, my own mental state as to how I am viewing the markets, stocks that I researched and did not buy and why, etc.

 

Another thing I started since mid 2011 is to write out a fairly detailed report on each business that I am researching whether I buy or not. I created a standard template that I use that has business description in my own words, competitive advantages, risks, valuation, a three year outlook and recommendation. In the three year outlook I try to quantitatively put my expectations on the key drivers for the investment. Then I try to come up with either a book value or earnings 3 years out and the relevant multiple to come up with a price expectation. This has been incredibly useful in the sense of deliberate practice by providing input on where my expectations differ from reality. It tells you if you are systematically biased either optimistically or pessimistically so you can make the necessary corrections.

 

Vinod

[smd123]

 

Another thing I started since mid 2011 is to write out a fairly detailed report on each business that I am researching whether I buy or not. I created a standard template that I use that has business description in my own words, competitive advantages, risks, valuation, a three year outlook and recommendation.

 

This sounds great. Vinod, do you mind sharing your template (or its generic version) ?

[vinod1]

 

Another thing I started since mid 2011 is to write out a fairly detailed report on each business that I am researching whether I buy or not. I created a standard template that I use that has business description in my own words, competitive advantages, risks, valuation, a three year outlook and recommendation.

 

This sounds great. Vinod, do you mind sharing your template (or its generic version) ?

 

Here it goes.

 

Vinod

XXX_Valuation_-_Vinod_MM-DD-YYYY_Version_1.2.docx

[smd123]

Thanks, Vinod!

[plusalpha]

Thats really great Vinod, Thank you for sharing.

[Mephistopheles]

Thats really great Vinod, Thank you for sharing.

 

+1

[berkshire101]

In my 20s:

 

I wish I had more hot sex with attractive women who came my way, but was too clueless to notice because I was a nerd. 

 

 

I still have 5 more years before reaching 30.  Guess I better get started on that now.  :-[

[netnet]

This sounds great. Vinod, do you mind sharing your template (or its generic version) ?

 

 

Vinod

 

Excellent format.  I use a similar format but I add eight more things

 

[*]Key ratios for the industry, if I don't know what should be in the ratio, it's outside my circle of competence

[*]Comparison of the ratios and the earnings to others is the industry

[*]The competitive structure of the industry is in the competitive advantage section

[*]Owner earnings

[*]Growth Rate

[*]Debt versus cash flow, generally industry specific

[*]A narrative on the management

[*]What my expectations are for the business and the investment

 

Number 8 is the most useful in that, reviewing a year or two later it makes you humble.

[MrB]

No regrets. I'm forgiven!

[AzCactus]

Im in my 20's also---my biggest regret is not having more money in 2008 :)

[KCLarkin]

Another thing I started since mid 2011 is to write out a fairly detailed report on each business that I am researching whether I buy or not. I created a standard template that I use that has business description in my own words, competitive advantages, risks, valuation, a three year outlook and recommendation.

 

Thanks Vinod. I need to start doing this for my investments. I did one on Vistaprint and it was very helpful to validate my thesis after the price changed dramatically. The price rose well above my initial sell target but I had the confidence to hold on because of the report.

 

Looking back at my winners, most had a "negative catalyst". In other words, there was some temporary problem that allowed me to purchase the stock on sale. I see you have "why is it cheap" in your recommendation section. I think this deserves it's own sub-heading.

[UNF2007]

I'm not really old yet @30, but old enough to have some regrets. #1 not holding onto visa @70 /amex @10 longer, bought both during 2008, and sold out at a goodly profit, but short of the ultimate bonanza as Graham would put it. #2 not leveraging myself, I had the option of a cheap 50k loan at 1.5% from commissioning around 2008. #3 I was blindly passionate about getting into medschool in college, despite the doctors I talked with telling me to avoid it. After going through the process and now almost done with surgical residency, I wish I had explored other options, investing as a career never entered my mind even though I was passionate about it back then. On the plus side I'm debt free, now I just focus on building up a strong capital base and hopefully early retirement.

[nkp007]

"When in doubt, kiss her"

[augustabound]

In my 20s:

I wish I had more hot sex with attractive women who came my way, but was too clueless to notice because I was a nerd. 

 

I wasn't a nerd, just shy and always "the nice guy". In retrospect, I should have let more women know I was interested because sitting here years later, I saw the signs clear as day. But by the time I realized it, it was too late.

 

To top it off, I usually had a female friend I was close with telling me someone was interested or to just go for it.

Or maybe I could have had my female friends........................... oh for f*$k sake. What was I thinking.............  :-[

 

But really, in the end I have a great wife and 2 daughters, so I don't worry about what could have been. ..................often.  8)

[cobafdek]

In my 20s:

I wish I had more hot sex with attractive women who came my way, but was too clueless to notice because I was a nerd. 

 

I wasn't a nerd, just shy and always "the nice guy". In retrospect, I should have let more women know I was interested because sitting here years later, I saw the signs clear as day. But by the time I realized it, it was too late.

 

 

To top it off, I usually had a female friend I was close with telling me someone was interested or to just go for it.

Or maybe I could have had my female friends........................... oh for f*$k sake. What was I thinking.............  :-[

 

But really, in the end I have a great wife and 2 daughters, so I don't worry about what could have been. ..................often.  8)

 

Today's college youth have the hook-up culture.  I guess we're all born too early . . . sigh.

 

Heard an interesting discussion about hook-ups, that females would be more likely to regret participating than the males; males would likely regret NOT participating.  Judging from this thread so far, looks to be true!