Thank you for reading

Unbelievably this will be my 250th blog. It has never been a typical blog though in the true sense of the word. I’ve never clamoured for new subscribers or readers as most bloggers do. I’ve even ensured that Google doesn’t index my output anymore. I only invite existing clients to read them if they have the time. I’m just using the power of the internet to keep you all informed and updated. In some ways this has been a newsletter, in other ways hopefully somewhat educational.

The blogs are certainly not regulated financial advice. If they were they would have to carry so many caveats and risk warnings like “Don’t try this at home kids” or “If you play with fire you could get burned”. They are my personal (hopefully informed) researched opinions. The Financial Conduct Authority would also have something to say to me if I was using them for marketing or advice purposes. Not one would stand up to scrutiny in the regulated world I inhabit. Perhaps they have been just the musings of a confirmed sceptic. Maybe a real cynic. Cynicism is healthy in the investment world where funds and products often over promise and under deliver.

A Record

I believe the blogs do stand up as a record of the major financial events that have troubled us as investors since that first blog in January 2011. If I wrote for a newspaper I probably would have needed to be more dramatic and use words like “unprecedented” in every blog. My editor would have directed me to provoke and frighten you into the open arms of the paying advertisers. If I wrote for a newspaper I probably would have been “cancelled” by now too, for the odd opinion deemed to have crossed the line of just too far.

In hindsight I got some things right, I got some things wrong. If anyone takes the time to re-read all 250 blogs could they please tell me whether I got most right or most wrong. Hopefully the things I got wrong were inconsequential to our investment outcomes. Maybe I should re-read them all and classify them so newer clients can quickly find those that could be applicable to their circumstances. I could probably re-hash some of them as a timely reminder.

I’ve tried to make most educational and with a little luck as clients you do get my sense of humour by now. I hope I have spurred many of you to perhaps do at least one thing in your life that you would not have done, had you not been inspired by something contained in a blog.

Slow, slow, quick, quick, slow

The blogs have been difficult to write at times, but at other times I’ve not been able to get the content through the keyboard fast enough. Some start out as one blog and morph into two blogs. Some just don’t make it to published stage. In good times I’ve tried to give the investment markets the credit. In poor times I’ve shouldered responsibility even though once again it is the investment markets that deliver our growth and our income.

During the lockdowns I became frustrated and angry, I wrote an additional 9 draft blogs but never published them for fear of upsetting anyone. In the early days of the pandemic many believed it was life and death – our own Government brought all its powers to the fore – to coerce the population into submission. Many believe it went too far and overstepped its democratic powers. Some believe it lied. The opposition just sat it out waiting for mistakes. The Barrington Declaration was dismissed as the work of crackpots. All history now.

Polarisation

Over the last decade we have all become so polarised. So divided. We are all moderate individuals but we have been forced to take positions, often by the media and through peer pressure. It has even caused families to fall out. We cannot possibly know everything, so we take shortcuts to form our opinions. It’s called Heuristics. It’s a mind trick to promote energy efficiency developed millions of years ago. We are told we either must believe in anthropogenic climate change or we are dangerous climate deniers. But none of us have read very much of the available evidence. Evidence that is now coming to light that has been exaggerated by both sides of the argument. We are judged as Brexiteers or Remainiacs. Those of us who voted had no choice, just stay or leave, no midway options. We must be either far left or far right when I suspect everyone of us is more centrist. Finally I think the less I say about gender the better.

Being not required to tow the corporate line gives me continuous freedom of thought. It allows me to judge potential investment returns based not on climate issues, gender equality in the boardroom or social exploitation. I’m free to choose any investment opportunity based solely on its return merits. I’m hoping this will long continue, but I do see the future role of investment regulation and “nudge” coercion as an increasing threat to true independence. I do believe we can change the world more by our spending habits rather than our investment choices.

To the uncertain future

These blogs have documented our joint investment journeys over the last 12 years. I do hope I will be able to look back in another twelve years to see how the drip, drip, drip of change has shaped our future progress.