How should one best prepare for long-term success?
Get on the housing ladder as soon as you can scrape together a deposit?
Should you invest in your appearance, to make better first impressions in your professional life? Maybe amplify a good handshake with a strong suit, shoes, and watch?
Try to exploit compound interest, Albert Einstein’s eighth wonder of the world, and begin regularly investing for your retirement as soon as possible?
No. A new strategy has since been revealed by a company that’s been in business since before the American Civil War. After centuries of doing business, it has come upon a new strategy to secure long-term success: declare bankruptcy.
From Market Crumbs:
Borden Dairy Co., known for its Elsie the Cow cartoon, traces its roots all the way back to 1857. Borden began selling processed milk in 1875 and even pioneered the use of glass milk bottles in 1885…
Borden filed for bankruptcy because it can’t afford its current debt load and can’t meet its employee pension obligations…
All the company said in its filing was it intends to use the bankruptcy process to prepare itself for “long-term success.”
Seduced into borrowing too much…. not putting enough cash aside to keep your pension promises… seems like Borden played low interest rates the wrong way. Couldn’t keep all the balls in the air, couldn’t “keep dancing”, which seem to be the only trick required to make your shares go higher these days. After, all, nearly 40% of publicly listed companies in the US have been in the red for the last three years – and yet they’ve staggered ever upward:
A pioneer of something as widespread as glass milk bottles that’s been around for hundreds of years going under, during a stockmarket boom that is supposedly indicative of economic growth (and not money printing)…
Sure does make you wonder about the underlying condition of the economy, which is supposedly booming and certainly not being propped up by central banks keeping the endlessly indebted alive.
But whatever your interpretation of the current environment, our job here at Southbank Investment Research is to help you make hay whatever the market weather – cynical misgivings or not.
For a more helpful guide to long-term investment success, Charlie Morris says to mix your investment portfolio with Whisky and Soda over at The Fleet Street Letter Wealth Builder, and the cocktail has been delivering great returns for his subscribers.
From Charlie’s latest update:
2019 was another good year for The Fleet Street Letter. It was my 4th and the publication’s 83rd. I wish I knew more about the full history because a leader board would be fun to have. With all the wars, bailouts, terror attacks and natural disasters since 1937, I can only suppose that 2019 will be a forgettable year as not much happened when measured against the might of history.
In politics, the Tories enjoyed a landslide, which will keep 2019 living on, just like Maggie’s 1987 and Blair’s 1998. In financial markets, the negative yields in Europe will be written about for years to come. But other than that, I see 2019 as a forgettable year.
Investment wise it has been a good year, if not a great year, but that’s precisely because it has been a forgettable year. You may disagree, but when you compare the events of 2019 to previous years since 1937, not much truly stands out. That is unless you are Prince Andrew.
In markets, I feel The Fleet Street Letter caught the mood, and most events turned out in our favour. It was a mixed year with tech once again in the lead, and oil and coal stuck in the doghouse. The banks didn’t feature and growth beat value until the tail end.
The US roared ahead along with France (luxury goods did well) while Canada, Hong Kong and Spain struggled. All in all, the UK fared well. Bonds were incredible and we participated in that through gold.
The bad news is that it’s now 2020, and we must start all over again. But in truth, investment doesn’t start or stop, it’s a never-ending journey, with time on our side…
The Soda portfolio is compared to the FTSE Private Investor Balanced Total Return Index, which reflects a UK-based diversified portfolio. That rose by 14% in 2019 and is up by 44.8% since the beginning of February 2016, when I took over The Fleet Street Letter.
Soda rose by 19.6% last year and is up by 52.2% since the start. And recall there was a cash drag in 2016 during a rising market as I took time to make the initial investments.
I normally compare Whisky to the FTSE 100, which rose by 17.2% last year (including dividends) and 46.8% since the start in early 2016. Last year Whisky rose by 21.4% and 50.9% since 2016.
I hope you agree that 2019 was a good year for The Fleet Street Letter and I will award myself a B+.
B+? I think Charlie is being too hard on himself. But if you want to see how he perform when he’s on his A game (and believes it), you’ll need to get a subscription to The Fleet Street Letter. And you should, because in his own words:
This year is going to be interesting. I feel the inflation genie will come because the system seems to be fixated on keeping the party going. The six-year high in gold is telling us something is up. Best to listen to what it has to say.
All the best,
Boaz Shoshan
Editor, Capital & Conflict
Category: Market updates