Gone Fishin' - Holdun

It has been years since I was on a fishing boat, but there I was this past weekend off to explore the islands and try my hand at some deep-sea fishing. What a wonderful experience it was. No cell phone or internet connection, alone with my grandchildren and a couple of good books. It is seemingly impossible in this age to escape from it all, but we did. Rather than checking stock quotes or following the financial news, there I was knee deep in water with my grandchildren or on the beach trying to feed the iguanas watermelon on a stick.

We were not so fortunate on the fishing front as either our timing was off or our skills were sadly lacking.

This weekend made me painfully aware that we spend far too much time fretting about the state of the market which we cannot control rather than on things that are far more important. A major part of successful investing is controlling your emotions when your money is on the line. What better way to avoid mistakes by getting away from it all. If you have a well-developed game plan as you should, ignore the noise and enjoy life around you.

A big part of successful investing is becoming content doing nothing. If you are invested in high quality companies as we are, a lot of times your biggest risk is boredom. Don’t be active for activity sake. Remember, there are no day traders on the Forbes 400 list. Learn to be content holding and doing nothing.

Gone fishin’…