Sorry for not doing much discussing recently, I had to enjoy my holidays.
Economic history makes for an interesting read. One has to keep in mind that the data is very very limited for most of our history and often biased for a certain bono. The growth we witnessed in Europe and in the US in the last hundred years was indeed a great ride. Last year I bought a neat volume on European Econhistory and read a little bit about our local area. It reminds one once again that the massively increased yields/productivity gains in agriculture are the basis of our current living standards.
----
To be honest it is also a bit amused to read things like Europe: Burnt and abandoned when you too had a great ride in the stock markets. I did of course not match the DAX, as I had invested more broadly and bonds were a drag but it was a fine year indeed. While some companies did cut the dividends, sometimes completely, the earnings are still strong compared to the price in many instances. A very high ratio of 75% in stocks payed off also in asset growth while I personally invested more with an eye on dividends*. Of course one should not be fooled by success so I have to think if I have to adjust something. Sadly I could not balance away a high percentage of the capital gains by selling stocks at a loss so I will have to do an additional contribution on the budget front.
*For the reasons posted a couple a times in this thread I did not buy a single fresh bond in the last two years. Dividends of good companies have been beating them handily for a couple of years now. This can and will of course change!
Bookmarks