My wife’s so-called “personal mutual fund” returned 22.72% from August 5, 2014 through to last Friday, February 19, 2016 (approximately 18 months).
As a comparison, the following stock market indices performed as follows:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: -0.23%
S&P 500: -0.13%
NASDAQ Composite: 3.48%
Her buying habits CRUSHED the general markets, by a HUGE margin, just as they had from the day we were married back in 2004.
The personal mutual fund (as outlined in the blog post, My Wife’s Personal Mutual Fund Outperforms the Pros, back on August 6, 2014), highlighted 22 stocks of companies whose products or services she religiously buys or uses on a daily or weekly basis.
Of the 22 stocks, 20 show gains while only two show a loss ($KORS and $XOM). The top five leaders are as follows:
- Amazon ($AMZN) leads the pack with a 71% gain
- Home Depot ($HD – actually my store) is second with a 56% gain
- Starbucks ($SBUX) comes in third with a 53% gain
- Netflix ($NFLX) is up 47%, a service used by the entire family
- Facebook ($FB) is up 43%: yes I admit it, we are both addicted (very bullish going forward)
This is simple investing logic (for our family) as we use the products and services of these five companies every day (HD being the lone exception for daily use, but monetarily, it may lead the pack).
Amazingly, 14 of the 22 stocks show a double digit gain:
$AMZN $HD $SBUX $NFLX $FB $V $TJX $COST $TGT $CVS $GOOG $MA $PEP $DIS
The other six positive stocks show a gain between 0.1% and 9.94%:
$VZ $JNJ $PG $COH $AAPL $WFC
For the second time in less than two years, I am convinced that my skills, or lack thereof, are no match for the power of my wife’s product and service buying habits. Hands down, her habits are kicking the market’s a$$ and my a$$ for that matter.
Who needs a financial advisor or one of these “trendy” new robo advisors when I can just copy what she is buying and doing?
As I said back in 2014:
Peter Lynch subscribed to the idea of “know what you own”. I know what my wife owns and can take the lesson that many other wives (and people in general) are buying what she is buying. Consumers = profits and profits typically lead to earnings which leads to a rise in share prices. Sounds like a simple formula.
The formula is WORKING!
I plan to take a look at the 22 companies to determine which may need to be “adjusted” in or out of the portfolio going forward. Michael Kors may be “so-yesterday” and things like Etsy ($ETSY), Paypal ($PYPL), Instagram ($FB), etc. are now on the list. I plan to do some more digging between the wife and kid’s spending habits.
I’ll keep you all posted but in the mean time, check out what your wife (or husband) and family is spending their money on, week after week – it could be worth a fortune rather than costing you one.
Nice. There’s an old book called “The Tao Jones Averages” that made this point too, it’s a fun read.