Three years ago I decided to start investing in Relaxo after seeing its meteoric rise and absolutely zero research. During the first two years I was comfortably beating the index. But 2022 was a tough year for Relaxo. It erased all my profits and is now in a loss.
Continuing my investment in Colgate—which has been underperforming since 2 years—has been a very painful experience. I still have my conviction on this stock after five years, albeit it is now on shaky ground. The only saving grace for me has been the dividend yield at cost which is at 1.3%. Compared to Nifty 50 index the XIRR has underperformed by a good 15%. Ouch!
Hoping that next year I write about ‘Six years as shareholder of Colgate-Palmolive (India) Limited’.
I got lucky with the HDFC Life Insurance IPO and saw Nifty 50 index beating returns for four years. But this year the stock stumbled and as of today HDFC Life Insurance has under performed the Nifty 50 index by good 9%. But I still have conviction in the company and have been increasing my allocation. In fact, 50% of my total investment in the company has been made this year alone. And I intend to continue my investment in future also.
The dividend yield at cost has been small with the latest one being 0.3%.
Not having an investment view on every imponderable in financial markets can seem like ignorance, but it actually shows an acute awareness of the environment in which we operate. It is far more ignorant to believe that we can accurately predict all manner of complex and unfathomable things.
Rather than have an ever-evolving set of views and positions, we would be far better off allowing others to pontificate and trade, and instead wait until there are opportunities where the probability of good outcomes are firmly on our side.
Investors would be far happier (and better off) not having a view on most things most of the time.
The Power of Not Having a View
Last year when I wrote about ITC, I mentioned that there are die hard fans of ITC who are waiting for its resurrection some day. I think that day is here. Since Feb-2022, ITC has consistently moved up and as of today it is beating Nifty 50 Index after five years.
ITC continues to give great dividend returns with the latest dividend yield at cost for me at 2.8%.
Like Asian Paints, I did not continue investing in ITC after my first investment. That was a bad decision. 83% of my total investment in ITC has been made in last three years so I am still a long way to consider myself as a long term investor.
I have been incredibly lucky with my investment in Havells. With 25% XIRR I have beaten the Nifty 50 Index by a comfortable margin. But then it is because of this outperformance I have been a bit hesitant to invest more in this stock. I have not invested in this stock since last two years and the share price’s sideways movement has meant that the outperformance over Nifty 50 Index has shrunk over the last year.
The company pays dividends regularly and for me the latest dividend yield at cost has been at 0.7%.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine did affect the share price but it was still resilient compared to some other companies.
Six years into my investment in Asian Paints with 26% XIRR, I should say I am really happy. But considering that 85% of my investment came in last 3 years, I should probably change the title of this post to “3 years as shareholder of Asian Paints”. And the 26% XIRR starts looking a bit unrealistic—at least in the long term.
The company has been a solid performer and regularly pays dividends. For me, my latest dividend yield at cost was 0.8%. My investment has been able to beat the Nifty 50 Index comfortably since last 3 years. Yay!
Like my investment in Pidilite, I am yet to see a negative XIRR since last five years on my investment. Even during the COVID-19 market crash my XIRR went from 17% to 8%. I would say that is pretty resilient compared to VIP Industries.
The news of Grasim entering in paints business and their subsequent announcement of doubling their investment in it, did put a short term dent in my returns. Although it quickly recovered, but I will have to see how it affects in the long term.
A big missed opportunity was not investing in Asian Paints during 2017 and 2018. Had I invested a significant amount during that time, my XIRR returns and the actual corpus amount would have been substantial. This is something for which I will always kick myself.
Three years ago I was searching for a mid cap mutual fund and I came across Franklin India Prima Fund1. I decided to go ahead with it as it was one of the oldest funds starting way back in 1993. Initially I used to invest only lumpsum amount as when I had surplus. But starting Aug-2021 I decided to start an SIP in the fund. During the market crash of COVID-19, I continuously invested in the fund accumulating units at a lower price.
Franklin India Prima Fund has been outperforming the Nifty 50 Index ever so slightly. But a better comparison will be another actively managed madcap fund. So, I am comparing it against PGIM India Midcap Opportunities Fund2. And against that, Franklin India Prima Fund has underperformed by a huge margin. Had I invested in PGIM India Midcap Opportunities Fund I would have made an XIRR of 45% compared to 25% of Franklin India Prima Fund. Ouch!
But despite the underperformance, I am planning to continue my SIP in near future with hope that it is able to match the performance of its peer mutual funds.
Intriguing.
The problem isn’t that the youngest generation hates work; the problem is that many of the jobs offered to the youngest generation aren’t work at all.The spreadsheet-heavy, mid-level-manager-dominated, buzzword-filled roles offered to us are jobs, but they are hardly “work.”
For any gamers out there, one of the oldest tricks in the book is giving your younger sibling an unplugged/disconnected controller, so they feel like they are “playing”, while you are in control the whole time.
Many “jobs” today are simply unplugged controllers. The work would get done, whether or not we take part in the process. We are simply moving numbers, smashing buttons, and staying busy, with no regard for actual productivity.
On Meaningless Careers
In recent years, Earth has been speeding up. In 2020, timeanddate reported that Earth had achieved its 28 shortest days since accurate daily measurements using atomic clocks began in the 1960s.
The shortest day of all in 2020 was -1.47 milliseconds on July 19.
Earth continued to spin quickly in 2021, although the shortest day of the year in 2021 was fractionally longer than in 2020.
Now, in 2022, things have speeded up again. On June 29, Earth set a new record for the shortest day of the atomic-clock era: -1.59 milliseconds.
Earth nearly beat its record again the following month, posting a length of day of -1.50 milliseconds on July 26.
Earth Sets New Record for Shortest Day
And there is something called as Leap Second.