ISMS 18: Dave Collum – What Makes Your Investments Good or Bad

<p>In this episode of Investment Strategy Made Simple (ISMS), Dave joins Andrew again as he shares more about his good and bad investments, among other things.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><blockquote class="ql-align-center"><strong>“Most of the books I read that helped me invest are not about investing but about history.”</strong></blockquote><blockquote class="ql-align-center">Dave Collum</blockquote><p>&nbsp;</p><p>Listen to Dave’s previous interview <a href="https://myworstinvestmentever.com/ep660-dave-collum-what-should-the-us-be-doing-in-ukraine/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ep660: What Should the US Be Doing in Ukraine?</a> He shares his views about the UK, the US, and what the US should do about Ukraine.</p><h2>Dave’s early investment journey</h2><p>In 1980, when Dave started investing, it was nothing but bonds because interest rates were humongous, and investors could get a great return. Dave didn’t know what he was doing. He just depended on <a href="https://myworstinvestmentever.com/isms-17-larry-swedroe-investment-mistake-no-2-do-you-project-recent-trends-indefinitely-into-the-future/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">recency bias</a> to make his investment decisions. Luckily, the bonds did great. After the 1987 crash in equities, Dave found himself sitting in the faculty lounge with an old guy who convinced him to buy equities. He looked into it, liked the idea, went in, and flipped equities. Dave was in equities until the mid-90s when he got enthusiastic after starting to accrue some wealth and was very bullish.</p><p>Dave had a contact who was a traveling pharma salesman who would tell him what all the CEOs and staff were telling him. The connection had good information and gave Dave some ideas, one of which was a small company in Mississippi. The company did well and started acquiring everything under the sun.</p><p>In early 1998, Dave started getting a little queasy about the markets because he’d read enough books now and better understood investing. At the beginning of July 1998, Dave