Almost all investing heartbreak can be avoided if you stick to one simple rule of thumb: only invest in the stocks of companies that you understand. It is amazing how many people stray from this principle. I recently heard from a brand new income investor who told me that he has over 50% of his investable assets in Linn Energy (LNCO), and he was glad that he came across my blog so that he could learn about “defensive” investments.
No, no, no.
Look, I don’t own any Linn Energy, because there are a lot of things I don’t understand about the company, and there are some things I understand about the company but don’t like (for instance, right now, the LNCO distributions roughly mirror the LINE distributions because LNCO isn’t realizing GAAP income—if LNCO starts realizing GAAP income, it will have to pay a 35% tax, causing LNCO distributions to … Read the rest of this article!
The post How To Take Failure and Heartache Out Of Your Stock Portfolio first appeared on The Conservative Income Investor.