Forty Thousand

So we made it. Over forty thousand views. Just over two years ago, we were at 15,000 http://markhowitt.blogspot.co.uk/2013/05/fifteen-thousand.html

Quite a bit has happened since then. I’ve invested much more of my money into shares. I now have a six figure share portfolio.

In terms of writing, tens of thousands more people have seen my writing at www.fool.co.uk www.shareprophets.com and another site which I won’t mention. That site still may be subject to legal action over my writing.

Good news for you though, because practically ALL of my 2015 share articles are available and will be released at some point. I feel that with more experience now I can deliver even better share writing, and have plenty of ideas. I am in negotiation with other sites about writing but won’t write for them about shares unless I am paid fairly.

I still am in contact with the www.fool.co.uk editor and other writers on that site. Ideally I will be able to write for them in the future as it’s the best UK site about shares. All I can do to reach that goal is keep reading Fool articles every day, keep learning about shares and of course, keep on being a share investor. I never really thought I would get on Fool in the first place... it was like a dream. It’s like with my novel... I knew I would finish it in the end. Feeling there was like exhaustion after having run an eighteen month long writing marathon. With Fool it was just like pure elation and... disbelief I guess.

I would like to say thank you to everyone who read my Fool articles... and even more so to those who signed up for the free email. That’s how I and other Fool writers are judged. I was quite pleased with the amount of email addresses who signed up quickly after my articles came out. Of course there is room for improvement but I think I can get there. I am certainly a more experienced and better share writer than I was then. Plus I have invested even more in shares, have better contacts and feel my share knowledge is better too.

If there are enough donations I can release share articles here too. Please donate if you'd like to see more!

This site and my life is more than just shares though. There is much more I can write about, and I will do so in the future. I am still available for none share writing as long as it is fairly paid- feel free to contact me about this.

So 25,000 views in just over 2 years... pleased with that. My goal is still to release more pictures and video content eventually. That partly depends on donations and if I can get an effective advertising system going. I will put time into that. At some point this site will become www.markhowitt.com too.

So yeah... you could say all that sounds pretty positive, upbeat... maybe even boastful. There are still plenty of challenges in my life for sure. I know I am far from perfect. But I promise you this... there is much more to come.

Thank you for your support and I hope everyone reading this continues to reach their goals!

Mark Howitt

Buy To Let

Due to the vendor being slow, apparently the expected date of completion is now mid July. I will aim to get it done faster, if it is done at all.

Shell

Just found out that my father, with over 40 years shares experience, bought Shell right at the low yesterday... by setting a limit order. Bit lucky but he got a good price. Shell are good value at these levels.

Shares Can Make You Rich

Most people don’t have a clue about money. There are millions of people in the UK and all around the world whose cash sits in bank accounts earning no interest at all. That’s right, no interest at all. Banks like HSBC will charge you around 18% for going overdrawn. So if you want to borrow money from them that’s the rate they want... but they will give you nothing.

There is another way. You can invest in shares.

Investing in shares means owning a small amount of a company. Instead of just letting HSBC borrow your money you can own part of HSBC. If you research this, you will find that that top bosses will have LARGE numbers of shares in the companies that they work for. And at times they will use more of their MASSIVE salaries to buy EVEN MORE SHARES.

So you can see here that owning shares is something that really rich people do, millionaires. But you can do this too! You probably need at least a thousand pounds that you can invest for at least one year. That’s the bare minimum, ideally you should invest for longer and with more. But if you have that amount I recommend you go for it.

"What do I think of the Chris Oil/ShareProphets DRAMA!?"

Blasting this one out just as the market opens...

Been v busy over the past month but I'm spending some time writing this one for fun.

There's been a lot of drama over at ShareProphets about Chris Oil 'abusing the market' by reportedly tweeting that a stock is a BUY... while SELLING!

Haven't spent a massive amount of time researching this, but let's assume that's true.

Now... is this... right or wrong? Good or bad?

I have to say that you SHOULDN'T make investment decisions on the basis of a tweet. You should do fundamental analysis of the share and in my view aim to make a good long term investment. A tweet is almost meaningless really. Remember that everyone is doing what they think is best for themselves. You have to take responsibility for the investment decisions you make.

I also have to say though TWEETING THAT A STOCK IS A BUY AND SELLING IS PRETTY BAD.

I've never done that and never will. Personally I avoid AIM stocks anyway as they're mostly too risky.

But what else can I say... looking at the whole share investing and share writing picture?

Chris Oil rang me up a few months ago and we had an interesting conversation about oil. I think he knows his stuff there. One of my most recent share purchase has been Royal Dutch Shell. I do believe that over time oil prices will rise, and Shell should be in good position to exploit that. Decent yield and good PE ratio too. The shares are still worth a buy at this price- my father thinks so too and I'm trying to convince him to buy more despite the fact that he "has a lot of Shell already."

How much did Chris Oil get paid for writing at ShareProphets?

Nothing.

I don't think he really needed/needs the money that much. I have the feeling he likes writing anyway. I encouraged him to set up his own blogspot.

I also have to say though... when I was writing for another website I'm not even going to name he asked me to not write articles so that his articles would appear at the top of the webpage. I didn't do that and found it quite... shocking.

I don't know man... I guess the drama will be good for ShareProphets viewing figures. Anyway, back to more money making for me!

Looking to Buy! Your Candidates Please! (My Full Comments)

Thread is here http://boards.fool.co.uk/looking-to-buy-your-candidates-please-13197188.aspx?sort=whole#13200205

Good morning all,

I've got the money to buy some more HYP shares now. Looking around for candidates, the only one I've seen that is potentially close that I like now is BLT. I was thinking of buying that at 1416p recently but couldn't because investing money when you know VERY little about the company is not something I do! I know more about it now and would probably buy if it came down to around that level.

Anyway I'm interested in your potential candidates for buying now! The main consideration for me is... that the share price goes UP and I'm paid a nice dividend. In terms of 'diversification' people would def say that I am over exposed to financial shares... and I also have quite a lot in GSK and BP. More than HYP purists would like. But being a share investor for over 10 years now, and having written share articles for the past year... it hits home to me that all matters is how much you make (overall, taking both yield and capital rise into account.) I don't think any of the shares I currently own are at 'buy' prices now, so candidates will probably not be 'main' shares...

Another thing that's hit home to me lately is just how much better shares are than cash as long as you can keep the money in shares for at least a year! Over the past 18 months I've been putting much more of my cash into shares.

I'm still long term buy and hold and haven't sold any shares in over 8 years.

So I'm ready to hear your suggestions... details of what you think of the companies and their 'strategic plan' will be good too! Thanks!

Thanks again for reply.

Please bear in mind that I am a long term buy and hold investor. I have not sold for over 8 years and that strategy is set to continue.

Instinctively at the moment of all the shares (and one investment trust) that I have looked at none look to be great value. However I think it is fine to put shares on a watchlist and then buy them if/when the time is right. At the moment I have BLT and Royal Dutch Shell on my watchlist. I am also currently looking at BlackRockWorld Mining Trust on my father's advice. Don't know whether this will be on my watchlist properly but looks quite interesting. Long term I think mining shares will do quite well.

With long term high yield shares it's all about buying the right company at the right price... then holding. Often silly fears that the market throws up can lead to a buying opportunity.

Thanks all for replies.

If you check out my blog and articles etc you will have seen what shares I have... but have copied and pasted here for your benefit.

BP. LSE
BATS LSE
GSK LSE
SBRY LSE
SSE

HSBA LSE
TSB LSE

BNC LSE
9813 LSE
BP. LSE
BT.A LSE
LGEN
LLOY LSE
NG. LSE
RMG LSE
SBRY LSE
SSE LSE
UU. LSE

This is the vast majority of my shares but I also have Centrica and a LGEN all share ftse tracker...

I do like these boards because they get my mind thinking.

In some ways my approach IS HYP. Fool got me onto it really. I do long term buy and hold (haven't sold in over 8 years) and judge share selection mainly on FTSE 100 shares with a good yield and low PE.

At the end of the day though I don't TOTALLY believe in 'strategic ignorance' and over the past say 2 years I have been watching the prices and charts more aiming to get in at a good price when buying a share.

Because with shares all that matters to ME is how much money I make. I think of money as kind of like a score in a computer game really. I'm not a consumerist person but I do like getting more in a kind of high score way. There's no point getting a share which looks like it has a low PE and a high yield... if that yield is cut the profits drop and the prices go down. I have made that mistake in the past to an extent with LLOY and SBRY.

But overall I think getting a share with a low PE and a high yield is USUALLY a good way of making money in the long run!

OK time to blast out a quick reply...

The 'for your benefit' bit was meant as a jovial remark :)

I've thought about this more...

It's interesting to see how a lot of people said... "But what shares do you have now??"

Here's reply I sent to someone who LIKED MY POST.

"I actually have more to add aka... it doesn't MATTER MUCH what shares you currently have... what matters is the TOTAL RETURN of the shares you buy now make in the future."

That's all that actually matters now in terms of my decision.

I know a lot of people like to have 'diversification'. AKA SPREADING THE RISK. And that's fine if that's what they need/want.

But what matters to me is HOW MUCH MONEY I MAKE.

If I already have a lot of a share... but I believe it will go up and it does go up it would be the right decision to buy more of that share at the right price before it goes up... for me anyway. And I would suggest it would be to anyone who... LIKES MAKING MORE MONEY :).

Anyway may publish my other replies to this thread along with selected quotes on my blog because it's interesting thanks all for reading and replying!

Buy to Let Property

Good morning all,

My family and I are in the process of buying a buy to let house. It will probably be bought by the end of May 2015.

The process is interesting to me, but also annoying. My parents are (potentially) paying £124,000 for a new build terrace house in Huddersfield. It has its own car parking space and decent garden, and is good condition but it is still too much for a buy to let I think. There are many places in Huddersfield we could have got cheaper, and a LOT more in South Yorkshire we could have got cheaper.


They will be doing buy to let for at least a few years. Personally if we (the family) got a good income from it I would like to keep it a buy to let for a long time. The thing that frustrates me is that my dad is a decent share investor and probably could have made money by at least keeping the money in shares but he's buying this house. Buying a house is a lot more hassle than buying shares!

The only reason I would sell the house is if I felt I could make more money with the money in shares... but again selling a house is a hassle!

Anyway I'm here for your advice please :)

Like I say the property will probably be bought near the end of May. Survey is done offer has been agreed etc. My father is getting the money together and the vendor is moving into a bungalow that is going through probate.

What kind of things should I subtly say to my father to make sure the vendor leaves the house in as good a condition as possible?

In my mind, the key thing is getting a tenant who will pay the rent and not cause trouble/damage the property. Personally I would want the tenant there long term- my father is coming round to that way of thinking having talked to another local buy to let friend investor. He is worried about Labour getting in and creating new tenancy laws- another reason not to vote for them. What do you think?

Any other advice on starting with buy to let would be great. We've done quite a bit of research, just a case of doing the best thing in practice now. Thanks for your help!