G’day,

Thought as a new member I’d do a quick post to introduce myself. I’ve been actively trading / investing since about 2008, and about 18 months ago (at 46) I became what I call ‘semi-retired’ and investing is now my primary income. I consider myself a very conservative and I think ‘value-based’ investor. I have been predominantly focused on reliable income producing shares, preferably via franked dividends, so banks, resource companies and telecommunications. I have dabbled in other more ‘speculative’ stocks with mixed results. Now, with more time to focus, I’ve expanded my portfolios into the US and Europe with a focus on the same types of companies with pretty good results so far. I’ve started looking at Canada and I want to investigate Japan. I have a SMSF in addition to my private portfolios.

I don’t consider myself a particularly sophisticated investor with deep dives into company financials etc. like some of the great posts I’ve seen here already, but it is a skillset that I am now looking to develop, along with other analysis metrics like ‘Rule of 40’. I am here to learn and broaden my perspective on the market to hopefully identify additional quality stocks. In the couple of days I’ve been playing on the site I’ve already identified two potential stocks of interest, so thanks in advance.

I’m looking forward to interacting on the site. A lot of the stocks I will have on my portfolio here are ones I also hold in real life, and for some of them I will post why I like them in due course. Cheers, Tom