Hi team!

I'm Mark and I've finally taken the plunge on a premium membership after lurking for quite some time.

I'm originally from South Africa but have been living in Melbourne for the last 4 years (and loving it!) so part of the reason for me joining up is to continue learning about the Australian market.

A CA by qualification, I consider myself fortunate/unfortunate to have spent almost a decade in Big 4 audit where I was lucky enough to be exposed to a range of industries and entities of every size and level of complexity. My real passion lies in growing businesses - I've been buying and selling stuff on the internet from the age of 14 and it'd be fair to say my investing 'strategy' incorporates a fairly heavy tech bias; Some time in the venture capital world has not helped said bias at all, either. The Strawman community is my last resort - please fix me!

Now that I've escaped the Big 4 and have a little more time and cash flow at my disposal I'm really looking forward to dipping more than a toe into some value investing.

I'd consider my strengths to be a very healthy understanding of financial reporting + risk analysis and - sadly - a large degree of skepticism around the reliability of "audited" financial statements. (Australia has many wonderful attributes; audit quality is certainly not one of them). I like to think I've become adept at reading between the lines, so to speak.

My weaknesses include being waaaaay too impulsive. Everything sounds exciting to me and I've learned some expensive lessons as a result. Again, something I'm learning to recognise and deal with better each day.

Here's hoping I can add some value along the way but plan is to sit back and absorb as much information as possible for a while first.

See you around the straws.

M

I have just joined after listening to Andrew on Equity Story and thinking....this guy is totally contrarian to me, maybe I should shut up and listen.

I am getting my WA Seniors card in January so am an old fart, but have a diametrically opposed view to the hold and divvy viewpoint of many of my peers. I have only so many more years to live so why not be bold. My philosophy is pretty simple, you either really like a share so buy and hold, or you hate it or don't believe it has any more short term puff, so sell, sell, sell. I get bored with slow movers and will dump them. I guess I must be like those young people in their 20s!

Started trading stocks in late 90s, been through a lot of ups and downs, during COVID started following Equity Story which helped me to make some very good returns, not necessarily in what they tipped, but more the theory of buying and selling. During COVID was like shooting fish in a barrel, but post COVID was horrible, so left them and renovated two houses which have just been sold (WA prices are still strong). Back with them now mainly to get some forward view of the expected upturn and with any hope some more barrel/fish/shooting.

I am a Chartered Mechanical Engineer, worked in a family business, had my own businesses, run other people's businesses, done an MBO (and made a great return), run a technology company as MD for a mad inventor and taken it on to ASX and from being worth less than nothing to $100m before retiring at 49 (well at least for 6 years). Have had a great career in a lot of different areas.

During the float on the ASX process, learnt a lot about how brokers work for you and against you, so can see though some of the games (not all). I'm a numbers guy so generally don't buy stocks over $5 as its all about the opportunity to make a reasonable %. Currently re-building my portfolio back to probably about 20 - 25 stocks (only about 7 just now) and getting the cash I put in to the Renos out of my wife's very sticky hands to return to CMC!

I have a large holding in a private company that supplies duplex and stainless steel pipe and weld flanges so know a bit about how to build Lithium plants.

Happy to help, life's been good to me so giving back.

Welcome all, and thanks for sharing. I love reading these introductions.

So great to have such an engaged community. And the diversity in everything (be that age, experience, background, or whatever) is a huge strength.

Looking forward to a productive year.

Hi everyone,

First,  I will point out that I never intended my username  MissPiggyBank to go public. So embarrassing! I tried to change it but couldn’t so I’m stuck with it and will try to embrace it hence the pic of a diamond crusted piggy bank to add a splash of style and sophistication.

I don’t usually participate on discussion boards, I’m one of those people who are happy to follow along in the background enjoying everyone else’s intelligent conversation.

I’ve been interested in share market investing now for almost 10 years and have a small portfolio which to be honest I built it from watching and listening to the experts on Foxtel’s now defunct ‘Your Money’ program. Now I listen to podcasts i.e. The Call (Ausbiz), The Motley Fool and Baby Giants. The catalyst for my leap into creating my own small portfolio came when I was frustrated with the measly interest rates the banks offer and decided that I would be far better off buying shares in a bank then putting my money into a term deposit. My strategy has worked and I have managed to maintain a nice portfolio, although there have been some doozies, not mentioned the ups and downs. I’m still very much a rookie and am learning new things all the time.

My reason for joining The Strawman Investment Club is so that I can step up my knowledge but also learn from like-minded investors and find new investment ideas. I like Andrew’s investment style. I got a sense of it through listening to The Call podcast when he was a guest and then when he became Scott Phillips’s new side kick on the Motley Fool podcast. I like how Andrew unpacks various investing scenarios in an easy-to-understand way, plus he has a unique ability to be able to pull out a well-timed quote, always with humour!

It is possible that I am in a minority group in the club… I am closer to my sixties than fifties, became a mother later in life, my teenage son thinks investing is gambling, I work full time on a low-income wage, studying part time  (Fine Arts), like Andrew I am a renter (likely to be lifetime renter), and I am also single (divorced 5 years ago), so it’s even more important that I make my money work for me. That’s pretty much why I’ve decided to join The Strawman investment club.

Look forward to getting to know everyone.

Miss Piggy Bank aka

Sandra (Sandy)