Comments on: Should You Invest in Visa? A 5 Month Update

By: Festival of Frugality No. 139: The Michael Phelps Edition | Our Fourpence Worth

Tue, 19 Aug 2008 13:09:52 +0000

[...] Kevin presents Should You Invest in Visa? A 5 Month Update. [...]

By: Kevin

Kevin — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 00:39:58 +0000

@Casey: I see. Good stuff.

@FP: I understand the philosophy at buying at a decent margin of safety. Nonetheless, I only want a small portion of our portfolio being run by an amateur (me). So once it gets big enough, I may switch 5% or so to that task and try to follow in Buffett’s steps.

By: Financial Planner

Financial Planner — Sun, 17 Aug 2008 23:59:05 +0000

I’m buying individual stocks and will continue to do so. The investment cost isn’t that large ($7) if you are confident that a stock is underpriced. That said, I don’t like Visa and didn’t last March either… I agree with you on that.

By: Casey

Casey — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 01:39:32 +0000

We are currently holding both because they represent a very small portion of our invested money. Planning to ride out Visa long-term and see what happens. The company stock I’m not sure about because we just started participating in their ESPP, and I’m concerned about exactly what you mention, becoming too heavily invested in his company.

By: Kevin

Kevin — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 00:20:21 +0000

@Casey: Thanks for the insight. Are you holding on to both stocks, or selling?

Many people say having a large portion of your investments in your employer is asking for disaster. If the company goes under or your husband loses his job, the stocks could be worthless. Double whammy. (Not saying you have a majority of your investments in it, just some advice.)

By: Casey

Casey — Fri, 15 Aug 2008 17:52:44 +0000

Admittedly, buying Visa didn’t make much sense for us either, but it’s IPO was on the same day as the IPO for the company my husband works for (and we were planning on buying some of that stock, CardioNet). So, I read the prospectus and thought about it and since the brokerage account we had opened with USAA was giving us a bunch of free trades we went ahead and bought a couple shares.

Certainly isn’t doing as well as the CardioNet stock which has nearly doubled in the past 5 months, but can’t complain. Am I dang lucky that the outcome was positive since I went more with gut feelings than actual knowledge? Hell yes!