I’ve always been passionate about investing but stuck to the Boglehead philosophy—regular contributions into broad-market index funds (for me, it’s been a 50/50 split between VGS and VAS). Earlier this year (Feb), I decided to allocate about 5% of my portfolio to active investing. Thought I’d share a few reflections—both the good and the ugly.
**1. The Luck Factor:**
My active portfolio has been \~60% cash for most of this time. This was pure luck—not some brilliant market timing—and I don’t expect to repeat this in the future. Just want to be honest about that up front.
**2. Discovering My Investing Philosophy:**
I went deep down the rabbit hole trying to understand wide-moat businesses. I’ve learned *so much*—and genuinely enjoyed the process. As a product manager by day, some of these ideas bled into how I think about strategy and product differentiation. It’s wild how learning about moats and customer behavior in investing circles helped me ask better questions at work too: Why would a customer choose *this* product? Why would they stay? What makes it hard to switch?
So far, I feel I’ve identified \~20–30 businesses I’d be happy to own long-term. Still a long way to go, but the journey has been incredibly rewarding.
**3. Valuation Is Hard (Really Hard):**
This is where I’ve struggled. Finding great businesses is one thing—figuring out what price to pay is a whole other beast. Writing out assumptions can sometimes feel like mental gymnastics, and I’ve caught myself adjusting numbers to make a company seem “buyable.” This is my focus area for the next 3–6 months.
**4. The Ugly – Flipping Too Soon:**
This one hurts. I’ve bought and then sold a few stocks within a month or two because I re-ran the numbers and they suddenly looked too overvalued. I know this isn’t ideal, but I’m trying to learn from it. It’s part of the process, I guess.
**Performance vs. S&P 500 (YTD):**
I’ll post my performance below—not because it means much in such a short window, but more as a milestone marker. The real test will be 5–7 years out.
https://preview.redd.it/5zna59dgdcye1.png?width=2146&format=png&auto=webp&s=72cc278f441abd5912998f4585ecd63a922c7476
**What I’m Looking to Buy This Month**
I’m planning to initiate or add to positions in a few names that I’ve spent time researching and feel reasonably confident about—though of course, still learning and refining my valuation work. The top ones on my watchlist right now are:
* **ENTG (Entegris)**
* **LFUS (Littelfuse)**
* **IQV (IQVIA)**
* **ET (Energy Transfer)**
* **TMO (Thermo Fisher Scientific)**
Each of these ticks different boxes for me in terms of moat, role in the value chain, or long-term relevance. Not recommendations, just sharing in case anyone else is looking at them too and wants to compare notes.