I've worked for 32 years in and on my business. It's been a great ride, lots of ups and downs, lots of success and plenty of failure. After a few life changing events, I realized that it wasn't about the money any more and I sold my shares.
I've been a business owner and partner the entire time. The buyout will take 5 years and I currently have an active role in the transition, so retirement is still 5 years or more away.
I joined the business in 1982 - with revenue at $1M per year. In fiscal 2013 our sales reached $22,000,000. Many people would say that I'm successful, especially in the very competitive printing industry.
But in the end, there comes a time to sell your business and let a new generation run with it (no it wasn't my children).
By the time I'm done, I will have significant investable assets beyond my homes. Now comes the hard part. How do I invest it when the stock market has had the best run ever and has reached new highs? Many people are moving cash to the sidelines at a time when I have money to invest.
This is money that I won't need for a while, so my investment horizon is as long as 15 years before I'll need the money to live on.
I've done a little saving and investing over the years, but mostly in my retirement account. In 2009 I decided to buy individual stocks rather than mutual funds and I've done very well. However, I think almost anyone could have done well since 2009. With the markets at all time highs, some recent acquisitions like JP Morgan (JPM) and Metlife (MET) haven't done very well (in the past 2 weeks). Others like Apple (AAPL), Bell (BCE), Scotiabank (BNS), TD Bank (TD), Bank of Montreal (BMO), Manulife (MFC), Bell Canada and Royal Bank (RY) have done very well. There's a couple of REITs that have gone sideways or down a little.
So now what? My investment style would be first value investor, second buyer of companies that I can understand and finally buy and hold. I rarely, if ever, sell a stock unless the long term prospects for the company have changed.
My investment style in the past was very conservative, since all of my wealth was in the business - I didn't want any risk with my retirement money. As I got older, I have slowly taken on more risk and would now classify myself as an investor - willing to ride the ups and downs for longer term gains.
In the past 5 years, I've averaged 11% compounded annually on my portfolio. I am happy to hold onto dividend payers, but I prefer dividend growers. I don't have the same confidence moving forward that I can continue at this rate, but would be happy with 8%.
So here's my plan. First, don't rush. I've simply deposited the money and I'm deciding what to do. I've moved some of my Canadian investments into US investments because I'm concerned about the CDN$.
I like JP Morgan and MetLife because I've done well with Canadian banks and insurance, but the multiples are higher than these two and I don't need more Canadian banks. I also like Qualcomm (QCOM) because I believe that there are legs to the mobile business and Qualcomm sells to both Apple and Android platforms. And finally, I like real estate and I've found a REIT that operates in Germany, Dundee International Reit (DI.UN). I've decided to purchase equal amounts of these 4 companies and then wait 3 - 6 months to evaluate my options.
I will keep you posted on my next steps. Any suggestions are appreciated.
Disclosure: I am long BNS, RY, TD, BMO, CM, BCE, MFC, DUNDF, DRETF, CJREF. I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it. I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.