Inside "BONNIEDOON" during today's heatwave.
It's hot but peaceful with just a few kangaroos outside
munching on what's left of the green grass
That's what an old friend from my New Guinea days asked me just now. Like me, he had piled into thousands of "penny dreadful" shares, only to see them become worthless paper when the mining boom came to an end in the early 1970s.
The address says it all: PO Box 187, Rabaul, New Guinea
PO Box 12, Kieta, Bougainville, New Guinea
What we lost then seems, from today's perspective, like pocket-money but was then more than a whole year's salary earned from working ten hours a day six days a week. It taught him never to buy shares again while it taught me not to treat the sharemarket like a casino but to treat investing in shares like watching paint dry or watching grass grow.
Yes, I still made far too many mistakes because the sharemarket is like life itself — nothing is certain — but despite constant ups and downs my share portfolio steadily grew while at the same time earning me a steady stream of dividends topped up by refundable franking credits.
Of course, I didn't tell him that because, even though he's a nice chap, envy is deeply ingrained in the human psyche. Instead, I just emailed him the above photo with the description, "That's my current position!"
Just between you and me, BHP ended the day at $47.22, up 74 cents.
