BI > NOVEMBER 2003

Following Your Thumb

Green Thumbs in the Heart of Illinois

"Anybody can do 'this.' We'll show you how."

Better Investing. The discovery and strategic long-term ownership of Better Companies at Better Prices is NAIC's time-honored campaign. Our community has long relied on champions in the field to deliver the message. Our volunteer champions have but one mission -- to tell as many people as possible that they're invited to experience a lifetime of successful investing.

I spent this past weekend in Springfield, Ill., with a whole bunch of those champions, including several of the Beardstown Ladies. The December issue of Better Investing will continue our coverage of outstanding performance by investment clubs and include the Better Investing Top 50 Honor Roll. This listing of 50 clubs is generated by our annual Value Line Club Performance Survey. To qualify for the list, the club must have been in operation for a minimum of 8 years. Annualized rates of return are determined -- using ledgers, portfolio summaries and cash flow statements -- and the lifetime performance of the clubs is benchmarked against matching investments in the S&P 500 index.

Our volunteer champions have been busy in Illinois, doing their best rendition of Johnny Appleseed.

Think back to what sorts of seeds were sown in the mid-1990s as the Beardstown Ladies told us that they'd be willing to help anybody learn how to do what we do.

Think about the investment clubs that formed during that period. They learned that the most important thing is to believe that it was (and is) possible to invest regularly in quality companies. Our champions served as coaches and issued helpful consistent reminders. Price matters. Buy to hold, not to forget. Treat your portfolio like a garden. It's OK to sell a stock. When was the last time you planted a bunch of tomato plants in May and didn't come back to check in on it until September?

Seeds Germinated -- Now Growing and Glowing

Mr. Appleseed would be proud. The seeds, cast to the winds of the prairie, have become healthy young "trees."

The Better Investing 50 Honor Roll includes 12 clubs from Illinois. Several of them are about 8 years old and trace their roots directly to the Beardstown phenomenon. A number of other clubs in attendance at the Investors Fair will be 8 years old next year. A closer look revealed that another six to eight clubs would have made the Top 50 -- if only they were old enough. One of the top place winners in this year's Value Line club performance survey hails from Mason City, Ill. The Mason City Women have five successful years in the hopper and are optimistic about their future. Another club of ladies from Mt. Carroll, Ill., is 7 years old, and their nest egg would have placed 14th in this year's Honor Roll if they had been eligible.

The accompanying table speaks for itself. Note the age of the clubs and the number of all-ladies clubs. The Beardstown Ladies recently decided to take on new members for the first time in years and have added five new club partners. I asked them if I could join and they graciously and politely declined. "No offense, Mark, but I'm not sure we want the downside risk." (Grin)

Click to enlarge.

Making The Most Of Your Better Investing Experience

Example of SSG Thumbnail for Home Depot.

Our volunteer champions in the heart of Illinois beamed with pride. "I helped to mentor that club during their early days." "Those ladies attended my classes." "I started that club 10 years ago, they must have kicked out the men?"

What's the best way to maximize your experience? Discover the community of successful long-term investors that is all around you. Go to www.better-investing.org and discover the local and national opportunities that are available to you. Learn that it is possible to gauge a company's quality from its SSG thumbnail -- because it is. Our champions will show you how. Look a little closer and you'll notice that our chapter directors have green thumbs.

Mark Robertson is director of online resources and senior contributing editor for BetterInvesting. He serves as a member of BetterInvesting Magazine's Editorial Advisory & Securities Review Committee. Mark can be reached at Robertson_Mark@comcast.net.