"Chris and Clem Meet Up
- Friday 7th. August 2020"

"Chris and Clem's Story So Far"

It is now two weeks since Chris and Clem had their marathon "tete a tete"

That three and a half hour get-together sowed the seeds of a modern-day master-apprentice relationship.

Chris just happened to mention that he worked as a engineer, on contract, and that he had no company pension to fall back on and knew that he had to start providing something for his retirement.

He was now 32 years-young and in terms of contributing to his retirement years, he was already 10+ years behind his contemporaries.  He knew he had to start taking action.

Furthermore, because of the Corona pandemic, this wasn't the best of times. But it made Chris think.

He was one of the lucky ones.  As a non-staff employee he had managed to keep his job throughout the lockdown - albeit having to work from home and on greatly reduced hours. 

Now things were beginning to pick up slightly, it started to make Chris think about his future.  He had a young family.  And a mortgage - but thankfully not a massive one. He and his family survived.

This had, for the time being, started to become a regular Friday night chat. As things stood right now, Chris had acted on the advice given to him and he set up a Self Invested Personal Pension (SIPP) and with a modest lump sum to open his account Chris had already started to trade.

"Chris Reveals To Clem The Stock
That He Bought Last Week"

The previous week Chris had indicated to his old friend that he had duly chosen a SIPP provider from the list that they talked about and that he had already bought his first company shares, fully intending for this to be the start of something very special for him.

"OK" said Chris' old friend, "what is this company you have invested three grand into?"

"Well," replied Chris "with all this turmoil to do with Covid and the economy taking a turn for the worse, I thought there were dozens of bargains to invest in."

"As I mentioned to you last week, I have drawn up a short-list of UK companies to invest in - for the long term"

"And the company I pumped three grand into last week was ..."

"... can we have a drum-roll please?"

"Come on" said Clem, "get on with it"

"BT Group!" Chris proudly replied.

"BT Group?  Why them?"

"Like most company shares, they have taken a bit of a hammering during the pandemic"

"But they are basically a sound company.  A giant in their field. A big reason for their fall during Covid has been the loss of sports revenue.  But that is now slowly coming back."

"I thought they would be a good first buy for my portfolio. An ideal recovery play."

"Hmmm," thought Clem out loud, "You thought did you?"

"Chris Confides in Clem His Plan"

"Yes" said Chris, "I did give it careful thought.  And BT was not the only company that I now have my eye on"

"Oh" replied Clem sarcastically, "what other gems have you dug up?"

"Don't be like that Clem" Chris meekly replied "I'm a learner at all this.  I know I won't get it spot on every time. Bit I've got the bug now and I want to learn"

Clem apologetically said, "Sorry Chris.  I don't mean to be too critical.  I just don't want you to get your pinkies burned"

"I'll try very hard not to do that.  I will only ever stick to large companies with what Warren Buffett says have an 'Economic Moat.'  In fact my initial reading is going to be all things Warren Buffett"

"Good for you" Clem said, " Now then, what shares are in your 'short list' as you call them?"

Chris pulled out of his pocket a grubby piece of paper with all of his 'potential' buys.

Take a quick look below:

"Like I said" repeated Chris, "this is just a 'short list' of companies that I want to put on my watch list."

"The top part of the list are all FTSE-100 companies and the list underneath are a mixture of FTSE-100 and others - mainly lower cap shares."

"I intend to, one at a time, take a closer look at all the shares on the list, and, of course, add to it and possibly delete a few."

"Clem Has Some Tough Love For Chris"

Clem butted in on Chris, with the comment: "I'm glad you just said you planned on taking a closer look because at first sight it looks like you have just stuck a pin into a newspaper."

"Whoa" retorted Chris "we're not gonna fall out over this are we?"

"No, I didn't stick a pin into a newspaper, I picked on what I thought were good, solid companies that have, or once had, what Warren Buffett terms an Economic Moat."

"That's OK" replied old Clem, "I just don't want to see you making fundamental errors."

"You must really do your own due diligence. And in that respect, here's a vital tip for you."

"Don't listen to, or read about tips."

"Except if they come from me!"

"I won't be giving you any specific share tips, I'm not qualitifed to do that. But I am qualified (by experience) to steer you away from any bogus claims by newspaper columnists and the like.  So, don't even read them."

"Remember also what Warren Buffett has repeatedly said: 'Over a lifetime you probably only need to get interested in perhaps 20 to 30 companies'. Now go away and starting with just one of those companies dig deep into any information you can find and cofirm that it is indeed good enough to be on your short list"

"And finally, I realise that money must be tight in your house, so start to think about ways of saving money so that you can comfortably salt away that £200 every month - or maybe 'up' it to £250 or even £300"

"Let's for now, meet up again next Friday night to make sure you are on the right track, and then maybe every two weeks after that.  After all, we used to talk about football and rubgy and now our only topic of conversation is saving for retirement."

"I'd like it if we got back to the old times a little as well."

"OK" said Chris, "I will do some homework on Associated British Foods.  I like the sound of them because they own Primark, but as you suggested, I'll see you here, same time, next week. Auf wiedersehen."

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