I had been interested in investing in the Share Market for many years. I began by attending many courses at colleges and the Australian Stock Exchange to try and learn more about making informed decisions when investing in shares. After all these courses I felt I lacked the ability to make these decisions and the main message I felt I was receiving was "find a good, reliable stock broker and follow his advice". In 1994 I discovered and read a book called The Beardstown Ladies Common Sense Investment Guide. This book and an article on a Melbourne investment club in a magazine called Personal Investment (Australia) encouraged me and provided me with a framework to start this investment club.
I began to have informal meetings with anyone
who showed the slightest bit of interest in the idea of an investment club.
When it came time to form our partnership and pay our money ($150 initial fee
and $50 per month), we had a 70% dropout. I did not give up and continued to
recruit new prospective members.
In February 1996 we had fourteen ladies who signed the
partnership agreement and we began.
OUR CLUB TODAY28th March 2007 |
Our members have included a couple of part-time teachers and nurses, several helping to run family businesses, a property manager, a couple of social workers, an American lawyer now running a farm in Australia, a jeweller and home engineers (fancy name for mothers running homes). One member travels from Toowoomba and another from Brisbane to attend meetings. We began with a very limited knowledge of investing in the stock market. Our portfolio had averaged an annualised return of 14.9% in the first 5 years of operation but, in the next 4 years that return dropped with the market and over the last 11 years we have achieved a 13% annualised return. We are pleased to still be in the positive and we are learning every day and hope to improve this return.
We do not have any help from any brokers and make all our own investment decisions. So any mistakes we make are our own.
The club has been a launching pad for all members to begin investing in their own right and several members have now formed a club that invests in the USA. Several LIPS members have also ventured into other forms of investment such as property.
Designed & Maintained by Kerrie Brown.
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