Stocks to Own for a Lifetime: Identifying Industry Leaders Provides the Conviction Required to Buy Stocks We Are Willing to Hold for Decades

Abstract

I have asserted that investing is iterative; investing can also be inspired by literature. Author Annie Dillard in her book, The Writing Life , offers the following advice to those who wish to create on the page: “Write as if you were dying.”¹ What if we invested the same way? If like the 80-year old bond scion whose portfolio was 100 percent allocated to stocks, we invested as though our time horizon were infinite? If we bought stocks to own for a lifetime and beyond? Stocks in companies that are durable, that will stand up to long-term scrutiny. If we own only the best stocks in each sector or industry—lifetime stocks—would they not also be suitable investments for achieving our financial goals?