Stop the Presses: Investment club yields lively debates, profits

Dianne Elizabeth is president and publisher of Springfield Business Journal.

When a friend of mine mentioned her investment club, I asked for a chance to visit and get involved. I wanted to learn more about investing in stocks, and investing in the stock market is a kind of legalized gambling that I really enjoy. Beyond all reason, I still believe I have some control.

A year and a half later, I'm a full-fledged member of HOWS (Hillbillies On Wall Street). Our stated mission is to make money and have fun, or have fun and make money. I can't remember which comes first, but whichever way, it's working.

I was pleasantly surprised that the cost to "buy into" the club's portfolio was my choice. We, however, strictly adhere to a $100 per month additional investment for each member. We pay whether we attend or not. I have come to consider this amount as a kind of monthly savings, with entertainment thrown in as a bonus. Of course, we acknowledge that we don't invest in stocks funds that we cannot afford to lose. I'll admit that it's more entertaining and exciting for me in the months when we realize gains.

We are fortunate to have a member who is a technical wizard, who does our bookkeeping and keeps track of everything for us. We'd be in trouble without him.

One evening a month, this small group meets for dinner, discussion of the stock market's movement, the national economy, the local economy, our club portfolio, our personal investment experiences, and whatever else floats in our soup bowls.

I look forward to our meetings, and when something comes up or I'm out of town, I really miss it.

With a diverse group of men and women local professionals, businesspeople (a pair of lawyers keep the debates rolling) and a couple of retired folks our topics are wide ranging. We don't have a stockbroker in the club. We pick our own stocks, heed our own wisdom and experience, and trade at a deep discount.

I've heard some criticism of investment clubs as being too social, and ours would certainly fall into the convivial category. We go to bed happy, often with one (or two) glasses of wine under our belts.

After a two- or three-year period of falling market conditions, we're extraordinarily pleased with ourselves and our approximately 22 percent increase in portfolio value over the past year. It helps, too, that our stock mix leans noticeably toward public companies with their headquarters in the Ozarks.

Have I learned? Absolutely. After a year of soaking up the information brought by other members of the club to the meetings, I am eager to contribute myself. It will be my turn soon to do some real research. It will also be satisfying to bring a company to the club's attention that could make us all some money.

Then we would have even more fun.

Springfield in Inc.'s top 25

Leafing through the March issue of Inc., I scanned the list of the top 25 medium metro areas for doing business in America and was surprised and delighted to see Springfield, Mo., on the list at No. 15.

When I moved to Springfield in 1979 and then started Springfield Business Journal in 1980, Springfield wasn't even on the radar screen, let alone considered a "medium metro area." We've come a long way in the last 25 years.

Inc. cites growth in the Midwest as being fueled by escapees from the high-cost, densely populated cities on both coasts. It also credits the Internet for expansion in the country's heartland. The list ranked "good business cities" the size of the Springfield area, with job bases ranging from 150,000 to 450,000.

The hartland's "traditional sense of isolation from the centers of action" has been overcome by digital technology, according to the article. "It's now not about being remote, but choosing to live in a place that makes sense from a personal point of view."

Good cost structures and devoted entrepreneurs are making Midwest areas like Springfield "prominent centers in the rapidly shifting geography of America's business." This we knew all along.

Inc.'s 2004 top cities were selected from three-month rolling averages of U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics state and area unadjusted employment data reported January 1993 to September 2003. www.Inc.com carries the full growth and balance indexes for all the regions cited.