Ben Stein - Yes, You Can Supercharge Your Portfolio!: Six Steps for Investing Success in the 21st Century

Also by Ben Stein

HOW SUCCESSFUL PEOPLE WIN: Using Bunkhouse Logic
to Get What You Want in Life

HOW TO RUIN YOUR FINANCIAL LIFE

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LIFE (hardcover)

(also available as an audio book)

HOW TO RUIN YOUR LOVE LIFE

BEN STEIN AND PHIL D E MUTH

NEW BEGINNINGS PRESS
Carlsbad, California

Copyright 2008 by Ben Stein and Phil DeMuth

Published by: New Beginnings Press, Carlsbad, California

Distributed in the United States by: Hay House, Inc.: www.hayhouse.com Distributed in Australia by: Hay House Australia Pty. Ltd.: www.hayhouse.com.au Distributed in the United Kingdom by: Hay House UK, Ltd.: www.hayhouse.co.uk Distributed in the Republic of South Africa by: Hay House SA (Pty), Ltd. www.hayhouse.co.za Distributed in Canada by: Raincoast: www.raincoast.com Distributed in India by: Hay House Publishers India: www.hayhouse.co.in

Editorial supervision: Jill Kramer Design: Tricia Breidenthal

In July 2003, Ben Stein (one of your authors) was invited on Jimmy Kimmel Live to compete in a stock market portfolio grudge match with Kimmels own Tad (Big Tad) Newcomb. The idea was that each of them would carefully select five stocks, and then they would see whose portfolio performed better.

In some ways, it was not really a fair fight. Ben Stein knows an enormous amount about finance, while Tad is not what youd call a deep thinker in this department. More than a few pounds overweight, Tad spends his days watching TV. His self-professed life goal is to get a girl to have sex with me. Still, The Wall Street Journal has routinely shown portfolios created by throwing darts that made monkeys out of Wall Streets best and brightest.

These were Bens and Tads picks:

Bens List

Templeton Emerging Markets Income Fund, Inc. (ticker: TEI)

Cohen & Steers Realty Majors (ICF)

S&P Depository Receipts (SPY)

Diamonds Trust (DIA)

Boeing (BA)

A word of explanation, so you can play along at home: The Templeton Emerging Markets Income Fund owns a basket of bonds (debt) from developing countries like India, Brazil, Russia, and so on. Cohen & Steers Realty Majors is a collection of real estate investment trusts, which are companies that own commercial real estate such as shopping centers, office buildings, hotels, and apartment buildings. The S&P Depository Receipts owns a sampling of all of the companies in the S&P 500 Index and is a proxy for tracking the performance of that stock index of Americas largest companies. The Diamonds Trust has nothing to do with a girls best friend, but instead owns the 30 blue chip stocks that compose the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Boeing is the single example of an individual stock pick on Bens list: They make airplanes.

Tads list was different:

Tads List

Playboy Enterprises, Inc. (PLA)

Krispy Kreme Doughnut Corp. (KKD)

Harley-Davidson, Inc. (HOG)

Anheuser-Busch Companies, Inc. (BUD)

TiVo, Inc. (TIVO)

Tads picks require little in the way of further explanationlike tongue sandwiches, they speak for themselves. We might say that Tad is developing an investment theme here, based on eating, drinking, and making merry. Considering the importance of the pleasure principle in human affairs, these are probably reliable bets. Notably, one of his stock picksAnheuser-Buschis also a favorite of world-class heavyweight investor Warren Buffett, although were not certain that Tad consulted Warren in making his selection (or vice versa).

Who won the competition? Ben and Tad went back on the show two months later to see whose portfolio was bigger. Heres how they fared:

Bens List

Templeton Emerging Markets Income Fund, Inc. (TEI) +4.6%