Closing DL

[Nigel Roberts]

Hi Stephen,

Sorry to hear you will not be able to continue HYP here – it’s a real shame. Have you any plans for the future – how about setting up your own website to continue the education in HYP and not to lose the history of all of this?

Nigel

[Scott Mitchell]

Hi Stephen,
I am also very sorry with this news.
I would have been happy to have received the monthly letter by email and saved you money on publishing and postage.
Thank you so much for your commitment over the years I have always looked forward to receiving your views and knowledge and will miss it greatly going forward.
If you decide to set something else up in due course that would be great.
Thanks again,
Scott

[Jeffrey Beranek]

I have followed the DL now for about 6 years, so it is a shame thatit has come to an end. I have built up or migrated a large portion of my portfolio to follow the HYP fairly closely and to such an extend that with a few years it will form almost a third of my retirement income (hopefully) for life. Almost as important, it has helped teach me to have a more rational, calm, disciplined and dare I say “boring” approach to the market. It is the exact opposite to most financial advice/media that is apparently driven by fear, excitement and greed. I will have to do more of my own research now on final results, etc. But I know I can probably ignore most of it apart from bottom line earnings, dividends, debt and the growth or reduction of the same. Thank you for efforts and I will certainly miss the arrival of your newsletters.

[Inaam Hussain]

Hi Stephen. I too will be sad to see the end of The Dividend Letter. Quite apart from the financial gain it has given me over the years, it’s the education and rational thinking that you have instilled that I will take with me going forward. Your principles of strategic ignorance I have applied to many aspects of my finances not just stocks. The Dividend Letter stands tall on integrity and lack of self interest, in an industry dominated by sharp salesmen and borderline criminals. I appreciated your honesty when things didn’t go to plan and your humility when things went better than expected. As Scott Mitchell has said above, and I echo the sentiment, that you have a loyal fan base who would be happy to subscribe and receive your insights via a blog, email, e-book etc, rather than lose your valuable contribution and insights to the investment education industry altogether. You are a rare breed in this industry, and it would be a shame to see it end in this fashion. On the other hand, if the time is right for you to hang up your gloves, then I fully understand and wish you all the best in whatever you decide to do next and congratulate you on a job exceedingly well done. Thank you so much

[Zena Lutrin]

Hello Stephen
Like the other posters I am sad that the DL is to close and if you were starting up elsewhere or on your own I would like to know. I have found the investment philosophy sensible and secure and the individual recommendations helpful and profitable. I will miss the monthly letter and weekly updates
Best wishes
Zena Lutrin

[Graham Watson]

Hi Stephen,

Like the other posters I am very sorry to hear about the ending of the Dividend Letter. Like Jeffrey this is forming a major component of my retirement plan and this element of it is going to be very hard to manage without your advice.
If you have any plans to keep this going on another forum please keep us informed..
Good Luck with your future plans and any thanks for your sound advice in the past.

Best Wishes

Graham

[Alison Smith]

Dear Stephen,
Very sorry to hear you are closing TDL. Is there any other way to continue? Perhaps with our happy band of HYPers paying you a yearly fee and receiving it by email? Just a thought.It has been a big help in managing not only mine but most of my family’s finances.I love strategic ignorance and shan’t be continuing with Southbank Research as reading their newsletters is just too stressful.
All the best for the future.
Alison

[Vincent Haines]

Hi Stephen

I echo the comments and sentiments expressed by other members above – thank you and best wishes.

Although disappointed, I have suspected for many months that TDL would end thus – a victim of its own success!

I am more than disappointed, and very surprised, however, that the expected Annual Review for 2018 was not included in this final issue!!? You/‘they’ at least owe us that. Any chance?

VH

[John Willan]

Dear Stephen

I think if you’re very lucky and prepared to listen you’ll meet a “few” sensible people in life covering important topics such as personal finance, I can and often do say you are one of those people and I am glad to have found you many years ago on the “Value” forum.

I do hope as mentioned above this is not “the end” but the beginning of a new opportunity.

Thank you for all your help and I wish you every success for the future.

Kindest regards

John

[Philip Smith]

Dear Stephen,
I am shocked and very disappointed. You have transformed my investing understanding and, although I had to earn the money to begin with, I credit you with facilitating my early retirement at 47 and possibly avoiding a nervous breakdown…please don’t underestimate the value of your work. I will also miss the wordplay, sarcasm and incisive comment. If you have an inclination to continue I will happily hand over a subscription until you finally join the brokerage in the sky. Thank you for the last 10 years. Phil (please email me if you intend to continue: [email protected])

[Ian Buckle]

Stephen can be found on High Yield Portfolios on lemonfool.co.uk

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewforum.php?f=15

https://www.lemonfool.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=15869

I believe Stephen is PYAD.

[Vincent Haines]

In addition to what I said above, the absence of a share selection means that this final offering is not an ‘Issue’ of TDL at all. Also, a ‘multi-selection’ of shares in order to complete the final HYP would not be too much to ask. We are being short-changed here, with this non-existent ‘Final Issue’.

[Alan Rogers]

Hi SB.

TDL is too important to close, but there it is.

One way of discerning the level of cynicism in the system is to take care to notice the extent to which dependable solid honest things of real value to people in their lives are somehow caused to be made unavailable by those terribly sensible-sounding people with decision power. They invariably go for their jugular if cynicism is the real mode, the honourable course actually being to strongly promote such things, not knife them and dump them in an alley.

I am unaware of any evidence that shows that the organisation tried to sell TDL widely, if you were me then you were lucky to be aware of its existence at all thanks to them so how could new people come to know, let alone subscribe as they would have done in droves if they had.

SB is a provider of advice in the plainest and most transparent form that cannot but aim to help those who are not knowledgeable which means the deisign of the service is unquestionably self-anchored in integrity and professionalism – no story-telling or manipulation of fears.

Of course in a bad economy things might go wrong, but SB is a clarion over that and nobody should say that they took any risks without fully opened eyes and that they wanted to take those risks because they were managed in the most honourable and open way by the helmsman.

May I use a literary metaphor to describe this even more cynical position than expected? In this kind of real world Tom Brown doesn’t actually defeat Flashman, it is the reverse, but Flashman writes the story just as we know it and controls things away from our vision whilst pulling the strings of the deceased and stuffed Tom Brown mouthing all the comfort of the story whilst working the mugs over in the byways. This is a symptom of the same mentality.

I think Southbank Research is in that world SB warned us about from the beginning – they all want the investor to believe he should play the game of chasing growth, because that’s the game that the Market and it’s compliant commentators get the moast for themselves from playing. Its where they want to encouter you, so keeping them away from SB type solutions is how they do it.

Southbank Research could have promoted TDL and given the necessary editotial commitment and column inches over to organs such as Money Week with explanations as to why a huge number of people who are simply unaware would; in all candour and honesty: be best advised to follow the path SB points down, but they do not wish to be involved in giving them this advice – so guess what happens next.

I saw SB at the Money Week Conference some years ago and it was plain to me that compared to the general huffing and puffing and sensationalising and people trying to make personality cults of themselves his steady hand and common sense rather exposed it for what it was, albeit inadvertently.

TDL is a thing of great value to me personally, because without the help it gave my wife and I we would have been struggling and now we are not – that’s the difference. I am willing to bet a lot that many subscribers can say the same.

Frankly I have no idea where to turn and neither have any of us SB

If you could promote your service it would help enormous numbers of people to get away from greater financial danger towards something balanced and sensible that would be their salvation; not absolutely as their of course beacause there are no guarantees, but by comparison.

SB don’t go, please, think again, because you could represent what is a really important movement; ending up at a national scale: towards the well-being of your fellow men and women.

It is hard to see how Bill Bonner would allow this to have happened, if indeed he has influence.

Warmest Regards and Felicitaions.

Pete Rogers

[Robert Farley]

Dear Stephen
I echo all the thoughts of the members, other than those of Mr Haines. I have gained so much from your no nonsense style of investing, and your HYP principles. I have to say the simplest of which to learn was Strategic Ignorance, which for some reason came peculiarly easy to me. I will certainly miss the work you put into reviewing the company accounts and reports.
As others have said, I would happily continue paying for a blog or email service, but whatever happens wish you the very best for the future and thank you most sincerely for the invaluable help received over the years

[Colin Harrison]

Morning Stephen,

Yes it’s a pity to close due to subscribers numbers but there we are – time marches on. Perhaps it’s become too easy for occasional readers to self-select which partly accounts for the falling numbers. I know at least one reader in that category, as you’ve commented before here hence taking out the previous published HYP constituents.

Like others have suggested, it would have been great to see the usual end of year round up of performance of the various HYP’s in what I suggest has been a poor year for capital, but good for income, especially forward income. Pity that, as I was genuinely looking forward to a pungent review. I’d like to suggest that falling numbers are in fact a bullish sign for income approaches and the irony is that now is probably a great time to start an income portfolio, though perhaps not as good as the dog days of 2008 of course. So it goes, income yields go up, subscribers dump income strategies, or paying for them at least.

Anyway if another venture pops up in whatever form – really I’d suggest conventional value is better suited to cyclic publication as the changing tips naturally prevent re-use (same crossword as last month? hmm)– then I’d be happy to subscribe. Just make sure to use your own brand name again, and you’ll be found. If not, enjoy, and many thanks for the tuition.

Colin

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