For me and my fellow county men and women, the most important event by far in the last seven days was Mayo winning the All-Ireland, after falling at the final hurdle eleven times since our last win 75 years ago.
A variation on Vitas Gerulaitis's priceless reaction after beating Jimmy Connors on the 17th attempt comes to mind: “And let that be a lesson to you all. Nobody beats Mayo 12 times in a row in All-Ireland finals.”
Another big sporting event this week was the Galway Plate. It too brought back memories.
Charlie McLoughlin, who had the sweet shop next to our primary school in Knock, went to the Galway races every year. He invariably backed the winner of the Plate - and would have the betting slip to prove it. I was very impressed at the time. I only learned years later that Charlie backed every horse in the race.
I often think that people who buy index funds are a bit like Charlie McLoughlin. So too are many so-called active managers, who invest in hundreds of companies. I’m not sure what to make of an active manager’s fifty-third top investment pick.
As readers of my investment updates know, I have what I used to call an actuary’s dozen shares in my pension portfolio, i.e. a stochastic variable between eleven and fourteen; however, I learned a few days ago that my profession frowns on such concentrated portfolios, so I’ll have to find another adjective to describe it. Maybe a Mayo man’s dozen.
I firmly believe that, if the shares chosen provide reasonable coverage across industries and geographies – but by no means trying to cover all sectors - this number provides sufficient diversification, without sacrificing much if anything in performance terms.
Long-term returns support my conviction. My pension fund’s average money-weighted return, net of all expenses, in the fifteen years seven months since I “retired” in December 2010 is just over 11% a year. (Monthly figures from Jan 2014 are on the pensions tab of my website colmfagan.ie, on the spreadsheet dated 1/8/2026,
here). I don’t claim any special expertise, just (a) a commitment to being as close as possible to 100% in equities at all times, (b) not trying to time the market, (c) keeping expenses and transaction costs low, and (d) avoiding shares whose current value can only be justified on heroic assumptions, Tesla being an obvious example at present.
Also, as the chart below* indicates, variations in the fund’s yearly returns compared to a passive portfolio aren’t that great, either in individual years or cumulatively.
Far more importantly, it’s much more fun to hold shares in real businesses.
*Compares Mercer’s Passive Global Equity CCF(EUR Hedged) Net Performance with my pension portfolio’s performance 2015 to 2024. (I would love to have more comparators, and over a longer period, but can't get my hands on the numbers. If anyone can supply figures for passive or active funds, that would be great. Feel free to PM me if you prefer. )
