Guest Author - Guido Deboeck

Some twentytwo years ago on this day (July 9th) I was at a funeral in Belgium. Two nights before I flew from Rome to Brussels, after attending an investment meeting of a religious order in Rome. When I arrived at my dad’s apartment I found a notice that I should go to the police office. There I was informed that hours before I landed in Brussels my dad had died. He was 72.

My dad was a very quiet guy. He never talked much, not about the war, not about his business – which involved production of mechanical lace --, not about his investments, not even about his hobbies. Since after college in Belgium I moved to the US for graduate studies and thereafter was employed in international organizations outside Belgium, I did not get much of a chance to get to know my dad.

Last year I decided to write a book about my ancestors. For a year I researched and assembled everything I could find in civil-, parish registers, notary acts, tax records, accounting books etc. A lot of my research was facilitated by the microfilms made available in Family History centers across the country setup by the Mormons (go to familysearch.com).

It is amazing what one can find! For example, through a letter I discovered where my dad had been a POW during WWII, when he was taken prisoner, when he was released, how he made it back to Belgium. With the help of a professional genealogist in Belgium I also traced my ancestors back to 1530 and learned that my oldest know ancestor was Gilles De Bock born in Sint Amands, a small place between Antwerp, Gent and Brussels. Through tax records I found what properties my oldest ancestor (twelve generations removed) had some 500 years ago. Through the accounting books, which by some miracle were preserved, and had made it to the US, where they are still in my office, I was able to trace the history of the business my dad was running for close to 30 years. From handwritten notebooks I learned about the investments my dad held from the mid 1950’s till he died in 1985. Other notebooks contained information about his hobbies: film making, photography, stamp collecting.

All of this is described in great detail in my forthcoming book on “Flemish DNA and Ancestry: history of three Flemish families over five centuries using conventional and genealogical research” that will be released in October 2007 (copies can be ordered by writing to yours truly). My book goes into genetic genealogy and shows how through DNA testing one can define the inheritance of our children. It also discusses what I learned about deep ancestry – that is those that lived 10,000 to 30,000 years ago.

What has all of this to do with investing? In my research about my ancestors, their business dealings and especially their investments I discovered several lessons that I would consider come directly from the grave.

One lesson is that it does not pay to boast about ones wealth, returns or even level of investment activity. I have never heart my dad even mentioning what he was doing in the markets. The only thing I was able to observe is that he listen daily to the radio when the ticker news was read; he walked regularly to his local bank where transactions were ordered (on-line was far beyond anyone’s imagination); and he kept some notebooks which were always locked up.

The second lesson was: keep on learning. My dad kept reading daily the financial and economic news, he often cut out articles and he collated important articles in folders or books. Over time he assemble what nowadays would be called a knowledgebase. He had his own, long before there were many books in investments.

The third lesson is that there will always be other opportunities; so do not worry when you missed one or even few. Researching the evolution of the Brussels stock exchange, where my dad transacted, I found that between 1950 and 1982, the all shares index moved from 100 to 150; not exactly a spectacular rise! Nevertheless, people who in those days were already in the markets had patience and invested in companies that had solid fundamentals. I found that my dad kept a diversified portfolio of banks, insurance-, oil companies, and was even invested overseas. My book contains an image of his holdings in Photo Gevaert, a well-known film making company that competed with Kodak.

The fourth lesson I derived from my research of the investment practices of my dad was that you can only gain experience by practice, practice, practice. Some people feel they need to read every investment book before they can start. Wrong! Others think that paper trading is going to be helpful. Wrong. Then there are all those who just procrastinate making decisions.

The longer your postpone getting into investments, the longer it will take to gain practical experiences. My dad was about 40 years old when he started investing in stocks; I regret to write that I was about the same age when I first got interested. Fortunately some of the college kids today are getting hands-on-experience in the markets while they are still in college. Image how much better they will be able to trade when they are 40! I think even high school kids should learn the basics of money management, and college kids should learn how to borrow and invest wisely.

There are many other lessons that I discuss in my book including those derived from all the hobbies my dad had. I also discuss the history of two other families and their business dealings (one of which involved beer brewing according to traditions that are 400 years old).

Twenty-two years ago when my dad died, I felt that I barely knew him. I had been tbusy with my own education, my career development, my family, bringing up kids. Today, after a year of solid genealogical research, while my book has just made it to the printer, I am glad I decided a to research my ancestors. There are so many things we still can learn from our ancestors, even those that passed away centuries ago. Their lives can be extracted from documented sources, their DNA signatures can be discovered via DNA testing, last but not least, our ancestors still can teach us valuable lessons about solid investment practices.

In loving memory of my dad, who was a great investor.