My financial resolutions for 2009, #7 in a series

Editor’s note: We asked our resident money experts to share their financial resolutions for the year ahead. Here, the seventh in our series:

I didn’t make any New Year’s resolutions for 2009. Reason: I still have all the noble resolutions I made last year and the years before—pristine, untouched. You know, the usual: lose weight, read more good books, keep up with old friends, seduce Nicole Kidman.

Okay, I’m lying. (That was one of my resolutions, too—to tell the truth more often.) The chief financial resolution I made—well, that I will admit making—was being mindful of my heirs. I’ll (1) clear out the dispensable personal stuff I’ve accumulated over the years, (2) simplify my investment portfolio, and (3) leave a last letter.

Yes, this month I will reach the advanced age of [illegible], and I really must start facing up to the prospect of my own mortality.

Regarding (1), I should give many of the books I own to public libraries. Some libraries no longer want surplus books; they’re inundated. So what I will do is drive over at maybe 2:30 a.m. and sneakily drop off a box of books. I’ve also accumulated maybe 20 or so big plastic boxes containing the thousands of newspaper and magazine articles I’ve written since I began my journalistic career in 1957. I mean, as wonderfully written and insightful as those articles remain, do I really need to keep “How to Invest in 1997”? and “Best Mutual Fund Managers of 2001”? And all 16 of the articles I’ve written on dollar-cost averaging?

(2) My investment portfolio is close to resembling an enormous mess, yet I relentlessly keep buying stuff. AT&T, ExxonMobil, TFS Market Neutral. My rules: Sell securities in taxable accounts that have lost money. Sell small positions in whatever. Beef up stuff I have confidence in (e.g., Johnson & Johnson stock, Vanguard fixed-income funds).

(3) Leave a last letter with the names, phone numbers, and addresses of my fee-only CFP, accountant, estate lawyer, and so forth; remind family members where my will and other important papers are; and suggest what should be said at my funeral. Namely, what Warren Buffett once suggested be said at his own funeral: “My God, he’s moving!”—Warren Boroson, guest contributor

Warren Boroson is the author of more than 20 books, including “How to Pick Stocks Like Warren Buffett” (J.K. Lasser) and “The Reverse Mortgage Advantage” (McGraw-Hill). He also teaches courses on great singers of the past, like Elisabeth Rethberg, Cochita Supervia, and Titta Ruffo.

Comments

[A. Librarian]

Please--I beg of you--don't drop your outdated books off at the library. If they're not up-to-date and useful enough for your personal use, they're not up-to-date and useful enough for us, either. The public library's donation bin is not your personal garbage dump. Save us the work and recycle them instead.

[Warren Boroson]

Dear Librarian:

My library, in Woodstock, NY, actually welcomes contributions. It regularly holds sales of donated books, and makes out (I suspect) like a bandit.
Besides, too many libraries hastily discard books that some members of the public are eager to read. Like biographies of older opera singers. I've paid for books from used-book stores that have DISCARDED BY SO AND SO LIBRARY on them! Like a recent biography of Jussi Bjoerling. Maybe you should hold regular sales of books people donate to your library. And not be so eager to discard older books.

The Woodstock library is admirable in another respect. THERE ARE NO FINES. EVER.