club’s portfolio balance of $39,000 is made up of roughly 25% cash, 5% mutual funds, and 70% stocks such as Comcast Corp. (Nasdaq: CMCSK), Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: DELL), and The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS). Jenkins says Family Tree is positioned to become more aggressive with its future investments. Its strategy now is to target companies with a good history that have temporarily fallen out of favor, such as Merck.
By the end of 2005, the club hopes its portfolio will have realized a 10% gain. For club members, the goals are more than financial. “We have to maintain and persevere [so we can] pass down our knowledge and the club management to younger family members,” says Jenkins, who is married and has three children. “We have to make sure that what we talk about, we do.”
FAMILY TREE INVESTMENT CLUB’S TOP HOLDINGS
| Comcast Corp (Nasdaq: CMCSK) | 25% |
| Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ) | 14% |
| Dell Inc. (Nasdaq: Dell) | 11% |
| The Walt Disney Co. (NYSE: DIS) | 6% |