re: If you could pick one stock today to hold till you die...

So you have morphed from this thread you started:
LINK

Which included some info such as:

"Anyways, like the topic says, I just inherited 4 convenience stores from a relative who had no children. I have never really had this type of money in my life. I used to make around $50K/year and I'm still living in a $800/month apt right now. I live in Dallas currently and the businesses are here and used to belong to an uncle of mine who passed away a few weeks ago. I don't plan on adjusting my lifestyle to anything too crazy but I imagine I will move out of here once my lease is up"

To this:

quote:

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This is silly and amateurish....certain stocks are just dead growth wise...Phillip Morris generated 110,000% since the 50s....I'd strongly advise not buying the whole market to anyone who is capable of research and reading a company balance sheet

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Do you have any idea how much global competition has accelerated the life cycel and attrition of companies? It is easy to invest in an uptrending market and believe you are a good investor, it is another matter when the bottom blows out. Reading a balance sheet today, and more importantly understanding cashflow and what is driving company performance is one thing. Accurately extrapolating and predicting how the company will perform in the future compared to its direct competitors and the global market as a whole is another. It is impossible to buy an investment today and believe it will perform well 10-yrs (or in your take outperform the market), much less over 50-years. I'm not booming you dude, it's just reality is much different than what you are portraying. If everyone believed in buying and holding individual stocks for ultra long term everyone would own the same 30-50 stocks and there would be no market.

There are downsides to holding MLPs in taxable accounts, just like there are downsides to holding them in tax advantaged accounts. There are downsides in holding individual stocks, high on the list is higher volatility and risk of extinction or permanent impairment.

Not saying it might not be worth investing a small % of net worth in individual securities and see how that works out, but as a primary investment plan I wouldn't advocate it. Think about how much research is ongoing daily by professionals who live and breathe equity markets vs retail investors believing they have an actionable edge over them unless acting on insider information.