Have you heard of Gabriele Pauli? She's a German politician who wants to limit the length of marriage contracts. If a couple is still in love, they could apply for an extension. Otherwise, the marriage contract would expire after seven years.
I'll leave the merits of that proposal to the politicians -- although if it means getting new wedding presents every seven years, I'm all for it. But it did get me wondering about what investing would be like if we were required to dump our portfolios and start over every so often.
Now obviously, the idea of selling your stocks just to buy them right back would just make your broker a lot of money -- and that's not to mention all of the tax headaches. But requiring investors to re-evaluate the stocks they own periodically, to make sure they still love those investments, seems like an idea worth exploring.
As a guy who focuses on drug pipelines, I think the natural time to take a fresh look at developmental-stage drug companies, such as Motley Fool Rule Breakers pick Exelixis
For big pharma, including Johnson & Johnson
For other companies, the times to evaluate your love are a little more regular and predictable. For retail stores, such as Target
It's probably not so important when you evaluate your holdings, as long as you do evaluate them occasionally. If you have any stocks that you think are overvalued, let them go; if you're meant to be together, the stock will find a way back into your heart.